ARTHUR:
In Eric Stephens' morning rundown for The OC Register today, he glosses over the Ducks' recent faceoff troubles, pointing out that the team is 48.2% in the circle and 25th in the league this season.  Accurate assessment of what we should expect from the Ducks?

Continue reading this post »

ARTHUR:

I believe I was staring up at the rafters in a chorus of "Why, God, Why" at last night's game when CK asked me why Brian Gionta's shootout goal was declared a goal.  I replied that it's really the referee's call when the puck has stopped in that situation.  The crew reviewed the video again, presumably to see if the puck did indeed stop at any point, though I can't imagine that one could make out the puck on Hiller's equipment.  This is one time when the black puck-hiding uniform worked against Anaheim.

For those rule hounds, the rules for the shootout are covered by NHL Rule 84.4 which incorporates Penalty Shot Rule 25 by reference.  The first paragraph of Rule 25.2 reads:

25.2 Procedure - The Referee shall ask to have announced over the public address system the name of the player designated by him or selected by the team entitled to take the shot (as appropriate). He shall then place the puck on the center face-off spot and the player taking the shot will, on the instruction of the Referee (by blowing his whistle), play the puck from there and shall attempt to score on the goalkeeper. The puck must be kept in motion towards the opponent’s goal line and once it is shot, the play shall be considered complete. No goal can be scored on a rebound of any kind (an exception being the puck off the goal post or crossbar, then the goalkeeper and then directly into the goal), and any time the puck crosses the goal line or comes to a complete stop, the shot shall be considered complete. [emphasis added]

Now, I can't really see the puck in the video, but in theory, if Hiller holds still for a second, the referee can call the puck as stopped.  Any video review would then have to prove the puck did not come to a complete stop.  Sadly, Hiller continued to move backward toward the net, and the puck came loose as he opened his body.  Sorry disheartened Ducks fans.  

More photos » Damian Dovarganes - AP

Browse more photos »

Continue reading this post »

Frozen Out, Jeremy Schaap's ESPN feature on George and Darril Fosty's book, Black Ice.

ARTHUR:

"We fucking dominate all this shit, okay?  Basketball, baseball, football, boxing, track, even golf and tennis!  And as soon as they make a heated hockey rink, we're gonna take that shit, too!"

-Chris Rock, from his HBO special, Never Scared

The part of this joke that I've always found interesting is the phrase "even golf and tennis."  There are two problems with that phrase.  Firstly, it implies that golf and tennis were only recently truly integrated through the superstardom and success of Tiger Woods and the Williams sisters.  Secondly, it implies that hockey hasn't been truly integrated and is lagging behind sports that exercise tournament play and are seen as traditional 'gentleman's' games.  Yes, it's just a joke, but it feeds the common perception that black people don't and never did play hockey.

First off, the tennis color barrier was broken through Grand Slam wins by Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe in 1956 and 1968 respectively.  Both were superstars in their time, and frankly, no single win by either Williams sister will be on par with Tiger Woods' historic Masters win in 1997.  Oh, and Grant Fuhr, who became the first black player inducted into the hockey hall of fame around the time Chris Rock wrote this joke, well, he was pretty good, too.

In 2004, George and Darril Fosty wrote a book called Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925.  The book challenges the whitewashed perceptions of hockey and its history.

More after the jump...

Continue reading this post »

ARTHUR:
It was a great win.  NBC is, perhaps, overplaying its value (after downplaying its existence by broadcasting it on MSNBC).  After all, this isn't actually the first time the US has upset Canada in 50 years.  Gabe from Behind The Net will tell you that, while this is the first US Olympic win over Canada since 1960, this is only the seventh time the United States has played Canada in the 12 Winter Games since Squaw Valley and the US actually upset Canada in Canada as recently as the World Cup in 1996.

Still, on paper, this was no-names versus marquee-names, a young, transitional group against a roster that you couldn't draft in a four-player fantasy league.  Yet, everything came together for Team USA where it seemed to stall for Canada.  Burke's orchestra seemed fluid and well-rehearsed.  The first violin (Rafalski) was clutch early, the conductor (Miller) clutch throughout, and a team that seemed to be made up mostly of tuba players was suddenly humming through the most difficult piece out there: Beat Canada in B Major.

The SBN stores are already a-buzz to commemorate the win with Die By The Blade offering up this beauty, and the general SBN store stocking this shirt.  We promised you guys a Team USA shirt, but truthfully, I haven't come up with anything yet.  On something Bobby Ryan related, my only idea was to put the Bobby chant (Bob...bee!!  Bob...bee!!) on the front with his Team USA number (54) on the back.  As far as general Team USA ideas, there are many, but I really don't know what you guys want to see.

So, we put it to a poll.  What do you want to see, if anything at all, on a US upsets Canada shirt?

View full size photo »

ARTHUR:

Anaheim calling to the hockey world...

Inspired by a pro-Finland post by Sleek and a subsequent discussion with SB Nation user sleza regarding Finnish profanity, I decided we needed our own Team Finland shirt.  Sleza turned me on to the chant "Ihanaa Leijonat, Ihanaa!" which he roughly translates as "Wonderful Lions, Wonderful!"  You can hear the chant in action in the video above.  We took that chorus and put it underneath Suomi on a long sleeved shirt.  Then, on the back:

Koivu 2 Selanne

We've also got it in the standard T-shirt, but the long sleeves give it that jersey look.  If you want to support any of our other boys in the Olympics, or want a shirt to welcome them as conquering heroes upon their return, throw us your ideas in the comments.

View full size photo »

ARTHUR:

Anaheim calling to the hockey world...

We're proud to announce the launch of The Anaheim Calling Store.  There will be a permanent link to the store in our left sidebar from now on, as well as a flash widget in the right sidebar of our interior pages.  We only have two shirts right now, but docescobar's Kings rivalry shirt and Floyd's skate deflection shirt are still on the table;  we're hoping to let a few more ideas trickle in (and maybe think of some ourselves), and then poll the readers on what they would like to see.   

The first shirt is a basic black Anaheim Calling shirt with a duck call hanging above our logo and web address.  The t-shirt printers can't print around the neck area, so the illusion of wearing the duck call depends on having a jacket over the shirt.  Still, we think it's pretty awesome for our site promotion shirt. 

The second shirt is available in any of 33 colors, but the basic white is only $13.99.  Also a huge selling point, it doesn't have our name or web address anywhere on it, so it's basically just a Canal Street shirt.  The design is a motivational poster mockup with the words "Curl & Drag" and the subheading "Because it worked in juniors" both under an awesome photo of the Curl-&-Dragster himself taken by our photographer, CK.  If the response to this shirt is positive, we hope to set up a photo session with CK and some local hockey players to put together some funnier pictures.

We only have the short sleeved shirts available right now, but we can put the design on long sleeves, hoodies, hats, beanies, sweatshirts, unisex shirts, and basically anything you see our brethren hocking at the SBN shop.  If you want to see a design on a different piece of clothing, drop a request in the comments.  Oh, and let us know what you think.

Editor's Note:  Gamecenter Live is a subjective experience, so take note of the following: I ran the program during the month of February on a 15" 13" Macbook (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM) running OS X Version 10.5.8.  Note that no application is installed, therefore no minimum capabilities exist for using the program. I used a variety of DSL connections (none of which I clocked) in the states of Nevada and California. Also, and this is important, Anaheim Calling received a free preview for the remainder of the season, so I did not have the monthly or season long fee (or even the 30% off fee) to balance against my delight or disappointment.

ARTHUR:

If you're watching hockey on your computer, the actual watching experience is still the killer app.  Gamecenter LIVE has chat rooms and even stat-trackers (which seem to update a bit slower than an ESPN Gamecast), but the program's ultimate competition is still the television screen.  

For a live game, Gamecenter LIVE holds its own against the traditional tube + DVR.  On a fast connection, the resolution can be sharp, or on par with the source broadcast, and on slower connections, the bitrate settings allow for a smooth stream.  The DVR capabilities allow you to scrub through the broadcast with play, pause, rewind, fast forward and return to Live, but you may also pull up the timeline for the game at any point and scrub to a timecode of your choosing.  If you're a real hockey junkie, you can even watch five games at once, live or otherwise, by using the program's four-panel screen and its picture-in-picture screen.  Simultaneous viewing and navigating a game by timeline (which will include event markers once the stat-tracker updates them, but more on that later) instead of rewind/fast-forward are really the main advantages of watching a live game on Gamecenter LIVE as opposed to television or, say, a Slingplayer.   Though, if you factor in blackouts, the TV and the Slingplayer may actually let you watch the game.

If you live in the same market as your favorite team, Gamecenter LIVE probably isn't for you.  The blackouts are identical to what you would find on Center Ice, and they last 48 hours.  After that two day waiting period, Gamecenter LIVE adds all blackout games to its archive, where you may watch them at your leisure.  However, as an archive game, the picture quality and resolution can vary slightly, and it should be noted that ALL archive games can only be watched in 800kbps or 1600kbps, not the 2200kbps or 400kbps offered for games you watch live or less than 48 hours after they conclude.  Thankfully, the archive is where Gamecenter LIVE does its best work.

Assuming you want to watch old games, nothing really competes with Gamecenter LIVE.  Granted, the resolution/screen size gets progressively smaller from this season to last season to the 2007-08 season, but there are no simple methods for storing three seasons worth of games on a DVR.  You can relive a playoff run, or catch up on an entire season (with all of the commercials edited out).  With the stat-tracker widgets, you can even skim games by choosing highlights from a geographical chart of shots, goals, hits and penalties or a text-based play by play.  Watching the games sequentially can be tough, because the archive can only be searched by team and opponent or by date, but if you have an old season schedule handy, you can find everything easily enough.

Ultimately, for live games, Gamecenter LIVE cannot improve upon the television or Slingplayer experience, especially if you factor in blackouts, but it's a reasonable alternative depending on your circumstances.  And if you're interested in having a handy, manageable and navigable archive of NHL games,  Gamecenter LIVE has no equal.