In The Cheap Seats

The Anaheim Ducks visit the Pepsi Center tonight to take on the Colorado Avalanche, a matchup of the 5^th and 6^th seeded teams in the Western Conference. Tonight’s game is on Vs. John Ahlers and Eddie Olczyk are in the booth.

Jose Theodore is in net for the Avs, while JS Giguere will go for the Ducks.

20:00 The 3^rd line starts for the Avs against the Getzlaf line for the Ducks.

19:15 The first line comes out next. No changes so far…but Olczyk mentions that the Avs are dressing 7 defensemen and that the Avs are battling the flu. Super news.

18:55 Arnason, Wolski and Svatos are all in the game

18:23 In case you didn’t hear…Svatos is in the game. Wolski dodges a clumsy defensive move by Beauchemin, gets a shot on Giguere, and Svatos is there to roof the rebound. Colorado takes an early 1-0 lead.

17:45 McCormick is the scratch – Hensick and McLeod are out there, with Lappy double shifting on the right wing.

16:20 Big save by Giguere on a point-blank shot by Hejduk

16:04 I’ll admit, I was asking myself who the Avalanche fans were booing. I totally forgot that the assclown Todd Bertuzzi was on the Ducks.

15:16 Finger and Liles both get big point shots towards the net, the first set up by a nice drop pass from Hensick.

14:48 I just saw the replay of that last play, and Skrastins was in front of the net on the play with two other D on the ice. He can’t really be at forward…can he?

9:25 Yep, he is.

9:16 Anaheim is going on the PP – interference call on Jeff Finger.

8:11 Well, they said it was Finger, but since he’s on the ice right now killing the penalty, I feel that information may have been wrong.

7:11 Liles (aka Finger) comes out of the box and almost gets a breakaway out of the deal.

5:19 The Arnason line is “on” tonight. These guys have been hot lately.

5:03 Here comes a melee. Bertuzzi is on the ice, but isn’t involved. Carter steals the puck from Liles. Carter skates in on Theodore and gets a backhand off from up close. After the shot, Finger takes Carter hard into Theodore and then roughs him up a bit after they hit the ice.

3:28 The Avs will have their own PP now – Huskins off for holding. “It’s a hard habit to break” says Chicago native Olczyk. No, really, he did. I believe that observation may have gone over the heads of a few of you, but for the rest of you…you’re welcome.

3:20 The 3 Centers PP unit is out to start things up. Clark and Liles are out, but Clark is on the left. Clark gets two good shots on net.

1:55 And the No Centers PP unit is on now – Hejduk, Svatos and Brunette, with Finger and Leopold on the point.

:30 After a whistle, Theodore complains about being run into by Kunitz. Meanwhile, offscreen Pronger and Lappy were close to dropping the gloves, but it doesn’t happen.

:08 Svatos gets his stick up on Scott Niedermeyer. You don’t get hit like that on the golf course, do you Scotty? Ducks will start the 2^nd on the PP (assuming they don’t score here)

:00 Lappy is getting a penalty for playing with a broken stick. Olczyk is all over this, but I think this is a terrible call. His stick breaks from a shot block, and then he drops the stick as he moves to engage Bertuzzi along the boards. The call was made by the back referee, and it looks like Lappy checks Bertuzzi with a broken stick in his hands from the way his hands were held, but in actuality the stick was already on the ice. I think they blew this call, and I think Olczyk got fooled as well. The Ducks will be on a 5 on 3 for almost two minutes.

20:00 They show the replay again. Still a bad call. Unfortunately, the replay Vs is showing does not show enough of the play to show Olczyk that he’s wrong. Not that it would matter.

19:19 Selanne one-timer, save Theodore.

18:51 Selanne scores, with a shot from down low. Bertuzzi was running some interference in front of Theodore, but I thought Theo was in good position to make that save. Incidentally, Wolski was the forward out there on the 5 on 3 kill (Guite was used earlier). How far has he come to be used in that sort of situation? Not that there’s a ton of other options on the bench at the moment, but he did get the nod over Richardson, Hlinka and Hejduk.

13:47 Arnason gets manhandled by Pahlsson on this shift. What bothers me is that after taking an elbow from Pahlsson, Arnason had a chance to return the favor a bit later on the shift when he had Pahlsson lined up along the boards. He just skated on by. This is one of the reasons that Arnason frustrates me.

11:33 McLeod dumps Huskins behind the net. George Parros goes after McLeod, but instead McLeod gets in a fight with Brian Sutherby.  It’s a good, long fight, with neither getting the advantage. Parros gets two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct, so the Avalanche get a PP out of the deal.

10:04 Brunette is tripped. We’re getting a 5 on 3 of our own. Scott Niedermeyer. Since the 3 Center unit just came off the ice, we’ll be looking at Milan Hejduk trying to win a key draw in the Anaheim zone…he wins it.

9:17 Parros is out, still a 5 on 4

8:08 And the 5 on 4 is done too. Oh well.

6:46 Lots and lots of hitting by both clubs.

:02 Laperriere runs over Huskins along the board. Getzlaf challenges Lappy and the two drop their gloves. The 6′4″ Getzlaf is no match for Lappy – he basically just hangs on and takes Lappy’s punches before getting slammed to the ice. And then Guite and Huskins go at it. Guite flattens Huskins with a big right hand. That was a thoroughly enjoyable exchange. The Avs are back to their fighting ways – it’s their 6 fight in the last two games. Guite and Huskins are both tossed from the game.

This just keeps getting better. The Avalanche have their first line out there. The Ducks put out Parros, Sutherby, Pronger and two others. Before they can drop the puck, Sutherby swats at Hejduk with his stick, and Hejduk just gives him the “Really?” look. He takes a second swipe and then runs right at Clark after the whistle. Nice one, douche. Maybe next time we can find some smaller players for you to flex your muscle with.

It’s 1-1 after two, and looks to be on the verge of pandemonium

19:05 Clark is hurt, and he’s going right to the locker room. He goes hard into the boards, left arm first. That doesn’t look good.

15:01 Holding penalty on Pronger.

13:23 Two big point shots from Wolski and Liles, but they don’t get through.

13:06 With Clark gone, Hannan is getting some PP time.

9:00 Big save by Theo on Schneider.

6:53 Clark “officially” has a shoulder injury, and will not return.

5:11 Hannan just misses the net on a great scoring chance

4:48 Here we go again. Parros almost bangs home his own rebound. The teams pair off again, but don’t get beyond the kissing and hugging phase. Parros and Finger have words for each other, but that’s about it.

4:22 Crap. Pahlsson. Rob Niedermeyer centers it in front and it bounces off Moen. Theodore is there, but the rebound trickles to the side and Pahlsson bangs it home. I really don’t want to lose this game, but it’s not looking good.

1:26 Quenneville takes the Avs timeout.

:50 Theodore is off, and the Arnason line is on

:37 Neidermeyer (Rob) ices it.

:00 That does it. Tough lose to swallow – we were in this game right until the end. And we may be down a defenseman as well…