January 30, 2008
Footsteps getting louder
  

Unless they sit their best players for stretches in the latter weeks of the season, they will capture the President's Trophy, emblematic of the team that finishes with the most points overall.

Though they're tracking 120+ points this season, the tipping point that made them no better than a CO-favorite to emerge from the West happened at the end of the All Star break.

The Ducks are coming.

No, not the Ducks that started the season, those 12-12-4 pretenders who missed Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne and frankly had a huge case of Hangover du Stanley Cup.

Not even the Ducks that fashioned a 15-8-2 record once Niedermayer decided to strap the skates on one more time (but what's up with the three-game losing streak before the break, eh? I can get losses to the Wings and Stars but to your lowly cousins, the Kings, yikes).

When the Ducks take the ice on Wednesday in Minnesota, they'll take to the ice a team that is arguably better than the one that captured the Cup last summer.

Selanne's addition solves the one problem that's plagued Anaheim this season, secondary scoring.

Ryan Getzlaf has developed into the team's most complete player and no one would have guessed that Corey Perry who have developed into a 40 goal scorer this quickly but when Chris Pronger stands third on the scoring list, that's not enough juice for winning four playoff rounds.
 

After starting the season slow, rehabbing from last season's neck injury and then missing 14 matches with a concussion, the big winger seemed to hit his stride during a Ducks' winning streak in mid-January when he dealt for five goals in a four game stretch.

He went silent during the Ducks' three game skid before the break but with Perry and Selanne garnering the significant right wing scoring time, Bertuzzi will shift to the left side in support of the two youngsters and his style is more suited to Perry and Getzlaf's game as well. If he plays physically and smartly (with the latter being a far bigger issue than the former), this first line is an intimidating one.

While McDonald and the departed-to-free agency Dustin Penner are the vital cogs missing from last year's championship and yes, Weight and Bertuzzi are less talented and older, but the addition of Mathieu Schneider makes the defense corps better than the one that won the championship last year.

I'm sure Pavel Datysuk and Henrik Zetterberg saw enough of Niedermayer and Pronger last playoff season and with Schneider and Pronger bombing from the point, it makes the powerplay more formidable. With a drastically better team in front of him, you're sure to see Jean-Sebastian Giguere's numbers improve as the season but you could argue that with a 2.38 GAA and a .914 save percentage that he's already there.

But there is one X factor that could draw the Ducks and Wings even and it's one you wouldn't expect.

The Los Angeles Kings.

To see how disparate the fortunes of the two Southern California hockey teams are, just look at the press release the Kings made the same day it was announced that Selanne came back.

While the Ducks welcomed back a Hall of Famer and a 48-goal scorer for their playoff drive, the Kings reached for a beer. They recalled winger Matt Moulson. OK, give me a break on the cat's spelling, but Kings GM Dean Lombardi does hold a chip that could likely shift the favorite's position if dealt a certain way.

Rob Blake started off this season horrifically, at one point he was tracking a minus-40 rating on a poor defensive team that sits last in its conference; the only race they're in is for the first overall pick in next year's draft. Blake was not in shape when the season started, rehabbing from off season hip surgery and it showed in his game. Since early December, he's found his game on both ends of the ice (he's actually a +1 rating since December 3) and will definitely be dealt by the trade deadline if Lombardi relaxes his current demand of a current player, a prospect and a pick for a 38-year-old defenseman with an expiring contract.

Once logic rules, Blake has expressed his willingness to even go to the Eastern Conference to get one more ring. A perfect fit would be in New Jersey, where the Devils' powerplay is a mess and I have in on good authority than Martin Brodeur would drive to the airport to pick the guy up.

More importantly, the physical part of Blake's game has resurfaced; he buried Detroit's Valtteri Filppula last week with a check that was reminiscent of a time before Blake's game got soft.

Wouldn't Blake look even better to Detroit fans in the red and white of the Winged Wheel? Along with Lidstrom and Chris Chelios, the addition of Blake would neutralize the advantage the Ducks have on the blueline and would make the difference between the teams razor thin. Although the Ducks have $5 million in cap space to play with and could take on the balance of the Blake contact (about $2 million), Lombardi would start a fan revolt at Casa del Staples by dealing Blake to their arch-rivals to help them win another Cup. No can do.

A Blake trade notwithstanding, the teams in front of Anaheim at present, Dallas and San Jose, don't really scare anyone in the Ducks' room.

Dallas is a finesse team and would get steamrolled in a seven game series and San Jose, well, when do you recall any hockey team winning with two guys (Evgeni "I must play all games" Nabokov and Joe "Can I get some help" Thornton)? No doubt the conference final will be Detroit and Anaheim again and you know where my vote lies.

ALL-STAR BLUES

OK, so we got to experience Atlanta for the first time by attending All-Star weekend and we'll provide the caveat that we caught the flu just before arriving. That probably made us even more of a disturber than usual (if that's even possible). Just some random observations on the weekend and how to change things...

Enough with the rotating of the All-Star Game to cities just because they have a franchise. Make it a competition between cities that will make it an event, not unlike the Olympic Games.

The NFL always held the Pro Bowl in Hawaii every year and no franchise clamored for it. There was about as much buzz in downtown Atlanta for the game as there is in a 25 watt light bulb. My thought is the only teams that should be guaranteed a game would be all the Canadian cities, where the game would sure to be an event, get currency and select major market American cities (NY, Philly, Boston).

Is it really beneficial to the league that the Atlanta fans get to cheer Marian Hossa for two minutes in the pre-game intro while the game gets little currency any where else in town?

For those American fans out there, you missed a doozy on CBC's Saturday coverage of the Skills Competition. With Gary Bettman perched in the booth next to Hockey Night in Canada host Ron McLean at the conclusion of the evening, an on ice interview occurred with the Players' Association Executive Director Paul Kelly.

Earlier in the day, the NHL had announced that the Rangers, Lightning, Senators and Penguins were opening next season in Europe. Kelly responded by saying that all matters had not been finalized and that the players had not given their approval. To say that Bettman's reaction was that of shock when the camera cut to him would be an understatement; dontcha just love when people in power look uncomfortable? I do.

Bettman paused for a second and conveyed that his right hand man, Bill Daly had sent a text message earlier in the day about the announcement and that Kelly was fine with it. Text message? Isn't that like breaking up with a girl via text? Commish, the phone works, doesn't it? Ironically, Bettman was seen sending a text to Kelly as soon as he got off the air.

While in commercial, Bettman hand picked emails from CBC viewers and told McLean, "I like these questions better than the ones you ask me."

The NHL needs to do something about its hipness factor. There has to be OTHER celebrities out there that like hockey other than Alyssa Milano and Matthew Modine.

Frankly, I was shocked that the rock band The Hives opened the show, though most of the crowd didn't know them, it made me feel better than having to witness those JONAS BROTHERS on Saturday, hoo boy.

The weirdest thing is that we didn't receive the seat location of Milano, Modine and Garth Brooks until we were leaving the building Sunday night, not the optimal way to get more media exposure or maybe they just didn't ME talking to them. Hard to believe that you couldn't grab some more starlets and hipsters give the fact that the Super Bowl parties hadn't started.

If you've never seen Chris Pronger hold court in an All Star setting, you probably wouldn't boo the guy. He's smart, funny and he busts everyone. When asked if the Ducks were suffering a Cup Hangover, he responded on cue, "Yes, I'm hung over,” with the according impish grin.

He reaffirmed his dislike in participating in the European season opening games, "that's a long way to go for two games. I'd never do it again. They'd be better off having East Coast teams go."

When questioned about players like Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur not showing up, he screamed, "That's bull, they should be here. So should Sidney Crosby," while smiling all the time. When I mentioned that Brodeur's real reason for not attending was different than published reports, Pronger asked me for the 411. When I told him I couldn't reveal my sources, he stepped off the podium and half jokingly shielded me from other reporters so I could tell him. You wouldn't see that from Pavel Datysuk.

And then there was the Atlanta fan who said I could make time impersonating Marian Hossa, the TFP Road Trip Crew got a laugh out of that and agreed...

And bless those Atlanta Ice Girls, every last one.
 

Dennis Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The Fourth Period Magazine.