Mailbag: Newport Rebel On Power Player Tryouts

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.

MICK:

Ever wonder what it takes to become a power player for the Anaheim Ducks? Well I decided to find out. A few of my friends decided to try their luck, and I followed along to see what the process was like. This year’s auditions were held on Saturday July 17th at the Rinks in Anaheim. Check-in was at 9:00 AM for the 112 girls that applied for the job this year. Of those 112, nine were returning power players. They would all be competing for one of the 14 spots available. Before hitting the ice the girls had to take a general knowledge exam on hockey in general and the Ducks' history. Questions included: Who is the head coach of the Ducks? How many cups have the Ducks won? What is a hat trick? Who is your favorite Duck? What is the name of the arena? Who won the Stanley Cup this year? What year did the Ducks join the NHL? Finally there were some other personal questions about the girls' work experience. The girls I talked to worked as everything from promo models to college students to actresses. In case you were wondering, yes, they were all very good looking.

Then it came time to do the on-ice tests. There were about 6 judges there, and the two names that most Ducks fans will recognize were Adam Brady of the Ducks Blog and Brian Hayward. I would kill for their jobs that day. They were overseeing the tryouts from the bench.

The girls' skating ability ranged from very little to 'was that chick in the Olympics? No? Why the hell not?' Some of those girls were absolutely terrific skaters. First up was the personality/skating test. It was basically the girls skating around trying to interact with the crowd. I was surprised that nobody fell during this as the ice was pretty crowded. The second test was a skate and stop test. The test was: start at the blue line and skate to the centerline. Stop. Skate to the other blue line. Stop. Skate back to the center line. Stop. Skate back to the blue line. Stop. The girls also had to remain facing the judges the entire time. How many falls occurred? Glad you asked because I kept a tally running. Four. The worst one was when one girl was skating to the blue line to start the test. As she stopped she caught an edge and face planted onto the ice. She was not hurt and did complete the test despite what looked to be a pretty big fall. After watching the girls skate during the first test I thought we would see more falls during the second test, but the girls did just fine.

After all the girls completed the second test the returning power players demonstrated what they do during the timeouts of an NHL game. Everyone who has been to a game has seen how they shovel the snow off the ice so I won’t go into detail on the demo that they did. Finally, all the girls spent a few seconds with the judges, one on six, to say a little something about themselves. The girls then broke for an hour lunch followed by the first round of cuts. They went from 112 down to 26. All of the returning power players made it. Some of the girls that I figured were for sure going to make it based on skating ability and looks were cut so I have no idea what the judges were specifically looking for. These 26 would then go on to one on one interview with Ducks personnel and finally will be cut down to the 14 that the Ducks are looking for later this month.

Finally, this tryout was open to the public so if by some chance you want to go see incredibly hot girls skate around for a few hours then get out to Anaheim Ice next year and I will see you there. Oh, and as for my friends, none of them made it this year, but they will try again next year.