Quacked

When a player scores 50 goals and becomes the NHL MVP, you tend to forget there was a time when he was, in fact, pretty green (and purple — check out those threads!).

It was a scant six or so years back that Corey Perry, wearing a decidedly more conspicuous number 61, made his auspicious debut on an NHL scoresheet, potting a goal for the then-Mighty Ducks against the Edmonton Oilers. Demonstrating a nose for the net that has stood him in good stead with the team and its fans ever since, Perry pounced on a loose puck in the Oilers’ crease to tally his first marker.

As Perry breaks down the play, the words from the original broadcast seem to echo like a prescient refrain:

As goaltenders around this league are going to discover soon, if you gotta give it to somebody on the doorstep, you might not want to give it to Corey Perry.

Perry’s is just one in a series of videos on NHL.com that features players describing their first NHL goal. Also featured are Brad Richards, Logan Couture and Shane Doan.

(PHOTO: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

When the puck drops tonight between the Ducks and Colorado Avalanche, it will mark a very special homecoming for one of the Avs’ players: former Anaheim goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

For the first time since being dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs almost two years ago, Giguere will be stepping on the ice at the Honda Center in a visiting team’s uniform. Having spent the better part of nine years with the organization, he left behind a legacy as a hard worker, great teammate and friendly face in the community.

Eric Stephens of the O.C. Register has put together a nice feature in anticipation of tonight’s game. In it, Giguere talks about his return to form after off-season sports hernia surgery, his role as a mentor and his expectations for the video tribute the team has prepared.

Corey Perry remembers the moment when he and Getzlaf were the first to mob a joyous Giguere when the Ducks captured the Cup with a 6-2 Game 5 victory over Ottawa. Perry said Giguere has a permanent place in franchise lore that should be noted.

“You look at what kind of person he is,” Perry said. “He’s a guy that everybody loved in this organization. All the fans love him.”

Meanwhile, NHL.com has interviews with both Teemu Selanne and Giguere, and it seems that the importance of the occasion is not lost on either of them. Selanne, himself a Ducks legend, speaks with reverence about Giguere’s accomplishments during the latter’s time in Anaheim — a fitting tribute to perhaps the only other player who occupies the same stratosphere in the team’s history.

How lucky we all are — especially Jonas Hiller — to have Lubomir Visnovsky back in the lineup. It appears his return is paying immediate dividends, as evidenced in the highlight below:

Without wishing to engage in an online flamewar with opponents whose lack of intelligence makes them a hazard around fire, I would like to highlight what I feel has been a unfortunate byproduct of the latest Bobby Ryan rumor circus: delusional Maple Leafs fans.

(PHOTO: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

I don’t make any secret of the fact that I’m a huge fan of Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Growing up in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada, for the uninitiated), I had the chance to watch him play as a teenager. Since then, I’ve taken a keen interest in his career no matter where he has played.

A trademark Giguere trait — insofar as I’ve been able to gather from myriad interviews and first-hand accounts — is being a good teammate. Even at 34, now relegated to a backup role in Colorado, he seems comfortable in that role.

Coming off back-to-back starts in which he allowed just a single goal, the Avalanche brass are giving him a chance to start his third consecutive game tonight against the San Jose Sharks. Giguere will be spelling starter Semyon Varlamov, who has struggled of late.

Rick Sadowski of NHL.com has penned a brief story with a few quotes that illustrate what kind of support Giguere gives the Avs behind the scenes.

Giguere remarks how he empathizes with Varlamov in spite fo his own desire for more playing time:

“I’m here to be a good teammate, too,” Giguere said. “I’ve been through what he’s going through many times. If anybody in this room knows what he’s going through, it’s me. I talk to him as much as I can and try to keep him positive, try to keep him smiling. [...]“

Although salary cap concerns may have ultimately run Giguere out of Anaheim on a rail, there’s no doubt he has a special place in Ducks history — and in the hearts of many of the team’s diehard fans, too.

Whether his recent good fortune proves temporary or long-lasting, it certainly has been a pleasant diversion for fans like me during an otherwise dismal 2011-12 season for the Ducks.

This is what happens when Jean-Sebastien Giguere gets angry. You do not want to make him angry.

Admittedly an odd spectacle when such a composed individual finally cracks. Ryan Smyth must bring that out in people (he certainly does in Ducks fans).

Now let’s watch what happens when you strike the stick of a man teetering on the fringe of sanity and composure.

(PHOTO: Ric Ernst/Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

Although this isn’t Ducks fare, and it isn’t Schadenfreude Saturday yet, it was a slow news day after another loss to the Kings last night. Onward and upward, I guess.

Mark Recchi’s medical credentials have never been in question. With that in mind, the good doctor has diagnosed his latest patient — the Vancouver Canucks — as “the most hated team [he's] ever played against” in an interview with CBS Boston.

In the post-mortem differential, Recchi also deigned to offer his hypothesis on where things went wrong for the Canucks:

“I couldn’t believe their antics; they’re falling and diving. It was very frustrating, but at the same time as the series wore on we knew we were getting to them and we knew our physical play and our skating, I think it caught them off guard a little bit.”

Most of his accusations aren’t news to fans of Western Conference teams, and no doubt some of them are being levied in the name of gamesmanship (and are no doubt easier to cuff with a hand wearing a heavy Stanley Cup ring). But for a sport whose players attract criticism for a lack of candor in their interviews, it’s always interesting when a player (or ex-player) gives us some color.

Image courtesy Anaheim Ducks.

In the pantheon of Ducks goaltenders, seldom has there been an individual among them whose mask wasn’t of the highest aesthetic calibre. Translation? When you play for a team whose nomenclature is derived from cartoon mallards, it’s virtually impossible NOT to have an awesome mask.

The latest to carry that torch is Dan Ellis, whose new cage was unveiled today. Its design is said to “honor the military”, and it’s not hard to see why. If these guys were taking care of business abroad, Osama would have been toast ten years ago.

Maybe.

(PHOTO: Mark Avery/Orange County Register/KRT)

Last week, our favorite Finnish fireball — that’s Teemu Selanne to you laymen — took to a blog he apparently keeps and shared some thoughts about, among other things, road trips and “old school” coaching methods. At least, that’s what can be ascertained from Google’s translation of the blog. I don’t read Finnish (it’s a matter of principle really, too many vowels).

Searching through the sea of misunderstood idiomatic Finnish that had been translated, this interesting anecdote surfaced:

I am reminded of a funny story of an ex-teammate Dustin Penner, a bit lazy guy, which was to deal with harder strokes and words. Carlyle gave so yes haipakkaa [sic] throughout the year that, if properly horrified, Dustin how to bear it. Carlyle repeated very often someone say fuck’n Penner, fuck’n Penner. After a period of Dustin told us, laughing, that he already began to suspect that his first name really is fuck’n. Well, it probably also helped to laugh about the fact that we won the Stanley Cup that year.

To the surprise of precisely nobody, it turns out Dustin Penner was (and if his stats are any indicator, still is) a lazy player and coach Randy Carlyle hated that. The practical upshot is that the collection of pejorative nicknames Ducks fans have been amassing for Penner has a new entry, one that is officially validated by somebody who witnessed his work ethic firsthand.

How did this go a week without being noticed? Well, it was posted in Finland, and with the time difference and the Earth’s rotation, coupled with setting the clocks back an hour and… hey, look over there! It’s Dustin Penner’s career!