ICING ON THE CAKE
The more hockey, the better, and farm teams add to the mix
My crush on hockey might soon replace my crush on Cheryl Ladd, though I’m not taking down my dorm poster just yet. This isn’t the sort of amour you rush.
Look, they’ll be serving mojitos on Mars before I get out to enough hockey games. At the beginning of each season, I pledge “This will be my hockey year!” and then something gets in the way — life, or football, or both. In America, football is life. The NFL is as phony as Rihanna’s eyelashes. But as with stray kitties and free buffets, I can’t seem to pass by a single kickoff.
And I have to confess that I am troubled by some of hockey’s traditions. Such as, what happened to the fourth quarter? And when did Alfred Hitchcock start coaching the Ducks? The guy they have is a dead ringer, no pun intended. It’s almost spooky, the resemblance.
In any case, I’m going psycho for hockey this season, as evidenced by my trip this week down to the Honda Center, which may as well as be on Mars itself, the way traffic is.
When I finally reach the quaint farm village of Anaheim, I expect some sort of Halloween graveyard motif, given the Ducks’ crushing Game 7 performance(s). Heck of a franchise — even won the Stanley Cup in 2007 — but over the last few years they just can’t seem to finish on this beautiful rink of tears.
Maybe this season. The Ducks remain one of the top two teams in the league, at least according to the bettors, who have them at 9-1 to win the Stanley Cup. As my buddy Scott noted: In an El Niño year, you should never underestimate a team named the Ducks.
Of note this year, the Ducks’ and Kings’ top two minor league affiliates reside just a pizza run away. The Ducks’ primary farm team, the Gulls, are nesting in San Diego. The club previously resided in Norfolk, Va., as the Admirals. The Kings have moved their top affiliate from New Hampshire to Ontario and have re-badged them the Reign (formerly an ECHL team).
This is a significant development. For the NHL teams, it means quick access to minor league talent in case of injury or arrest. The new digs also make it easier for Ducks and Kings talent scouts to keep track of their young players’ progress.
So, earlier this week, I checked out the two new minor league teams at the Honda Center as they squared off in an exhibition that drew 8,574 fans. I recognized not a single Gull, except for goalie John Gibson, who had a promising start as a young fill-in for the Ducks. Still only 22, and with a $7-million contract, he’ll be back in the NHL soon enough. Also of note is Gulls winger Nick Ritchie, who at 19 is younger than most of my socks.
The Gulls and the Reign are part of a newly created AHL Pacific Division, announced earlier this year, that will include teams in Bakersfield, Stockton and San Jose.
The Reign, which always drew well, will step up in class at its Ontario haunts, while the Gulls will slide around Valley View Casino Center near downtown San Diego. Point your rivalry radar their way. Monday’s game, which the Gulls won, 5-3, was loaded with the sort of medieval brawls that hockey’s unsettled serfs adore. According to my notes, the second period included six goals and 47 felonies.
Someone alert the cops that the Reign and Gulls will play each other 12 times this season. Indeed, hockey might be the only sport that needs its own pope.
For the Gulls, who open the season at home Saturday, San Diego is a great fit, as evidenced by the sale of 2,900 season tickets so far, the fifth-highest in the 30team AHL. The team sold 2,500 such tickets even before it had a roster or a schedule. Think of San Diego now, with all those craft breweries, as “the Milwaukee of the West.”
So, welcome two new affordable options to your winter menu, as you celebrate our current sports Festivus. Early October, with football in full bloom, baseball entering its party stage and the NHL and NBA firing up, is as rich and wonderful a time to be a sports fan as there is.
And among all the sports, I’ve long thought that hockey was the most appreciative of its fans. In turn, hockey fans are the gold standard — the most intense, the most loyal, the most likely to offer up a longterm, Cheryl Laddian love.
After all, Charlie, isn’t that what life’s all about?