Baseball For A Moment

So, in taking a quick break from hockey, I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss baseball. As most MLB fans know, today was the trade deadline. A former Angel, Casey Kotchman, got traded to the Red Sox today. He will primarily be keeping the bench warm there due to the fact that the Red Sox also acquired Victor Martinez today. A little over a year ago, Kotchman was the starting first baseman for the Angels and around this time last summer was traded for Mark Teixeira and we all know how that turned out. Tex, as he is commonly called, went to the Yanks for $20 mil. more than the Angels were willing to offer. The only one who came out on top of all this is Tex, but what can the public due? I guess we'll see Kotchman in October. Au Revoir.

Goaltending

So officially Allaire is no longer the Ducks goaltending consultant, Pete Peeters is. Now he claims, "I don’t see trying to change anything with J.S. or Jonas" (http://ducks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=457770). I really hope this is true. The butterfly has been working really well in recent years for the Ducks. Now, being as lucky as I was having season tickets for the '07-'08 season, I was actually aware who Jonas Hiller was prior to this past season. Having been a Ducks fan for many years now, I feel a certain pain deep down coming to the realization the Giguere, or Jiggy as most fans call him, will not be playing nearly as much as he used to. I feel that he had a rough year with the death of his father and all, but seeing Jiggy be second string nearly breaks my heart. Anyway, I hope that Peeters really doesn't change anything because both of the Ducks net-minders seem to be pretty stable with their techniques.

xoxo

Kinda Quiet

So it seems that the frenzy that was NHL free agency has died down a bit which is why I haven't been writing much. However, I will say I'm very happy that the Ducks have signed an entry deal with Nick Deschamps. I remember watching the draft a little over a year ago and having a good feeling about this kid. He should be fun to watch. Ciao for now.

Schedule

Ducks 09-10 season schedule posted

http://www.nhl.com/ice/schedulebyseason.htm?team=ana

Past Games and Coming Seasons

http://ducks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=434579

Everyone should check out the link above for a listing of past Ducks games that are going to be re-broadcast on FSN PT this summer. Enjoy some of your favorite Ducks moments.

Ok, onto my mini rant of the day. I know I've been complaining about the defense or lack thereof, but the biggest thing that has me concerned is that all acquisitions made so far, aside from Lupul and Sbisa that I know of, have only been for one year contracts. There is no way that Murray will be able to establish consistency by signing year-to-year contracts. Hopefully, some of these may be renegotiated during the season, esp. Koivu. I'm a bit worried that he won't stay if Selanne doesn't return, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Today's Good News: The re-signing of James Wisniewski, however, only for one year.

In Other News

Ok, so taking a break from hockey, I would like to take this time to announce and rejoice in the fact that the Angels swept the Yankees this weekend. This is particularly gratifying to me because I have many friends who are fans of the Yanks and they talk a lot of trash. This is an especially sweet feat considering the heart of the Angels line-up (Torii Hunter and Vlad Guererro) got placed on the DL the day before the Yankees came to town. On top of this, slugger Juan Rivera also suffered an injury this weekend. However, the Angels pulled off the three-day sweep with two come-from-behind wins. When I was in attendance at Saturday's game, I seriously felt like I was at the home run derby, which in fact is taking place tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

xoxo

D-FENCE

Onward towards the defensive void left behind at the Ducks blue line. On July 9 the Ducks signed Nick Boynton who most recently played on the Florida Panthers. Though I personally hadn't really heard of him, I've come to learn that he has played in more than 500 NHL games. However, my qualm about this acquisition is he fact that Boynton is only 30 but hasn't made the all-star team since 2004, as compared to Pronger who will be turning 35 towards the beginning of this coming season and last played in the all-star game in 2008. I understand that the all-star game doesn't quite measure talent, but it is a testament to the player. Boynton might be able to thrive this year, being able to work with the talents of Scott Niedermayer and Ryan Whitney, but from what I know he is going to have pretty big shoes to fill.

However, my bigger defensive concern is yesterday's acquisition of Steve McCarthy. Though he has played in the NHL before, last year he played in Russia's KHL. My concern here is the fact that in 2005 he was traded for a third-round draft pick and in 2006 was traded for a fourth-round draft pick. In my opinion, these trades place little value on the player and make me concerned about filling the void left behind from the departure of both Beauchemin and Pronger, considering the fact that he had no points in 18 games last season compared to the 48 points that Pronger had in 82 games or even the 5 points in a mere 20 games that Beauchemin played (which is due to an extensive injury). Hopefully, McCarthy has learned a lot overseas and will eventually be an asset to what was once a terrific blue line.

I'll keep ya posted.

xoxo

Trades and Acquisitions

Ok, so let's go back a couple weeks to NHL Draft Day (aka June 26). Towards the beginning of the live draft coverage and minutes after Scott Niedermayer told Bob Murray he was planning on returning, it was announced that the Ducks traded Chris Pronger (sometimes referred to as Captain Elbows, but to most Ducks fans, he was a merely God-like defenseman) to Philadelphia for the flying-forward Joffrey Lupul and up-and-coming D-man Luca Sbisa. Yeah, spellcheck really doesn't like me right now. Anyway, I was seriously disappointed by this as were most of the friends I have who are also Ducks fans. In fact, most of us still haven't fully digested the fact that Pronger won't be on Honda Center ice this coming season.

However, the spirits of Ducks fans everywhere were raised a bit the following morning when the big headline was that the veteran fan favorite Teemu Selanne would be returning for yet another season. However, this was not such a big surprise considering Niedermayer and Selanne love playing together. I spotted this coming a mile away as I'm sure most fans did. The two kind of go hand-in-hand.

The Ducks then stayed under the radar for awhile, no big deals done or players lost. They resigned Todd Marchant and Brian Salcido. However, on July 6 the Ducks lost another great defenseman in Francois Beauchemin to Toronto and former Ducks GM Brian Burke. Despite claims made by current Ducks GM Bob Murray that they needed to fill in the defensive void, they instead signed a future Hall-of-Famer center Saku Koivu. Koivu and Selanne are longtime friends and Finnish teammates. It is believed that Koivu will center the second offensive line and play alongside Selanne for the majority of the upcoming season. This was a great move offensively for the Ducks, but it's hard to look at the good when so much else seemed to be missing.

I'll continue writing about the defensive void later. Hope you enjoy your day!

xoxo

Just An Intro

Hey all!

So, I am a sports fan in general, but I am a huge Angels baseball fan and Ducks hockey fan and I just wanted a place to write about my thoughts on these and various other subjects. Keep in mind, it's just my opinions. xoxo