Ducks to face Stars in the First Round of the Playoffs

So it's finally been announced. The Anaheim Ducks will face-off against western conference rival Dallas Stars on thursday night in Anaheim. With the final two victories the Ducks were able to win home ice and now are set to finish their run to the Stanely Cup finals. Both teams have looked very imprssive this season and this first round should be a very exciting one.

Ducks End the Season Right.

The game last night was very insignificant to the Ducks. Its already announced on thursday the Ducks will face the Dallas Stars in the first round of the NHL playoffs. However, the Ducks were still able to overcome so very sloppy play as they were able to edge the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 satuday night at the Staple Center.

"They wanted to win the last game of the season in front of their fans," said Giguere. "But for us these are hard games to play because they have no meaning. The key is to not get into any bad habits."

The loss closed out a very dissapointing season for the Kings as they will now finish in last place in the Western Conference. The win also gave the Ducks 100 standing points for the second straight season. This was also the fourth win in the Ducks last five. Ending the season on a hot streak will be very helpful as the Ducks go into the postseason against a very good Dallas team.

Tonight the Ducks once again played a relatively insignificant game. For the second straight game, the Ducks again played just hard enough to escape with a victory. This time is was a 3-2 shootout decision over the visiting Phoenix Coyotes. It was the 28th home victory for Anaheim this year, adding to the franchise record the Ducks set with their last victory at Honda Center (though one of those “home” wins was over the Kings in London). This one came on Fan Appreciation Night, the 40th sellout at Honda Center this year and the 74th in a row dating back to last season.

For most the game the Coyotes seemed to have the Ducks number. The Ducks just looked very slow and sluggish compared to the energized Coyotes. It was very apparent most the players were now looking ahead to thursday. However, the Ducks just refused to lose their last home game of the regular season and on fan appreciation day. The Ducks got a pair of goals in the third period which sent them into overtime. Chris Kunitz started the scoring on a one timer off the feed from Teemu Selanne. Later in the third period Bobby Ryan scored his fifth goal of the year to tie up the game and send it into overtime. In overtime Ryan Getzlof was able to end his shootout slump of 1 for 11 this season as he scored the winning goal. Jonas Hiller ended the game with the final save and the Ducks ended their regular season on top.

Attendance

So this week I decided to take a closer look into Rodney Paul's article regarding attendance in the NHL. I would definitely agree with the survey regarding what people loved about hockey games. When at a hockey game one can definitely feel an increase in energy once a goal is scored or if a big hit was delivered. Also, when there is a fight the entire arena seems to go crazy. So there is no doubt the survey the NHL sent out is completely true.

The idea about the NHL losing many fans and attendance in different venue's declining also appears to be very true. Many fans just seemed to have lost interest after the season long strike a few years back and the NHL has not fully recovered since then. Being a Ducks fan in Anaheim this isn't as evident as many people are still very loyal to the Ducks and most games are still sold out. However, it is apparent when watching other games the NHL has a problem with drawing people to watching hockey. Something had to be done and the NHL did a very good job at identifying the needs.

The first thing the NHL did was decrease the size of the padding of the goalies. This was a very smart decision by the NHL as there are now many more goals. With this the TV ratings of hockey games has gone up significantly the last couple years. With this increase in television ratings, many more fans have been showing to hockey games throughout the country. Creating better scoring chances for teams has definitely helped the attendance problems at hockey games.

There is only one question i have regarding the NHL's new policy is if they knew violence in hockey is what many fans like to see, why did they seem to try to stop it? I can understand not allowing the players to go all out and kill each other, but i don't understand why they had to stricken the penalties for fighting.

Also, the idea of the NHL increasing the number of rivalry games and Canadian teams was a very smart idea. Everyone gets more thrilled about a game when its against a team they don't like. The idea of the NHL having teams play their rivals more during the regular season most definitely would increase television exposure and attendance at the games. It could also cause rivalries to grow.

Overall i feel the NHL did a great job to increase attendance in a sport thats been struggling to keep its fans. They went out and identified what fans wanted to see in games. They then went out and created change to fit what the fans wanted to see. The result of all this has been an increase in television exposure and increase in attendance. Even though attendance has been on the rise, i believe the NHL needs to continue to make change as they lost a lot of fans during the strike. Hopefully the NHL can become as or even more popular as they were before the strike.

Attendance in the NHL

So i decided to take a break from usual postings about how the Ducks are doing and take a broader view on the issue of attendance in the NHL. Rodney Paul wrote an article in The American Journal of Economics and Sociology about the attendance issue the NHL has been facing for many years now.

As many people know, attendance at hockey games has been a major issue ever since the strike. The National Hockey League decided to do some research into what could increase the attendance at hockey games. The results that came back were people loved goals scored and the violence involved with the game.

Goal outputs since the 1990's have dramatically fallen. The NHL took this into consideration when they changed the rules during the strike. They decreased the size of the pads of the goalies to allow for more goals. As for violence, the NHL took a completely different stance. They decided to stricken the penalties and even hand out suspensions for players getting too many penalties.

One more effect the NHL found that helped increase the attendance at hockey games was to increase the number of rivalry games and inter conference games. They also increased the number of times Canadian teams play each other in a season. Through the past several years after these schedule changes began, the NHL noticed a significant increase in attendance at numerous games.

Ducks continue their run towards the playoffs

The past week for the Ducks has been extremely productive. They have gone 3-1 since saturday march 15 and have outscored their opponents 10-6. With only five games left in the season, every game becomes extremely crucial. Unfortunately, the Ducks will be without their captain Chris Pronger until the last game of the season. Pronger was suspended 8 games before saturday's game for stepping on a player's ankle during the game again the Canucks.

The first game this week came on saturday against the St. Louis Blues. I was actually able to attend the game during my spring break. This was the Ducks first game during Pronger's current suspension. This was also the Blues 12 loss in their last 13 games. The Ducks took the early lead when Mathieu Schneider scored in the first period. The assists went to Teemu Selanne and Kent Huskins. This was the only score during the first period. In the second period the Blues immediately tied up the score with a goal from Jamal Mayers. The assists went to Jay McClement and Jeff Woywitka. Near the end of the second period the Ducks once again went up with a goal from Teemu Selanne. The assists went to Mathieu Schneider and Scott Niedermayer. Just 54 seconds the Blues tied up the score with a goal from Jeff Woywitka. However, this would be the last puck that got Giguere on the night. Rob Neidermayer would go on the score the Ducks next two goals. Ryan Getzlof would cap off the night with a goal of his own on an empty net. However, even with the victory head coach Randy Carlyle was not enthused.

"We didn’t play to the level that is going to be required here that is for sure," Carlyle said. "We’ll take the win, but we’re going to have to play a higher level than we played tonight, specifically in our next game against Dallas. We think it’s a decent sign that when you don’t play to your best, you still have some success."

The second win came on the road against Dallas as the Ducks began their three game road trip. The Ducks and the Stars have been battling for second place in the Pacific Division behind San Jose. The win allowed the Ducks to take a comfortable three point lead above Dallas for second place. Before this game Dallas was 5-1 against Anaheim this year. In the first period Dallas got the first points put up on the scoreboard when Brenden Morrow scored. In the second period the Ducks tied it up as Scott Niedermayer scored on the assists by Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf. Near the end of the third period and the score still tied up 1-1, Stars captain Brenden Morrow got a two minute penalty for interference. Todd Bertuzzi took advantage of this as he scored his 14 goal of the season in the final seconds of the game. The Ducks would go on and win the game 2-1.

After their narrow victory against the third place Dallas Stars, the Ducks would then have to face off against the first place San Jose Sharks. The Sharks came into the game winning 13 of their last 14 games. Just 40 seconds into the first period Joe Thornton scored for the Sharks. In the second period Todd Marchant tied up the score with assists from Chris Kunitz and Scott Niedermayer. However, the game wouldnt remail tied for too long. In the third period Jeremy Roenick scored the game winning goal for the Sharks. This put the Sharks seven points above the Ducks for first place.
It appears now the Ducks will take second place in the division which will likely have them facing off against the Stars in the first round of the playoffs. The bad news about this is the Stars seem to find ways to beat the Ducks. The good news is the Ducks are the hotter team right now and will be getting better when Pronger returns from his suspension. The rest of the season should be a blast and every hockey should be excited.

Avalanche Smother Ducks

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For the second straight game the Ducks were held scoreless. Their lack of offensive production continued as the Ducks fell to the Avalanche 1-0. This was Colorado’s fifth straight win and their first against the Ducks this year. The Ducks won the season series three to one, but their lack of offense didn't help silence the critics at all.

Jose Theodore made 27 saves as he helped conclude the shutout for the Ducks. This was Theodore's second shutout of the season and the twenty-fifth of his career. On the other side of the ice, Jonas Hiller made his third consecutive start in the place of Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Hiller made 29 saves and gave up one goal as he went on to lose his second consecutive game. The only goal on the night came 11:59 into the second period as Wojtek Wolski scored his first goal in the past fifteen games. He was assisted by Andrew Brunette and Paul Stastny. The best chance for the Ducks to finally get on the board came early on in the game when Cory Perry had a break away against Theodore. Theodore however was able to make a nice save and from there on out keep the Ducks scoreless. The Ducks now look to end this drought on Sunday as they take on the Canadiens.

Ducks cool down Flames

On paper before the game it would appear the Ducks were in for major trouble on Friday. They were playing without their captain Chris Pronger, who was still nursing his surgery after fracturing his jaw, and head coach Randy Carlyle, who was out with the flu. However, even with their absences the Ducks didn’t seem to miss a beat. The Ducks held Calgary to just one goal on 23 shots as they hold to win the game 3-1. This allowed the Ducks to capture their fifth straight win and their tenth victory in the past eleven games.
“Randy was not here and we were missing some key guys, but we managed to put that to the side," Niedermayer said. "We just tried to play our game and got rewarded for it.
The win gave assistant coach Dave Farrish his first career win as he stepped in for Randy Carlyle.
"Dave did a great job of coming in, keeping it simple and not trying to do too much," said Ryan Getzlof. "He rolled the lines. Dave knows our system as well as anybody, as do we. He just had to reinforce those extra little things and he did it tonight."
The game started off when Mathieu Schneider scored the first goal just 35 seconds into the game. Later in the first period Scott Niedermayer scored his fifth goal of the game as the Ducks went up 2-0. In the second period the Dion Phaneuf finally got the flames on the scoreboard when he light up the goal at 7:09 minutes. This however would be the only goal Jean-Sebastien Giguere would give up the entire night. The game remained tight until Teemu Selanne scored with just 51.9 seconds left in the game. This insured the Ducks victory and their quest to make the playoffs again. The next game will be on Monday night as the Ducks try to make it six straight wins against the Senators.