TAKE NOTE OF DUCK HUNT.Byline: MATT MCHALE At Jerry's Famous Deli Wikipedia is not the place for advertisement or self-advertising. Jerry's Famous Deli is a Los Angeles-based delicatessen famous for its huge menu, which boasts over 700 deli and traditional food items. in Woodland Hills and the Barrel in Sherman Oaks, they don't talk much about the Mighty Ducks
Mighty Ducks is a half-hour Disney animated series aired on ABC and The Disney Afternoon in the fall of 1996. Twenty-six episodes total were produced. of Anaheim. It's the Anaheim thing, you know, a town best buried behind miles of freeway traffic. And the hockey. We already have the Kings, but who wants to think about another five-year plan Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. . So as the Ducks play in Western Conference finals, the question is, do we care? Should we care about Anaheim when its big brother the Angels changes its name to Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. the first chance its new owner gets? Should we care with TV ratings so poor it could put entire neighborhoods of industry people out of work? The answer is yes, You may not know how to get to the Pond, but the Ducks now are hard to ignore if you are a Kings fan. The two teams never have made the playoffs in the same season, never really built a rivalry. But the Ducks certainly have gotten the Kings' attention. The sins of the past cannot be repeated. Besides New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, is the only spot in North America that has two hockey teams. The fans here are passionate and resilient, more like Chicago Cubs fans than anything you'd see at a Dodger or Laker game. Kings fans sold out 31 of 41 home dates in 2003-04 and did not make the playoffs. The Ducks presence in this year's conference finals should ensure the new Dean Lombardi-run Kings will not let that happen again. You're probably saying the Ducks came within a game of the Stanley Cup in 2003 and the Kings are still trying to dig themselves out from Roman Cechmanek's goaltending goal·tend·ing n. 1. Sports The act of protecting a goal, as in hockey and other such sports. 2. Basketball and Adam Deadmarsh's concussions. It is not always clear when things are not working. But when the other team in town is building one of the league's best organizations, it is impossible to ignore. This season, the Kings and the Ducks made the same move, signing a veteran forward that could connect with fans and put the team in contention. In September, Jeremy Roenick arrived at Kings camp in El Segundo. At the same time, the Ducks brought back Teemu Selanne. Roenick was close to 500 goals, Selanne had a knee so bad he wasn't going to play in 2004-05 even if there hadn't been a lockout lockout, intentional closing up of a company, factory, or shop by an employer to prevent employees from working during a strike or labor dispute. The term lockout . Roenick scored opening night. Then he did an 81-game slow dance. Selanne scored 41 goals. The Ducks found his speed and stick handling to be a perfect blend for the new, quicker NHL NHL Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, see there . The Ducks also found a way to unload overpriced o·ver·price tr.v. o·ver·priced, o·ver·pric·ing, o·ver·pric·es To put too high a price or value on. overpriced Adjective costing more than it is thought to be worth Adj. , underachieving Sergei Fedorov to Columbus in the season's biggest swindle swindle v. to cheat through trick, device, false statements or other fraudulent methods with the intent to acquire money or property from another to which the swindler is not entitled. Swindling is a crime as one form of theft. (See: fraud, theft) . Although the Kings got off to a fast start and the Ducks sputtered early, it was clear who was the more nimble organization. Ducks' all-star defenseman Sandis Ozalinsh went off to substance-abuse rehab and wound up with the New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York, New York, U.S.A. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). . The Kings gave aging and injured defenseman Mattias Norstrom and $8 million extension. When the Ducks star goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere got hurt, the club went to rookie Ilya Buyzgalov and never looked back. New Ducks coach Randy Carlyle and GM Brian Burke seem refreshing. The Kings' Andy Murray and Dave Taylor seemed long in the tooth, far from the duo that engineered three playoff runs to go with opening Staples Center. If you are going to have sports teams -- even hockey teams -- you want them competing every night. This playoff run is the best way to make that happen. You might be wondering then why the Lakers' success never boosted the Clippers. It has been 30 years since the Clippers got this far in the postseason. The truth is, the Clippers sat in the Lakers shadow so long it didn't need to get better. Much of their ticket base was comprised of people who couldn't get Lakers tickets. The Ducks and Kings have their own identities, even if they are pretty quiet on the national scene. But the Ducks have set the bar for the Kings to reach. The Ducks are the hockey team in town right now. But they are making it difficult for the Kings not to seriously look at themselves. If you are a Kings fan, find a Ducks fan and thank him. Tell them that you care. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Teemu Selanne and the Mighty Ducks' run should give the Kings something to shoot for. Brian Bahr/Getty Images |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion