Every good superhero has his or her origin story. Spiderman was bitten by a radioactive spider. Batman's parents were killed and years later becomes a billionaire playboy and crime-fighting vigilante. Arthur, sidekick of the Tick, was a mild-mannered accountant that knew he was destined to something greater. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were a kids' movie franchise.
Happy birthday, Anaheim Ducks fans. On this day 20 years ago, we were born.**
We take a lot of grief from others for being the brainchild of Disney, but you know what, who cares? Because of Charlie Conway and Coach Bombay, I fell in love with hockey and subsequently received a team for it. The best part, I've still got that team in my city 20 years later, when others didn't think it could happen. If the NHL ever starts again, the official 20th year celebration will be during 2013-2014 season, to match the 1993-1994 inaugural season.
Let's take a look back at the high points of the last 20 years:
— Playoff appearances: (8) 1997, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011
— Division Championships: (1) 2007
— Conference Championships: (2) 2003, 2007
— Stanley Cups: (1) 2007
— Total player All-Star appearances: 26
— Multiple All-Star games as Ducks:
– Paul Kariya: (7) 1996, 1997,1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
– Teemu Selanne: (5) 1997, 1998 (MVP), 1999, 2000, 2007
– Note: Kariya and Selanne were Anaheim’s only All-Stars from 1998 – 2003, until Andy McDonald in 2007)
– Scott Niedermayer: (3) 2007, 2008, 2009
– Ryan Getzlaf: (2) 2008, 2009
– Corey Perry: (2) 2008, 2011
— Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (Comeback player): Teemu Selanne 2006
— Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy (Top goal scorer): Teemu Selanne 1999, Corey Perry 2011
— Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (Most gentlemanly player): Paul Kariya 1996, 1997
— Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP): Corey Perry 2011
— Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoff MVP): J.S. Giguere 2003, Scott Niedermayer 2007
— First Round Draft Picks:
– 1993 Paul Kariya, 4th overall
– 1994 Oleg Tverdovsky, 2nd overall
– 1995 Chad Kilger, 4th overall
– 1996 Ruslan Salei, 9th overall
– 1997 Michael Holmqvist, 18th overall
– 1998 Vitaly Vishnevski, 5th overall
– 2000 Alexei Smirnov, 12th overall
– 2001 Stanislav Chistov, 5th overall
– 2002 Joffrey Lupul, 7th overall
– 2003 Ryan Getzlaf, 19th overall, Corey Perry, 28th overall
– 2004 Ladislav Smid, 9th overall
– 2005 Bobby Ryan, 2nd overall
– 2006 Mark Mitera, 19th overall
– 2007 Logan MacMillan, 19th overall
– 2008 Jake Gardiner, 19th overall
– 2009 Peter Holland, 15th overall, Kyle Palmieri, 26th overall
– 2010 Cam Fowler, 12th overall, Emerson Etem, 29th overall
– 2011 Rickard Rakell, 30th overall
– 2012 Hampus Lindholm, 6th overall
(Credit to CBS Sports and the Anaheim Ducks websites for the historical information.)
This could be one of the worst birthdays ever. We don't get to watch ANY hockey to celebrate. Yet, the positive to take away is that our owners are dedicated to the team and Southern California. Here's to the next 20 years!
**Some might say we were born-again in June of 2005 when Henry and Susan Samueli purchased the team from Disney.