Sleeksays

Here are a few photos from last night's 4-2 Sharks win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings. After a tight checking game in the first period and several spectacular saves by backup goaltender Ty Conklin, the Sharks opened up for 3 goals in the second and outskated a tired Wings team in the third. More notes and photos from the game will be posted here soon.

Vancouver Canucks (5-5-0, t-7th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (6-5-0, 5th in west) Trick or treat? Teemu takes Trick. Sorry this gameday post was so late in coming, but I was under the assumption that the NHL was going to suspend all regular season games until its posterchild Sid Crosby recovered from his mystery injury. Whoops! At any rate, because I was so bored at work today I thought I'd revisit an old study I did about the success of teams visiting SoCal to play both the Kings and the Ducks. In the table below, I've pooled together all the instances since the lockout when a visiting team played at the Honda Center and the Staples Center within two days of each other, then separated the results according to (a) which arena they visited first, and (b) how many days separated the games. Keep in mind, this table shows visiting opponent results, not the results for the home teams: (click image to enlarge) There's a lot of data thrown in this table (and sorry for the shoddy ...

Hey, your team just beat last year's Stanley Cup Finals participants! Your top line is dominant, your young guys are doing great, and Dan Boyle has been a great acquisition so far. You guys are celebrating, right? Right? [Update from anonymous Battle of California Blogger] Yes.

The big story today seems to be the whole Todd McLellan vs. Mike Babcock sub-plot (I was going to do an Obi-Wan/Darth Vader Photoshop of the two with the "When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master," line but I ran out of time) but that whole thing doesn't really mean that much to me. I mean, these guys are professionals and they knew that some day this was probably going to happen. My bigger focus is on seeing how the Sharks compare as a whole to the Wings. Like it or not, the god damn Red Wings have been the measuring stick for the league since the mid-90s (give or take a few seasons), and the emphasis is even higher now that they're defending champs. Holding Sidney Crosby and company to just a handful of shots showed that the Sharks were ready to put forth a strong defensive effort against an elite opponent, but I got the sense that the Penguins were off their game on Tuesday. I doubt I'm the only one who thought that the whole game was pretty ...

If you recall, this past summer BoC had a brief series called Letters from Switzerland from our generous friend Markus (will it continue? only Markus knows for sure) , where we received some overseas updates about some former NHLers. In that same spirit, I present a guest submission from reader Kyle J., a guy I can only assume hails from Sweden (to be completely honest, I'm not sure about this, but based on a few phrases of broken English I've corrected, I'm comfortable being presumptuous) . Well, I'm never a guy to turn away free artwork, especially if it's potentially from Sweden! I am, however, a guy who (for better or worse) will regularly publish e-mails I get. Dear Earl Sleek. I have been wanting to find a way to mix my passion for graphic arts and hockey together for a long time. I have finally figured out how. A Graphic Novel of Hockey(Comic book). However I would like to showcase them where people could see them. And reading your blog since the Season We W...

Los Angeles Kings (3-4-1) vs. Vancouver Canucks (4-5) 7:30 PST, Fox Sports West Patrick O'Sullivan will skate with Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar tonight, reuniting the Sandman Line* that was so effective in the 2nd half of last season. It's all well and good for those three because they love playing with one another, but the question I have is: why? Kopitar, Brown, and O'Sullivan are all playing over 18 minutes a game and they're all averaging about a point a game on separate lines. Kopitar and Brown have been effective though somewhat smothered by opposing defenses, while O'Sullivan has been the driving force on the third line** alongside Jarret Stoll and Oscar Moller. It seems like this is a move designed to end Kopitar's perceived struggles, but at the expense of the Kings' newfound offensive depth. *I call them the Sandman Line because they put opponents to sleep. Actually, it's because they all look really tired. **Can we end the whole chara...

Underwhelmed to put it mildly with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin at the tank. Thornton and Marleau turned in a dominant performance defensively as well as offensively, and Marleau and Setoguchi were really exploding on the back check to chase down plays. More photos and notes from the game here . Detroit returns tonight.

As you are all probably aware, Fox Sports West has been experimenting with a new method of presenting a hockey game, called "Rinkside View." The view fucking sucks attempts to give the viewer a more up-close view of the action through cameras right above the penalty box and behind both nets. It was an interesting notion, but the view has been an overwhelming failure with the fans and is quickly becoming an black mark on the network and the Los Angeles Kings. Look at this poll on Inside the Kings : fans have risen up in protest against Rinkside View. If it were a bill, fans could override a president's veto to dismiss Rinkside View. The problems with Rinkside View are voluminous so I hardly see the need to discuss all of them, but I will take time from my busy schedule making my cat chasing a laser point to point out just a few flaws. 1) YOU CAN'T FOLLOW THE GODDAMN PUCK. Ahem, excuse me. The patricians that sit right near the glass won't tell you this, ...

Detroit Red Wings (7-1-1, 2nd in west) at Anaheim Ducks (5-5-0, t-5th in west) Ah, it's never felt so good to be back at .500 Well, I don't know if it was a lucky mix of positivity and poetry (Poetrivity!) , but somehow the Ducks pulled off a nice 4-game sweep on their road trip, to nicely recover from their 0-4 season start. There's still plenty of things to improve on for the Ducks, but I'm still at the point that I care more that they are getting points than worrying too much about how they're getting them. Suffice to say that it was a fortunate road trip (really? only the third time ever a team has swept eastern Canada ?) , and it was extremely helpful to score the first two goals in each of the first three games. But probably the one event on the road trip that probably shouldn't be overlooked was Ryan Getzlaf's trip to the dentist . Getzlaf had a virus removed from his gum that kept him out of the game in Toronto, but apparently the virus was ad...

During the Stanley Cup Final, my wife was watching a game with me and after several Sidney Crosby shifts, she turned to me and said, "Why don't ANY of the Sharks skate like that?" Yes, dear, that's a very good question. One of the things that I've been very impressed with so far under new coach Todd McLellan is the fact that the Sharks are constantly moving their feet. It's no longer shuffle in the neutral zone, coast in the offensive zone; instead, it's go-go-go pretty much all the time. I don't know if it's a homer bias or what, but the other teams I see on Center Ice look slow compared to the Sharks, and I know it's not because they lack natural skating ability. It's all about the system. Speed = good. Go-go-go = good (for the most part; gotta work on choosing when to pinch in so we don't get those crazy odd-man rushes). And that brings us to tonight's game against NHL Golden Child Sidney Crosby. While the Red Wings are probably ...

Damn that sucked last night. To see the Kings play such committed defense for 58 minutes and then lose it with one dimwitted pass was awful. Gauthier cemented his dipshit status last night. I felt bad for Kyle Quincey (who played like he wanted to murder everyone who didn't give him a shot in Detroit) and Drew Doughty (who looked a little overmatched but still played nicely) . And why the fuck was Ivanans playing against the Red Wings? What, the Kings have to protect Kopitar from Henrik Zetterberg or Andreas Lilja? The worst things they're going to do is fuck him and not call him again. That's damaging psychologically, not physically. (Syphillis, maybe. Hold on, I'm still building this scenario.) Oh well, it's a long season and the Kings have 6 games left on this homestand. Here's something to make you feel better: Courtesy TMZ I love how dogs in clothes are either insanely fucking happy to be wearing clothes* or unbelievably depressed. *"Holy fu...

Los Angeles Kings (3-4) vs. Detroit Red Wings (2009 Stanley Cup Champs) 7:30 PST, FSN West -Jason Labarbera is playing fucking again today. I actually like it because I wanted him to get a chance to prove himself but give Eric Ersberg a chance, huh? Did Ersberg spit on Terry Murray's grave or something? (Because he looks like a corpse, you see.) -Anze isn't looking that great to start the season. That's not bad. I've always found hockey to be cyclical: you feel great for a month, then you notice a little hitch that bothers you and it throws you off, then it seems like nothing is going right, and then all of a sudden you're fine again. The important part is that Kopitar is still being productive even though he's struggling. Both him and Frolov look like they're pressing a little bit, probably because they expected to be the leaders of this team, but they'll be fine. -Detroit is a shithole. Prediction: Kings win, 4-1, with dominant puck possess...

Not pictured: beach ball It's been a rough start to the season for the Dallas Stars and no one is feeling the brunt more than Marty Turco . Many thought that this would be a big year for Turco considering the departure of more than capable backup turned beleaguered starter Mike Smith and the exorcising of many a playoff demon. That has not been the case, so the Stars are calling in Andy Moog to try to work out the kinks. And the kinks, well ... they've been kinky.* *Kill me. Don't think about it, just murder me. In nine games, Turco managed three wins and six loses (four in regulation). He's had a save percentage of 90 percent twice with one other game over 85 percent. He had three games in the low-80s and three disastrous games in which his save percentage was in the 70s. So, looking inside the numbers 2/3 of Turco's starts would have really pissed off John Tortorella with a couple fitting in the ex-Lightning coach's disdainful 75% club. The season is young,...

Video of every single one of Jonathan Cheechoo's NHL leading, Rocket Richard winning, 56 goals in 2005-06. Tape delayed play-by-play of the Sharks 3-0 win over Tampa Bay is up here . The Sharks recalled forward Jamie McGinn earlier today, head coach Todd McLellan is scheduled for a conference call today at 3:15PM.

I'm not going to predict who's going to win this game, but just as a side note -- I guaran-damn-tee you that Steven Stamkos will get his first NHL point tonight against the Sharks. Why? It's not the news that he's been bumped to the first power play unit or that coach Barry Mullet wants to expand his ice time. It's because the Sharks have consistently wanted to dabble in the history books by being the team that other teams hit milestones against. You want specifics? Um, well, much of my brain is still recovering from my friend's Halloween party last night (where I dressed as Robert Smith from The Cure during the era where he wore hockey jerseys; my outfit was complemented by a knock-off Vancouver Canucks jersey with the old orange/red/white skate logo) but I know every time it's announced on a broadcast, I slap my forehead and go, "Not again." If my coffee kicks in before game time, I'll post some specific memories. But just sayin'. That...

I guess it was a result of reading USA Today too often, but I always wanted pie chart functionality on my blog. I will break down a few of the recent scoring trends for San Jose on Sharkspage soon. I was going to try to project the largest number of 20 goal scorers for the Sharks in a few years, but as has happened often when I delve into the numbers it usually disproves the point I am actually trying to make. There is no live broadcast of Dan Boyle's return to Tampa Bay tonight on Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area . There will be a broadcast of the game on the NHL Network (as reported on the Sharks-Florida broadcast last night, my cable guide shows Northern Michigan at Michigan State tonight at 4PM), and Sharks radio play-by-play host Dan Rusanowski breaks down a plethora of radio options for tonights game here . If you want to go off the board for your hockey viewing today try Yahoo Streaming (Pittsburgh vs New York Rangers), hockeywebcasts.com (Ottawa @ Toronto, Anaheim @ Montreal...

Anaheim Ducks (2-5-0) at Ottawa Senators (2-3-1) , tonight Montreal Canadiens (5-0-1) , tomorrow Columbus Blue Jackets (3-3-0) , Monday That's right, a three-in-one special! Like Rudy, I'm also off tomorrow moning for a few-day trip -- I'll be up in Oakland for a cousin's wedding. So you kids play nice! Anyways, in lieu of anything analytical, here's a nice Friday poem to get you through next Monday. Enjoy! Ode to the Road Trip O h for the glory of two playoffs ago, T aking Lord Stanley away from Big O. T rue, going in the Sens seemed like a beast, A lfie, Spezz, Heater � they ripped through the east! W hile both teams have since seen some talent get scattered, A t least we can say that we won when it mattered. M on dieu! Les Canadiens, a hearty �whassup?� O ne hundred years old? I�d better speak up. N ow I know that SoCal isn�t Original Six, T hus you probably can�t stand us insufferable pricks, R eally what scares me is the Habs� power play, E spe...

Los Angeles Kings (2-3) @ St. Louis Blues (4-2) 5:30 PST, FSN West, FSN Mountain West Whenever the Kings play the St. Louis Blues I always get uncomfortable. I liked Andy Murray when he was the coach of the Kings, crazy tests notwithstanding, but it gives me a weird vibe every time I see him. It's like when you see an old high school teacher that you thought was cool but now the whole relationship between the two of you has been changed and neither one knows how to act. So you just kind of fumble a hello and then awkwardly explain why the dreams you had in high school are long since dead and they just kind of look at you with that weird cross between wonderment and bewilderment. I don't like it and I just wish it would be over. No, Mr. Murray, I'm actually writing a hockey blog... hey, why are you crying? The Blues are off to a nice little start, led by Paul Kariya, Keith Tkachuk, Andy MacDonald, and Brad Boyes... wait, what the hell? They're going to tail off, ...

Well, I don't know where Brian Burke keeps finding money to spend ("Hey, Samueli's going to jail! Let's blow all of his cash!") , but apparently the Ducks have signed Mr. Yamaguchi to a one-year, $870.5k contract . If you're looking for a cheap, not-very-productive fantasy defenseman, you may have to search under his lesser-known surname, Hedican. But hey, he's only a dozen games shy of his 1,000th regular season game. We may as well have some reason to celebrate this year (Positivity!) . Go Ducks.

No, probably not. But still, it's fun to think about. Gaborik, of course, is the talented but oft-injured winger for the Minnesota Wild who apparently hates Minnesota so much that he'd rather die than play there. (Can't say I blame him.) The hot rumor is that Minnesota GM Doug Riesebrough is actively shopping Gaborik and he has called both Los Angeles and Montreal. This isn't really a surprise because the Kings have a lot of great prospects, but there's just no way Lombardi is going to give up anyone of importance for a guy that'll be a free agent. The Kings aren't going to trade for Gaborik when they know they can just sit on their hands in this Lost Season and potentially sign him this off-season, especially when trading for him means giving up something like Alexander Frolov and Thomas Hickey.* Another problem with Gaborik is that you never really know what you're getting: are you getting one of the best players in the game, or are you gettin...

(Said in my best Tim Gunn voice) Many goals. Not so many games. That's not good. While I still feel like there are a number of things to feel really good about with the Sharks, some of the more significant problems are coming to the forefront. Only one of them is a carryover from the Ron Wilson Sharks (which is kinda strange when you think about it considering the makeup of the team); fortunately, they're all kinks that can be worked on if both the coaches and the players are smart about it. 1) Penalty kill: Get the puck out of the zone. Please. Sweet jebus. Didn't we see this enough from Ron's Sharks, especially in the playoffs? Maybe Todd McLellan needs to have an entire practice session focused on effectively clearing the puck using the glass rather than dumping it right to the freakin' point man. 2) Odd-man breakdowns: Ok, I get that we're all trigger happy now with this active defense system. That's good stuff, but please, people, how about we take it o...

The Kings are putting Kyle Calder on the top line in place of Matt Moulson Friday night. You know that scene in The Happening where the blonde chick just stares forward while she slowly inserts a knitting needle into her neck? I'm pretty sure the Kings are doing that right now.

It's been an eventful month for Avery the unsavory . It started out with Avery's bizarre but absorbing interview with ESPN tart Rachel Nichols where the super-pest hilariously criticized the NHL's marketing (or lack thereof) and spoke of his troubled youth (dominated by stealing dolls from his babysitters and other telltale sign of latent child self-abuse). Next came Avery's somewhat anti-climactic return to Madison Square Garden. Despite receiving a heavy dose of boos, it was really just another day at the office for Avery as he pestered the Rangers and the Stars won because of Mike Modano 's GWG. Still, Avery might need riot gear tonight as he pays visit to his nemesis Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils. You may remember Avery's windshield-wiper maneuver from last year's playoffs - it was such a diabolical move that they often-listless powers that be in the NHL immediately passed "The Avery Rule." (That became the name of one of my fantas...

[11:30 am Sleek edit -- Guest art by commenter Julian. I don't even know how you managed to find a smiling Carlyle picture, but nicely done!] Hockey blogging giant Spector named Randy Carlyle among the five head coaches most likely to get shit-canned . Sure, the Ducks started the season like a fart on a first date, but how thin is the ice for Carlyle? It's hard for me to tell how much of the Ducks' recent greatness could be attributed to the rarely smiling former Norris trophy winner . Was Carlyle a master tactician or a bus driver? Is he a genius with a mildly hilarious balding Caesar 'do or a fraud whose firing might be one of the last marks of the Brian Burke era?

Nothing says I Love You like a cold Cujo in a shootout. ( YouTube ) One thing about Ron Wilson -- he's not a guy who forgets his old friends (nor his potential future boss). There is no such thing as a "filthy two points" in this young Ducks season. Positivity!

Anaheim Ducks (1-5-0, 15th in west) at Toronto Maple Leafs (1-2-2, t-11th in east) When's the last time you looked longingly at Toronto's record? (I wasn't asking you, Kings fans.) Yeah, sometimes I'm lazy enough for a good google image search, so sue me (note to Disney: please don't sue me) . Not too much from me today, as I didn't even get to watch the Carolina outing, but I did want to revisit a post I wrote way back in June that explored the notion of Brian Burke taking a Maple Leafs GM job next summer . I really made two points: (1) Brian Burke has gotten lucky at times, in particular with his acquisitions of Niedermayer, Pronger, and Selanne, and (2) I was fine with Burke leaving, as there is a fairly open roster next year for a replacement GM to work with. Of course, that latter point isn't looking so strong these days, as the three biggest contracts Burke has locked the Ducks into are: R. Getzlaf, 6 gp, 0-1-1, -5 � 5 years, $26.625 million C. Perr...

In case you haven't heard, the Sharks put former 1st rounder Lukas Kaspar on waivers. There's not much to say about it other than Kaspar hasn't really been given much of an opportunity to do much of anything, so it seems rather strange that the team would have him start in the big leagues, only to get sent down to the AHL via waivers six games in. While Kaspar hasn't exactly set the world on fire, he hasn't been a total disaster like, say, when Jeff Jillson tried to justify his first-round selection. He's made rookie mistakes and he's had one pretty sweet goal against the LA RudyKellys. Well, since we're all pondering Kaspar's demise, let's take a quick look at who else the Sharks have drafted in the first round. San Jose has this reputation of being excellent drafters but when you look at the list, you see a bunch of good, not great players: 2005: Devin Setoguchi 2004: Lukas Kaspar 2003: Milan Michalek 2002: Mike Morris 2001: Marcel Goc 2000: Te...

Los Angeles Kings (2-2) vs. Colorado Avalanche (2-3) 7:30 PST, FSN West Brian Boyle is 24 years old. While others from his draft class are firmly established NHL players by now (Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan, for example) , Boyle is still struggling to find his place in the league. Boyle doesn't have the speed or the hands to really become a top offensive player so the plan was to get him used to playing in a bottom role. The Kings only played him about 9 minutes a game in preseason in hopes that he could adjust and use his body more. The Kings hoped that Boyle join forces with Derek Armstrong and Raitis Ivanans to become a terror to opposing teams. Instead, Boyle's line has been embarrassing and Boyle has accrued a -4 rating in 3 games. That's awful when you consider that Boyle has been playing sheltered minutes and he's only played in home games so far. I think the problem isn't that Boyle isn't using his body like the Kings have asked; the ...

The Sharks 5-4 overtime win on Saturday night was an entertaining affair, with new defenseman Dan Boyle contributing to the game tying and game winning goals respectively. It was Boyle who fired 2 of the Sharks 5 shots in an earlier 5-on-3 man advantage, Boyle who split 2 Flyers and pulled up in front of a third to create the game tying goal sequence, and it was Boyle who drove the net in overtime and hammered home a hard feed from Thornton to give the Sharks a win and a 5-1 start on the season. The Flyers are a bit of a conundrum at this point. They have some injuries on defense, and they brought in a hulking Andrew Alberts from Boston who took a number of shifts, but they had more than enough opportunities to lock down a difficult road win. Instead they opted to go eye-for-eye, check-for-check with San Jose and they got burned. The physical element to the game kicked off early in the first period when defenseman Rob Blake checked Scott Hartnell hard into the post. It was a clean pla...

Battle of California (0-0-0) vs. Behind the Jersey (0-0-0) Round One -- Single Elimination I really should have been promoting this semi-event more (I've had it in the sidebar for a few weeks, I think) , but I guess BoC was one of the last entries in the field. Anyhoo, the NHL Arena messageboards are running an online Battle of the Blogosphere, where 128 blogs are stacked head-to-head in an NCAA-style vote-off for a champion. You can read about it here . Before I link to the list of match-ups, though, I do want to mention a few things, and first is a quick profile of why you should vote for BoC's first round adversary, Behind the Jersey . If you're unfamiliar with the site, Christy Hammond is a Red Wings blogger, and if information is your game, she's all over it. Take a scan of her posts, and check out her profile page , and you'll see that she loves her Wings pretty dearly. And while I'm a guy who holds plenty of hate for Wings fans, that's never an iss...

The Kings signed defenseman Matt Greeene to a 5-year deal worth about $2.95 million dollars, ensuring that they'll always be able to balance out all their good puck-moving defensemen with a guy that couldn't handle the puck if you taped it to his stick. This is a weird deal. I've liked what I've seen from Matt Greene so far and he could very well be worth this kind of contract, but why give it to him now? Why not wait until the end of the season and see how Greene holds up? Apparently if Patrick O'Sullivan wanted a big deal from the Kings he should have gotten hurt for most of last season. The Kings are hoping Matt Greene will eventually become just like Sean O'Donnell was on the Ducks, a solid defensive defenseman that can skate on a primary shutdown line with Jack Johnson while also chipping in 3+ minutes on the penalty kill. The name thrown around for Greene when he was with the Oiler was Jason Smith and that doesn't seem that unreasonable. Still, ...

Oh, wait! This team is only "mostly dead". Wow. What a fucking game! Who would have guessed that I could attend a Ducks/Sharks game where Joe Thornton fought but Jody Shelley wouldn't? Great work by Steve Montador and Brad May in each instance. Add in a Giguere shutout and a Pahlsson out-of-the-box breakaway goal (plus I didn't lose my wallet) , and guess what I'm feeling? Some goddamn positivity! Go Ducks.

I have to run to meet up for the game tonight, but this absolutely sucks. The Oilers brass, in an effort to give their pressbox the charm of a low-security prison, have not only prevented CiO's Dave from not only liveblogging from that lofty perch (which he seemed willing enough to do when condescendingly lectured) , but have basically ruined the will of one of the Oilogosphere's faithful to even root for the team . I haven't thought this through very well, but basically, Goddamn it.

Los Angeles Kings (1-2, meh) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (2-1, 4 pts) 7:30 PST, FSN West, FSN South Do me a favor: reach into my pants. No, in the front. Do you feel that? No, that's my phone. Left. Yeah, right there. That's a boner. That's what Frolov playing defense does to me. Hey, shut up, we can't all be Dustin Brown. You know what, forget it, just get out of there. The point is, I'm very excited by this pronouncement by Terry Murray that Alex Frolov will skate with Michal Handzus on the prime defensive line for the Kings. The traditional NHL line is that you have to have 2 scoring lines, a checking line and then a goon line. Look at the Ducks for an example of this and see how well this works. The reality, however, is that guys aren't either good at offense or good at defense; guys can be good at both and they can suck at both. There are guys like Sammy Pahlsson, who's great at defense but couldn't score if you put a passed out coed i...

While Sleek is calling for positivity from the Ducks side (for you fellow indie music geeks out there, "Positivity" is probably the worst song ever recorded by Suede ), things are moving a little smoother here in the Bay Area. In terms of lineup changes, it sounds like Douglas Murray is out with the mysterious "upper body injury" while Tomas Plihal is still out. Which, if the Sharks had made the fan-pleasing move of giving Jeff Friesen a minimal contract (say, a weekly pizza and some old Friesen merchandise), would have been the perfect time to debut that new #13 Friesen jersey. Easy money for the Sharks, a team that's had a habit of money-grubbing from fans. As for the rest of the team? I can spout off about what I like (shots from Rob Blake, speed through the neutral zone, Devin Setoguchi driving the net, Jonathan Cheechoo one-timers) or what I don't like (Joe Thornton looking a tad bit lost away from his usual half-board position, Marc-Edouard Vlasic tryi...

San Jose Sharks (4-0) at Anaheim Ducks (0-4) Battle of the Western Conference Extremes Ain't the Ducks a bunch of sweethearts? I mean, some fans are forced to watch their team get a season's first victory on TV, but the Ducks have managed to work things out so that I can come experience it in person. That's right, it's time for another Sleek sighting at the ol' Honda Center, sporting the lucky green shirt and drunk-yelling "Positivity!" from Row B. If you're attending the game and want to say hi, you can probably catch me during the intermissions in the lower-level concourse furthest from Katella Avenue. Now you might think that I'm terrified or worried about tonight's game, but to tell you the truth, I've already attended it -- five years ago, if you can believe it. (Uh-oh, flashback.) If you recall, optimism was very high back in the start of the 2003-04 season. The Mighty Ducks were fresh off an upstart Stanley Cup G7, and even thoug...