FLOYD:

Jen's Ducks-Kings rivalry post inspired me in a way that I did not expect.  It made me realize that the thing that's keeping me from attending a great game at Staples featuring two exciting teams playing a sport that I love is the fact that I don't know where to park, or what is good to eat in and around their arena.  Wouldn't it be nice if there were some kind of guidebook detailing how to get to, park near, eat in, and enjoy the Staples Center?  Well, there isn't one, but there's no reason we can't make something like that for the Ponda Center. 

I'm not saying we need to roll out the red carpet for Kings fans, but there's no reason we can't share some of the tips and tricks regarding our beloved home ice and maybe at the same time offer a little reassurance that they won't be stabbed in the parking lot (though I am going to boo the s**t out of you once the game starts).  I'll add some of my thoughts first, and if any other Duck fans would care to contribute, please add yours in the comments as well.

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ARTHUR:
With the Ducks building their AHL roster and the dog days of the summer NHL news cycle in full effect, AC user Newport Rebel offered to write a correspondent's report from the Power Player tryouts at Anaheim Ice.  I hear he also held a party for some hopefuls who missed the cut.  Those details are conveniently absent from his report.  Check out his notes after the jump.

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Below is a contribution from user ASale aka Andrew Sale.  Thanks to Andrew for taking the assignment and doing the legwork and research at my request.

NCAA Hockey: California Dreamin'

by Andrew Sale

Remember when the USC hockey team won a national title? Twice they had perfect seasons on the way to a 31-game win streak. Or when USC beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers four times in a row? Who was there when USC played Loyola outdoors at the Westwood Tropical Ice Gardens, selling out over 8,000 seats? No one? Well that’s okay, because it happened in the 1930’s.

That’s right, back in the early 1930’s ice hockey was one of the most popular college sports in Southern California. Fast forward 80 years later and the state of hockey in the Golden State is much different.

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ARTHUR:

As a Californian, I didn't grow up near a pond or a warming house.  I played outdoor pick up games, but that's not the same, even in the coldest of Pacific winters.  I did, however, play with kids who grew up on ponds.  Kids who would talk about the joys of shinny on a frozen lake.  As an adult, I've met people who haven't skated since they were ten years old but vividly recall their childhood pond hockey.  Their stories fed a fit of mystique in my brain, and they filled me with the desire to play on a pond the first time I visited Minnesota.

The purity of outdoor hockey is canon.  Ken Dryden, in his passage on LaFleur, wrote that that was the only place that LaFleur or anyone could "create" the game, the only place where you could break out of the jello-molded assembly-line product that came out of rinks, drills and practices.  And despite the Winter Classic and the dedicated dads that flood their backyards every December, the virtue of the outdoor game seems to be fading, along with the availability of the icy pond itself. 

To combat that, there is Pond Hockey, a documentary extolling the joys of this vanishing pastime.  The film is slightly Minnesota-flavored, with Sorem, Neal Broten and the Pond Hockey Championships in Minneapolis, but the filmmakers talk to their share of Canadians (including Gretz) and other International players.  

You can watch the film in its entirety here.  Or (I think) in the embedded object below (if I manage to get it working).  It's a great film.  I'm sure Daniel will agree once he watches it and returns my copy.

ARTHUR:

My review of Forgotten Miracle.

In the shadow of the 1980 Miracle On Ice, many of the US Olympic hockey teams have been deemed 'forgotten.' The members of the 1972 roster were the only men to bring a medal home from Sapporo. The 1956 team upset the Canadians to claim the Silver. And yet, the only US team that seems to have truly earned its 'forgotten' status is the 1960 team. They too needed to upset the Soviet Union in a complicated political landscape to earn the Gold. They too were conditioned by a ruthless task-master. And they too were largely written off despite being the host country.

To mark the 50th anniversary of America's first 'Team of Destiny,' Tommy Haines and Andrew Sherburne, the minds behind Pond Hockey, have crafted Forgotten Miracle, a documentary that tells the story of 1960's Team USA from the point of view of its surviving members. The directors use a charming mix of archival footage and animatics to illustrate the words of key figures like Coach Jack Riley, the Cleary brothers, John Mayasich, Jack McCartan and even Canadian captain Harry Sinden.  There are a couple of camera zoom flubs and the newspaper headline animations can be a bit much, but neither take away from a very well-done film and a truly compelling tale.  

Forgotten Miracle is ultimately the story of a much quieter Gold Medal, contested at a time before Olympic boycotts transformed the games into an analogue for the Cold War and a time when the level of Soviet puck dominance was known only to the players crushed by the hammer and sickle in international competition.  The film covers the well-known moments (cutting Herb Brooks and the oxygen tank in the locker room), but it also collects the little known anecdotes that defined the team as a group of a young men who understood the enormity of the task ahead of them and the context of the accomplishment, even if its importance was lost on the average American.

Despite a dearth of hockey documentaries covering the American tradition (really only Pond Hockey and New England Hockey: Life At The Rink come to mind), it's difficult to recognize Forgotten Miracle as an instant classic.  But in an era where every Olympic medalist is praised and profiled by mass media, it is a shame that this team never got its praise, its profile and its due.  And for that, this hockey doc is essential-viewing.

ARTHUR:
Anaheim calling to the hockey world...

If you're looking for something to do tomorrow, we just got an email from Reebok regarding a promotional fundraiser with the Anaheim Ducks street team at Monkey Sports. All proceeds go to Southern California Amateur Hockey Association. Here's a flyer for the event per the SCAHA.

The event goes from 10am-3pm at Monkey Sports in Santa Ana (1420 Village Way), and in addition to demonstrations for the Reebok 8.0.8 O-Stick, they'll be raffling off 2 autographed Ducks jerseys (signed by a full roster), 2 Ducks tickets on the glass, an autographed Hiller stick, an autographed Giguere stick and other assorted prizes. Raffle tickets are $2 apiece, and as we said, all proceeds go to SCAHA.

If you're in the mood to buy something, the first 50 people to buy a Reebok OPS stick will get a set of Ducks tickets with their purchase. And we hear from Monkey Sports that purchasing Reebok gear will make you eligible to win more Reebok gear and perhaps a trip to the Reebok Money Pit. You'll have to show up to get those details straightened out.

But if you're just in the mood to try your luck at a few raffle tickets and have a little fun, the Ducks street team will be there to offer their usual inflatable shenanigans. And there WILL be food. SCAHA says $1 hot dogs and $1 sodas.

ARTHUR:
Over Labor Day weekend, Daniel and I received an email from James Mirtle, journalist and hockey blog manager for SportsBlogs Nation. The substance of the email (How would we feel about moving to SBN?) wasn't a surprise. In fact, Daniel and I had discussed the matter shortly after Battle of California posted an informal want-ad for Ducks and Kings bloggers. We decided that we would say 'no' if we were asked.

We were asked. We said 'yes.' And in a couple of weeks, we'll be moving.

A number of things factored into my change of heart and my ensuing attempt to convince Daniel-- I'll get into that shortly. But first, Daniel, what do you really think about moving to SBN? Are we doomed, or was it the right thing to do?

DANIEL:
The potential for doom is somewhat unavoidable. My favorite thing about running a blog has been our complete freedom. We don't have deadlines or quotas, but we've somehow managed to generate decent traffic based solely on our posts. By "our posts," I mean your scouting reports.

I'm not looking forward to the ads and the influx of irrational fans who care more about talking trash than talking about hockey. I am looking forward to learning from all the legit fans that will be seeking us out for knowledge on Ducks hockey. By joining SBN, Anaheim Calling will be able to reach more readers and let them know that west coast hockey, and specifically Ducks hockey, has a strong fan base that takes the game seriously. We've talked a lot about why we got into blogging and came to the same conclusion: we wanted to show the rest of the hockey community that Ducks fans weren't pushovers, that we knew our hockey and that we cared about the sport. SBN goes a long way in helping us accomplish that goal.

I suppose, there will always be doubts, but there's only so much you can do with your own resources. I believe we've been doing good work covering our favorite team, and I see no reason why we shouldn't take the risk and see what we can provide to the hockey community at large.

ARTHUR:
First, I just want to say there ARE deadlines. Your failure to observe them doesn't make them any less real. I foresee you making it to page a lot less when we get to SBN. *stares blankly*

On the move, I think I ultimately weighed what we were losing against what we were gaining. I mean, we always knew we were going to leave Blogger; SBN just called us out of the minors before we knew if we could do it ourselves. At the end of the day, we came up with the name "Anaheim Calling" in, literally, 30 seconds, I built this page from random Blogger tips over a period of hours and the main product (us) is something we can pick up and take anywhere on the web. It just didn't seem that big a sacrifice to try our hand at the big leagues, not after spending a meager 6 months and 82 posts in the minors.

More than anything, I just feel this was the best time to try and get to the forefront of the Ducks blogosphere. Battle of California is already at SBN, Girl With a Puck has closed her doors and a lot of other Ducks blogs are still trying to find their footing, if they haven't settled into supporting roles already. The timing, while it feels too ear ly, is probably just right.

To all our readers, we'll be here a little longer, covering training camp and the preseason. We hope you'll come and join us at SBN and adjust your feed-reader and subscription accordingly.

ARTHUR:
We got a request from Mr. Plank of Fear The Fin in the comments of the last post. I guess our Contact Us email form is a bit deceiving. I'll add the email in plain text, though I hate to waste the form that I set up.

Anyways, Mr. Plank requested an analysis of the Kent Huskins deal. Ye ask and ye shall receive:

Today the Sharks signed Kent Huskins for 2 years, 1.7M/yr. Per the stipulations of the trade agreement with Anaheim, the signing will require the Sharks to transfer their Fourth Round pick in the 2012 Draft to the Ducks (unless Anaheim signs Moen).

Preliminary to any numbers discussion, I should say that, in my opinion, Huskins has a professional career for TWO reasons. One, he was solid in the ECAC. Two, he was drafted by Bob Murray.

Muray drafted Huskins 156th overall in the 6th Round in 1998. The 6'3" blueliner was coming off a successful freshman season for Clarkson of the ECAC. I never saw him play, but I remember when he made the All-Conference team the next two years. He was noted for playing solid defensive-defense, and his ability to gain the offensive zone and manage the puck on the power play. He won defensive-defenseman of the year his senior year, and moved on to the American Hockey League.

He spent six years as an AHL pro. I'm not really sure what happened in Norfolk. I know he had some key goals, but he was let go, signed by Florida and then Vancouver, where Bob Murray was a pro-scout. He and Bob were both with the Ducks midway through the 05-06 season, and Huskins took on a leadership role with the Portland Pirates, similar to the one he had at Clarkson. He was team captain, and played well defensively, while still capable of timely situational scoring.

In his time in Anaheim, Huskins was usually the skater in a pairing. He has the size to put on some serious checks, but the team usually depended on him to help on breakouts. His instincts are probably to go for the puck and not the man, but that could be preferrable if San Jose remains a skating team next year. Huskins WILL jump into the play if he has the puck (though removing the threat of going back to the AHL might cure that), but generally, he can be relied on for safe defensive-defense plays. He took an injury (I believe it was a mild concussion) at the beginning of last season that seemed to affect his confidence with the puck, but I doubt that that will continue to affect him this year.

On his numbers, it's hard to make an argument for or against. The Ducks generally relied on three players to eat their ice time, but Huskins did beat out Shane O'Brien and Sean O'Donnell on the Depth Chart (though he WAS cheaper than each of them). His average Time-On-Ice was 14:04 in 06-07, 16:05 in 07-08 and 18:47 in 08-09.

I don't have the time to make a table right now, but if you take a look at the detailed plus/minus on his hockey-reference profile, you'll see that he played up to the level of his teammates.

On the bottom pairing in 33 games in 06-07, Huskins contributed on 20% (3A/15GF) of his lines' offense while facing 17 Goals-Against (2 PPG) for a minus-3. In 07-08, with some time on the Top 4, Huskins had 19 points (4 G) with 48 Goals-For and 17 Goals-Against (8 PPG) for a plus-23 in 76 games. Then, this season, bouncing around the depth chart for 33 games, he had 6-points (2 G) with 29 Goals-For (4 PPG) and 29 Goals Against (10-PPG) for a plus-6.

I would never say he was shielded by his partner (who was rarely Pronger or Niedermayer). Huskins tends to play his own game, but he can contribute offensively if he's given a little room. I can't vouch for his checking, but the size is there. And on a bottom pairing, the Sharks should find his skating an asset.

As far as the price, I think he compares well with the 1.7M journeymen from this year: Marc Bergeron, Mathieu Dandenault, etc. When you consider he'll be taking the ice as 5th or 6th cheapest on a nightly basis, he's pretty solid at that price. He offers skating ability and experienced defensive-defense with the potential to use his 6'3" 215 lb frame more effectively. San Jose can find a first-contract guy with more upside, of course, but I don't think they want to take any risks going into another playoff run. As far as the loss of the draft pick, I know the Sharks were virtually pick-less this year, but they tend to pick a lot of netminders (something I wish Anaheim did more often). Chalk it up to one less goalie in the system. Nothing to worry about if you saw Stalock play this year. Beast.

Ultimately, though, I think the choice to re-sign him is related to the choice to acquire him in the first place. There's a level of trust between Doug Wilson and Bob Murray that stems from playing on the blueline together all those years. If Bob says he's a solid guy, Doug's going to hear him out on that one.

Hope this helps without being too lengthy, Plank.