Ducks Announce Bakersfield Affiliation.

The Ducks announced today that they have signed an affiliation agreement with the Bakersfield Condors of the ECHL. As part of the agreement, the Ducks will send prospects to Bakersfield beginning with the 2008-09 ECHL regular season.

“We are very excited to be entering into a formal affiliation agreement with an organization that is held in such high regard in professional hockey,” said Ducks Executive Vice President/General Manager Brian Burke. “The Bakersfield Condors have a track record of success both on and off the ice and this agreement will only help further the growth of hockey in California.”

The Bakersfield Condors joined the ECHL in 2003 after playing the previous five seasons in the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL). During their 10-year history in the ECHL and the WCHL, the Condors have attracted over two million fans to Rabobank Arena, including 200,000-plus in each of the last four seasons. Bakersfield posted a 26-37-2-7 record during the 2007-08 regular season and ranked fifth among ECHL teams in average attendance (5,628). The Condors, who will begin their first official affiliation with an NHL club in 2008-09, have enjoyed four consecutive trips to the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

“This is an exciting moment in the history of this organization,” said Condors President Matthew Riley. “Not only to be able to secure an affiliation, but secure one with a first-class franchise like the Ducks, fellow Californians and an organization that shares the same philosophies that we have. It’s a banner day in Condorstown.”
The Condors have graduated four players to the NHL since the 2003-04 season, including goaltenders Danny Taylor (Kings) and Yutaka Fukufuji (Kings), and right wings Garret Stroheim (Capitals) and Connor James (Kings, Penguins).

Bakersfield’s hockey history dates back almost 68 years and has seen teams compete in professional and semi-pro leagues such as the California Ice Hockey Association (Bakersfield Oilers), Southern California Hockey League (Bakersfield Kernels), Pacific Southwest Hockey League (Oilers), WCHL (Bakersfield Fog; Condors) and ECHL (Condors). The Condors have been heavily involved in the local community since their inception, having donated nearly $3 million to various area charities.

The Condors begin the 2008-09 ECHL regular season on Saturday, October 18 when they host the Ontario Reign at Rabobank Arena.


SOURCE: Anaheim Ducks Website

Birthdays!

Happy Birthday Corey Perry!

Happy Birthday J.S. Giguere!

Yes, it's true

Getzlaf did get a speeding ticket a while back, a CHP officer failed to file it, maybe due to his being a Ducks fan and all, and just now they figure out that that CHP officer failed to file it and somehow it becomes a huge news story... fact of the matter is, I don't see why this is news. So this is the post you'll be getting from me about it. :)

On the other hand:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GETZLAF... All 23 Years of you!!

Congrats Rob Niedermayer!

Rob Niedermayer welcomed a baby girl into his family on Saturday. The baby is a girl, named Brooke! Congrats Rob and wife!

Selanne will play in World Championships for Finland

Ducks forward Teemu Selanne announced he will play for home country Finland in the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championship, to be held May 2-18 in Quebec City and Halifax, Canada. Selanne skated with the team Wednesday in Halifax, just a day after agreeing to a request from general manager Jari Kurri to join the squad.

It's the first time in five years Selanne has competed in the event, though the 37-year-old Helsinki native has represented his country 11 times previously. He has played in four Olympics (winning a silver medal in 2006), two World Cups, a Canada Cup and four previous World Championships.
"It's funny," Selanne said. "I have won Olympic silver, World Cup silver and world championship silver but not gold so obviously there is (room for) some improvement."

Selanne played 32 games for the Ducks this past season after considering retirement for several months and joining the team in early February. He still has not indicated whether he wants to come back next season in the days following Anaheim's first-round playoff elimination at the hands of the Dallas Stars.

"I only played 32 games this season and I felt like I could continue and play way more games in the playoffs," Selanne said. "That break I had was so good. I am really happy to come back to the Worlds."

In addition to Selanne, the Finnish team has eight NHL players, three AHL players and others from leagues around Europe. Finland took the silver medal in the 2007 World Championship, falling to Canada in the final, 4-2.

The Ducks will also be represented by forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Chris Kunitz on Team Canada and goalie Jonas Hiller on the Swiss team.

SOURCE: AnaheimDucks.com

30 Greatest Moments of 2007

4/29/08 Moments 26 through 30 - Greatest Moments

5/6/08 Moments 25 through 21 - More Moments!

5/13/08 Moments 20 - 16 - More great moments!

5/19/08 Moments 15 - 11 - Greatest Moments Continued...

5/28/08 Moments 10 - 6 - Cont'd Moments

6/2/08 Moments 5 - 1 - Top 5 Moments in the whole year!

**This entry will be updated with each article with the moments as they get posted on the Ducks website. All articles are from he Ducks website.

Ryan Carter signed to 3 year deal.

The Ducks announced today that they have signed center Ryan Carter to a three-year contract. Per club policy, financial terms were not disclosed.

Carter, 24 (8/3/83), appeared in his first NHL season with the Ducks in 2007-08, scoring 4-4=8 points with 36 penalty minutes (PIM) in 34 games. On Feb. 8 at New Jersey, he scored his first two career NHL goals against Martin Brodeur less than eight minutes apart to lead Anaheim to a 2-1 win. In addition, he played in six Stanley Cup Playoff games for the Ducks, going scoreless with six PIM in the 2008 Western Conference Quarterfinal Series against Dallas.

Carter also played in 13 games for Portland, Anaheim’s primary development affiliate in the American Hockey League (AHL). In his 13 AHL appearances, he scored 3-2=5 points with a +3 rating and 38 PIM. Carter collected 2-2=4 points in his last seven games with the Pirates, including the lone goal in a 1-0 victory over Springfield in his final AHL game on Dec. 16 in Portland.

A native of White Bear Lake, MN, Carter was originally signed by the Ducks as a free agent from Minnesota State University on July 12, 2006. He made his professional debut with Portland during the 2006-07 regular season, recording 16-20=36 points with 85 PIM in 76 games. Carter also appeared in four games with the Ducks during the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 4, 2007 at Ottawa.


SOURCE: Anaheimducks.com

Getzlaf, Kunitz named to Team Canada

Ducks forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Chris Kunitz were among the nine additional players named to Team Canada for the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Halifax and Quebec City, which begins May 2.

In addition to Getzlaf and Kunitz, the players named by GM Steve Yzerman and assistant GMs Doug Armstrong and Luc Robitaille were goaltender Mathieu Garon, defensemen Brent Burns and Ed Jovanovski and forwards Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza. The two alternates named were defenseman Mark Giordano and forward Sam Gagner.

Getzlaf led the Ducks in in points (82), assists (58) and plus/minus (+32) this season. His plus-minus rating was the second-highest in club history (Kariya, +36 in 1996-97).

Kunitz played in all 82 games and led the Ducks in game-winning goals (six) and hits (159) while ranking third on the team in goals and assists.


Source: Anaheim Ducks.com

Burke Staying in Anaheim!

We've all heard the rumors of Burke possibly going to Toronto, and today Burke has confirmed that he will be staying in Anaheim.


From the Ducks official website:

Brian Burke to Remain with Ducks

The Ducks announced today that Executive Vice President/General Manager Brian Burke will remain with the team through at least the 2008-09 season, which is the last under his current four-year contract. Negotiations between the club and Burke on a contract extension will continue.

“I work for the best owners in sports,” said Burke. “After meeting with Mike (Chief Executive Officer Michael Schulman) this morning, we’ve decided to end all unnecessary media speculation and commit to working together for at least one more year while continuing to discuss my long-term future with the Ducks.”

Burke led the Ducks to the 2007 Stanley Cup Championship, the first-ever by a California-based club. Including their run to the 2006 Western Conference Finals, Burke has led the Ducks to six series wins in his three seasons in Anaheim. He was recently ranked as the No. 1 General Manager in the NHL in The Hockey News Annual GM Rankings (March, 2008).

“Brian Burke is the best general manager in the NHL and we always expected him to return,” said Ducks Owner Henry Samueli. “Our goal is to sign him to a long-term agreement beyond next season.”

“I met with Brian this morning to discuss his future,” said Schulman. “We agreed to move forward, as planned, under his existing contract while working toward a contract extension.”

The 2007-08 Ducks went 47-27-8 for 102 points, finishing fourth in the Western Conference. The team set new club records for fewest goals allowed (184) and most home wins (28). The Ducks were the first team since the 2003-04 New Jersey Devils to record over 100 points the year following a Stanley Cup Final appearance.

Burke will speak to media via conference call at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon and his comments will be posted here.

Quarterfinals Game 6: Ducks @ Stars

@

GAME 6
6 PM
[TV: FSN PT, VS, TSN]

Ducks Lose 4 - 1, Dallas wins series 4 - 2.

They played great for the first 40 minutes, all they had left was 20 minutes, but 52 seconds of those 20 minutes changed everything. :-/ I am at a loss for words, I don't know. I was hoping for the Ducks to force a game 7 and they didn't. They're done, it's hard to grasp that their season ended in Dallas. The team that had our number in the regular season, and now unfortunately, had our number in the playoffs this year too. It's depressing. They were the better team in the regular season but they were not in the post season, Ducks just played like crap for too many games and dug themselves a hole... Dallas won though so I can only say Congratulations. Going to be hard for them to make it out of the 2nd round though if we gave them trouble.

Game Day Quotes for the last time of the 07-08 season will be posted when I find some. And that will conclude the last game day post for the 07-08 season.

I'll keep this blog up to date with any breaking stories (Selanne, Niedermayer possible retirements? Burke going to TO? Perry re-signed or moving on? You'll be able to catch those updates here when they break. It's going to be a long summer.

GAME DAY QUOTES:

"I don't think anyone wants it to end this way," said Scott Niedermayer. "It's disappointing because we believe we could do better. Our sights were set higher than this. When you come up short it explains itself."

"They're a team that plays a very tight defense," Niedermayer said. "They had all their guys back and protected the middle of the ice well and made it hard to penetrate."

"They played very well," said captain Chris Pronger. "Their power play, what did they get? Ten goals? They had quite a few. Their penalty kill did a good job bottling us up in the neutral zone. There were a couple games where we just couldn't mount much of an attack. You gotta give them a lot of credit but part of that fall on us too."

"Anything short of the Stanley Cup is a disappointment for this group," said Giguere. "Our goal is set on going all the way. I don't think it was a lack of effort. We tried but we just couldn't come up with the win."

Added Carlyle: "Every guy gave everything they had. You thank them for their work ethic over the course of the season, but their lack of execution in the playoffs was a concern and we’ll address that in the offseason."

Teemu Selanne, who came out of a brief retirement to rejoin the Ducks in January called it, "not a very happy ending. But what are you going to do? I think the work ethic is there. You have to be proud of that. When you give everything you have you can't ask more than that. Everybody wants to beat you when you're the champions. You try hard but when you're a little bit off here and there, it's a lot to overcome."

SOURCE FOR QUOTES: http://ducks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=Recap&seas=20072008>ype=3&gnum=186