The Dallas Stars

Shhh if you tell people its addictive, the DEA will come...

Hello again my lovely readers! I know that it has been two whole weeks without a post, and that you have all gone into withdrawal. You see, my blog is laced with cocaine, and now you are addicted! I am like the original Coca Cola of sports blogging and you are all addicted to me.

The real reason behind my two-week hiatus is pretty simple. The reason behind the first week I missed is that my newly fianced fiancée came into town and I was busy enjoying her company. Then, by the time she had left I didn’t have enough energy to write a good post for you. The reason behind me missing the second week, however, is that I had finals and school comes before all of my extra curricular activities. Remember, kids: don’t be a fool, stay in school!

This week we are covering the Dallas Stars. This year, they lost their star goalie only to have him become the backup for Chicago. They were one win away from getting into the playoffs, and were beaten by the Minnesota Wild, allowing the Blackhawks to advance to the playoffs. Then, to add insult to injury, Minnesota actually put by the way, you’re welcome Chicago on their website as the caption for the highlights. This season, the Stars have been through ups and downs, but honestly, who cares about this season?  This is a history blog…oh wait, this season is over for them, so it counts as history.

Damn.

Ironically, this story starts in Minnesota. On March 11, 1965, the NHL decided to expand from six teams, to twelve. They realized that watching six teams play each other over and over was really boring. It was even more boring because the Montreal Canadiens kept winning the Stanley Cup. I mean, it got to the point where you could walk into a casino in Vegas, put a bet down for the Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup, and walk out with the exact same amount you walked in with because the line was so low. Anyway, the league decided it would be a good idea to expand, so they put teams in California (Oakland), Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and St. Louis.

This is how REAL men play hockey...and lose lots of teeth...

When Minnesota was awarded a team, the first thing they did was have a public “Name the Team” contest. That was the big thing to do at the time, because then the fans felt involved, even though it just meant that management was really lazy and didn’t feel like brainstorming names. Anyway, the name North Stars was chosen and announced on May 25, 1966. The name comes from the state’s motto, “L’Étoile du Norde,” which is French for “The Star of the North.”

Now obviously you all knew that that was French, you are all smart folks, but I felt that it was only proper add that little tidbit in there. So anyway, from “the Star of the North” came the North Stars, and so Minnesota had a team. They weren’t a particularly good team, but they were a team.

In the twenty-five seasons that the team was in Minnesota, they made it to the playoffs 15 times. That is a respectable number, but they only made it past the first round 8 times, winning their division and their conference twice. They never won a Stanley Cup and only made the finals twice as well. Eventually, as the years went on, the team fell into financial difficulties. In 1993, then Owner Norman Green relocated the team. Some of the most cited reasons for the move were poor attendance, lack of stadium deals, and a sexual harassment lawsuit against Green that resulted in his wife threatening to leave him unless he moved the team. She was the smart one, since she realized that Minnesota is really cold and no one likes living there.

So the team moved to Dallas.

With the move, Norm made a huge realization: Texas is SOUTH! He decided that having a team named the NORTH Stars was kind of silly. Green dropped the North and called the team the Dallas Stars. However, being the crafty old devil that he was, he told the press that it was a tribute to the “Lone Star State.” The question then becomes, why didn’t he just call the team the Dallas Lone Stars?

Wrong Lone Star...

Honestly, I am pretty sure that he just was lazy and didn’t have that much creativity of his own…

The Stars were instantly more successful than their North Stars. It turns out that by dropping the North, they were able to shed some extra weight and skate faster. Between 1993 and 1999, they only missed the playoffs once (1996) and they ended up winning the Stanley Cup two years later. In the next ten seasons, they only missed the playoffs twice, and one time it wasn’t their fault. The whole league was in the middle of the lockout, and the season was cancelled all together. In 2008, the Stars made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the Red Wings. The Wings would go on to win the Stanley Cup, so I guess you really can’t be too mad about that.

Most recently, the Stars had some trouble entering the playoffs. As we stated earlier, this past season was miserable. Even worse, a Playoff berth was within their reach, and they let it slip away.  Who knows what next year will have in store for the stars, but with the young talent they have, mixed with quality veterans, the Stars have a lot to bring to the ice in a couple of months.

The Columbus Blue Jackets

This week’s post is another one of those posts that comes at a great time. Two weeks ago we talked about the Calgary Flames. We examined how the name “the Flames” had nothing to do with gay men, but did have to do with Atlanta’s rich history in the Civil War Era. We delved into some very real history and everyone was much smarter after reading all that awesome stuff! Right?

Well, even if you missed it, you get a chance to redeem yourself as we learn about the newest team in the NHL. We are going to take a look into the brief history of the Columbus Blue Jackets and how they got their awesome name!

In 1978, Ohio lost the Cleveland Barons to San Francisco. It would be another 22 years before they got a new NHL team. The city of Columbus entered an expansion bid in 1997, with a referendum in the works to build a publically financed arena. The referendum didn’t pass and everyone was freaking out about getting a team.

This post has NOT been sponsored by Nationwide

Out of the blue, Nationwide—who already owned half the city—announced that they would finance a $150-million stadium. 25 days later, Columbus received a brand new hockey club.

So now Columbus had a team, but what were they going to name it? The owners thought long and hard about it, and 20 minutes later they came up with the Blue Jackets.

Just like with the Flames, though more obviously, the Blue Jackets is a Civil War reference. Though most people don’t know it, Ohio played one of the most integral roles in the Union war campaign.

In 1861, President Lincoln made a call to arms. He requested volunteer regiments from every state in the Union. From Ohio, he requested 10 regiments. What he received was 23 volunteer regiments, later bolstered with three-month enlistees. By the end of the war, Ohio had more residents serving in the Union Army than almost any state (320,000 men by the end of the war, almost all volunteer). The only others with more were New York and Pennsylvania.

Vallandigham: Best. Name. EVER!!!

Not only did Ohio blow everyone’s mind with the number of people they were able to recruit, but they were also the home state of some of the most influential officers in the Union Army. Aside from being the home state of Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant (the guy in charge of the Union Army, who later became president), Ohio was home to men like Major General William T. Sherman, Major General Philip H. Sheridan, and Major General George A. Custer, as well as guys with awesome names like Salmon Chase and Clement Vallandigham. Yes, you read that correctly, Vallandigham.

In a What’s in a Name?? reenactment, we show what the conversation between Lincoln and the Ohioan Government must have been like:

Lincoln: Hey Ohio,  I need you to get 10 regiments together so we can whoop some confederate ass.

Rep. Vallandigham: How many men are in a regiment?

Lincoln: How am I supposed to know? Your silly name makes it hard for me to think straight.

Grant: It’s about 50,000 men. Anyone got any whiskey?

Custer: Stop drinking on the job, dumbass, we’ve got a war to win. We’ll do you a solid, Abe. Ohio will be so kick ass that we will get 115,000 men, and then we’ll let Sherman burn half of Georgia to the ground.

Lincoln: Sweet! I love a good barn-burner!

I scratch my junk at America.

So anyway, Ohio was integral in Union war effort, not just in supplying troops. They provided a large portion of the uniforms for the Union Army. These “Blue Jackets” were made in the City of Columbus, therefore Columbus team management felt that naming the team the Blue Jackets was a good idea. The goal was to celebrate the patriotism, pride, and rich Civil War history in the state of Ohio and City of Columbus. Also, and more coincidentally, just after the Revolutionary War, there was a Shawnee leader named Blue Jacket in the Ohio Country.

While the team name represents patriotism, ironically, there are only five Americans on the team, and only one of them has only played two games in the NHL.

Before I leave you to ponder that awesome reenactment, here is an interesting fact about the Blue Jackets that has nothing to do with how they got their name: by making the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2009, they broke their streak of being the only team in the NHL never to have made the playoffs.

The Carolina Hurricanes

He gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do pretty much...this

I don’t claim to be the king of all hockey related knowledge, and sometimes I just don’t know things. Other times I just down right forget. I don’t know if you have ever seen the “Ovechtrick Commercial,” but for some reason it creeps me out. I forget that every company sponsors him because he is the face of hockey (lies, obviously it is Paul Bissonnette). The reason I bring this up is because my next statement may sound a little stupid for a hockey fan, but I want you to remember than I just don’t always remember everything.

When I started writing this post, I forgot that the Carolina Hurricanes used to be the Hartford Whalers. I felt really dumb when I realized what I forgot, so you don’t all get to make me feel dumb. Great, now that that is out of the way, let’s find out something interesting about another southern hockey team.

In writing these posts, I learn quite a bit. For example, did you know that Hartford is in Connecticut? Ok, so maybe I already knew that, but I am just saying, I knew nothing about the Whalers (other than they had an awesome logo) going into this.

The Whalers actually got their start in Boston in 1972, in the World Hockey Association (where Wayne Gretzky got his start), and were known as the New England Whalers. The name “Whalers” comes from two different, coincidental sources. The first of these sources is the more obvious of the two. In Massachusetts, seaport towns are most often associated with whaling, and the people who do the whaling are called whalers. Being a New England team, playing originally in Boston, this makes a good deal of sense. The other source of the name is actually the league it was playing in. Whalers starts with the same acronym that is made from World Hockey Association. The play on words gave homage to the league in which the team played. It is almost like they were sucking up to the league to get more points to go their way. Too bad they couldn’t get them to do anything about scheduling.

The Whalers, who originally played in the Boston Garden (home to the Boston Bruins), found themselves in fights over scheduling around the Bruins. Eventually they were forced to leave, so they went to the big time hockey town of Hartford, Connecticut.

The New England Whalers continued to play in the WHA, with their base of operations in Hartford for five seasons. In 1979, the team was added to the NHL. In order to enter the NHL, however, Boston pushed for the team to be forced to drop the words “New England” from their name. They were not representing the whole of New England, as Boston was located in the region as well. The team was happy with their name, and having to change it was going to suck. So they kept it the same and just changed the town. From then until 1997, they were known as the Hartford Whalers.

"Buy tickets and we'll sleep with you!!"

The Whalers had varying success over the years, but never won a Stanley Cup. In 1997, frustrated with the fact that his team was in Connecticut, and no one wants to watch hockey there, then owner Peter Karmanos had had enough. He knew he would not get the 11,000 season tickets he needed to keep things going, so he moved the team to an ostensibly better market, Carolina.

The original intention was to move the team to North Carolina, more specifically Raleigh, and into the Entertainment and Sports Arena. Unfortunately, the ESA was not completed for another two years. They ended up playing in Greensboro, which, if you didn’t know, is about 90 minutes away because the only other available hockey arena in Raleigh held 5,100 people.

Karmanos also announced that there would be a color and name change, as well. The colors went from green and blue to black and red. The name Hurricanes, just like the Whalers, comes from two different sources. The first of these is that at the time of the move, hurricane Fran came bustling through the south. This coupled with the sheer destructive power and force, as well as the speed (all great representations of the sport of hockey) inspired Karmanos to call the team the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes had more success than the Whalers. In 2005, the Canes made the big push and went all the way to the end. As the ‘Canes, the team won their first Stanley Cup since the team was located in New England. Now, the team is thriving. Though they did not make the playoffs this year, they are currently the home of the Rookie of the Year (Jeff Skinner) and they held an awesome All-Star game. Keep an eye on these guys, they are going to be heavy hitters in the hockey world in a very short time.

The Calgary Flames

Two weeks ago, we took a look at the Atlanta Thrashers, and in that brief glimpse we learned that the Thrashers were not the first team to bring hockey to the Dirrrty South. In fact, that first team was the Atlanta Flames, who later became the Calgary Flames. This means that I have a perfect opportunity to write a post that is a continuation from last week!

How can someone so good have such a dumb look on his face?

This post comes in the wake of Calgary making their playoff push and Jarome Iginla scoring his 1000th NHL point. Iggy himself is a story, but we might get to that at the end. What is really important here is the fact that Calgary has a team called the Flames and we want to know why.

The story actually starts with a different sport. In 1968, businessman Tom Cousins and former Georgia Governor Carl Sanders brought the third major professional sports franchise to Atlanta. They had just purchased the St. Louis Hawks basketball team and turned them into the Atlanta Hawks. You may be asking yourself why this matters, but if you give me some leeway, I will explain it all.

First thing I need to note, and it made me very sad to find this out, is that Carl Sanders is not the man we all know and love as Colonel Sanders. That is actually Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (not even a Georgian company).

The second thing is that the arrival of the Hawks to Atlanta opened the door for hockey to come south because of the Omni Coliseum. The Hawks needed somewhere to play, so the Omni was built. Cousins wanted a hockey team to come to Atlanta, and with this brand new facility, he was able to create a strong backbone for his NHL bid. He was able to convince the NHL that the move was a good idea, and in 1971, the League moved south. Cousins’ team was set to enter the league for the 1972-73 season.

The move was actually done by the NHL to balance out the schedule. They had recently granted New York another team, creating the Islanders in an effort to keep the World Hockey Association out of the Nassau Coliseum. This left the schedule unbalanced, so the NHL gave the team to Cousins to keep things even.

In order to create a team in Atlanta, or anywhere for that matter, you have to have a team name. The south, however, is a different place than most. With their ties to the Civil War, and Civil War history, team names that are based in that history are quite commonplace. In this case, Cousins named his team the Flames as homage to the fire resulting from the March to the Sea by General William Tecumseh Sherman.

OMG, real history!!!

The March to the Sea was a push from Atlanta to the port of Savannah. He and the U.S. Army commander, Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant, believed that the Civil War would end only if the Confederacy’s strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. During the March, Sherman applied the principles of Scorched Earth, burning crops, killing livestock, and consuming supplies. He inflicted significant damage on industry, infrastructure and even civilian property. It was said of Sherman that he

“defied military principles by operating deep within enemy territory and without lines of supply or communication. He destroyed much of the South’s potential and psychology to wage war.”

All in all, if you were a Yankee, Sherman was the biggest badass this side of the Mississippi, but if you were a Confederate, this guy was the devil. When Sherman left Atlanta, on November 15th, 1864, the city was set on fire, and burned to the ground.

In light of these events, Cousins chose a name that represented the ideals of a hockey team from Atlanta. He wanted a name that depicted a destructive force that would destroy its enemies, both physically and psychologically. He added to that in a physical way, when he hired Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion to be the head coach. The Flames made the playoffs in six of their eight seasons, while their expansion buddies, the Islanders, only won 31 games in their first two years combined (is anyone really surprised?).

In 1980, Cousins hit a period of financial difficulty and had to sell the Flames. He had a couple of serious offers from local groups, but ended up selling to Canadian entrepreneur (and former Oilers owner) Nelson Skalbania. Cousins sold the team for $16M, which was a record sale price in the NHL at the time (now it is less than some players make in two years).

On May 21, 1980, Skalbania announced the team would be moving to Calgary. He felt that the name “Flames” would be a good fit for an oil town like Calgary. I don’t know why he felt this was appropriate. Wouldn’t a fire in an oil field be really dangerous, and destroy your product? Isn’t that a bad thing? I guess not in Canada. Skalbania also changed the flaming “A” to a flaming “C,” representing Calgary. Even though the name seems a little misguided, the city loved it, and immediately embraced the team.

So much red...did the stadium start bleeding??

I could spend the next few paragraphs talking about the Flames’ successes and failures, but somehow, there are more fun and exciting things to talk about. Oh, and I’m not talking about Jarome Iginla. He is exciting, but if you want to learn about him, click the links.

When I think of Calgary, I don’t think “fun and exciting.” However, during the push to the Stanley Cup Final in 2004, that is exactly what Calgary was. During that run, a seven-block stretch of 17th St. SW became party central. It got its notoriety for both the relative lack of violence and the 55,000+ people celebrating their team’s success in such a small area. On top of that, there was a Mardi Gras atmosphere, with women flashing their breasts. Chants like “Flames in six, show us your tits,” and “Shirts off for Kiprusoff” were among the most common. While the chants’ lack of poeticism could be called into question, the biggest issue was the creation of flamesgirls.com. The site showed hundreds of photos of women flashing the crowd. The site, and the huge group of spectators with cameras intent on getting to take pictures of some Canadian knockers, came under criticism as being little more than exploitation of women. Eventually the website was shut down and people had to pay for porn again.

The Buffalo Sabres

This week’s edition of “What’s in a Name??” features one of the very first teams I ever knew anything about. I was very young and we ended up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and were in a sports store. I saw a hockey jersey on the rack, and because it was the 90’s and hockey jerseys were cool (they are making a comeback), I needed to get one. The one I picked was the Buffalo Sabres. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It had swords and a buffalo on it, what could be better?

So I think I need to put out an early disclaimer. I try to be very impartial to teams and not editorialize too much. However, this post will probably be me complaining about a lot of things. It’s hard not to when you spent your formative years studying fencing. I know that makes no sense just yet, but think about it: Buffalo Sabres. I will have plenty of commentary on my thoughts on their naming convention and I hope you all take it with a grain of salt. Of course, by that, I mean take it to be an absolute statement of fact because how could I be wrong? It would never happen. Plus, I am the best at being modest.

That's right. I punch cabbies, what of it??

Buffalo has always been a hockey hot spot. Players like Patrick Kane and Lee Stempniak, to some guy name Jack Brownschilde and his brother Jeff have come from Buffalo and played in the NHL. Of course there are others, but I needed a modern hockey example that people might have heard of, and then the Brownschildren (yes, that is the plural I am going to go with) were the only people who played in the NHL before 1999.

Buffalo was home to the Buffalo Bisons. The Buffalo Bisons were an American Hockey League team that played in the Memorial Auditorium (the Sabres’ first home) from 1940 to 1970. They were a pillar in the AHL, winning five regular season titles, eight division titles, and five Calder Cups. For those of you who don’t know what a Calder Cup is, it’s a trophy named after a guy named Calder. It’s also the championship trophy for the American Hockey League.

But what does this have to do with the Sabres? Honestly, almost nothing. You see, the NHL decided to give a team to Buffalo in 1970. The first owners were Seymour Knox III and Northrup Knox. They were descendants of a “prominent Western New York family.” This is a hard question, but do you know what the name of that family was? If you guessed anything other than Knox, you should probably stop reading now. Anyway, these guys bought the Buffalo team and immediately commissioned a name-the-team contest.

It’s pretty obvious why the Knoxes had a naming contest, they needed a name for their team. However, there was a large group that wanted the Buffalo team to be called the Bisons. They felt that the pillar of Minor hockey needed to be honored, but the Knoxes felt that that was why they should change the name. They wanted their team to be associated with winning, which the Bisons were, but they did not want their team to be associated with the Minors. The fact was, they had a National Hockey League team now, and they were not going to settle for an American Hockey League team name.

Too bad they didn't go with Buffa-slugs...

There were a lot of names sent in to the Knoxes—not thousands or hundreds, but lots (mostly because no one could supply a number for me)—and they settled on the name “Sabres.” The Knox boys were very interested in knights, cavalry, and chivalry themes so the name piqued their interest. Moreover, Seymour Knox, (who always had more Knox in view) felt that the sabre was a weapon that a leader would carry. He noted that a sabre is swift and strong on offense as well as defense.

This is where I should interject with my thoughts, as we have hit the part that relates to fencing, but the story isn’t done yet, so we have to wait. The story comes to its close with the Knoxes once again. They had tried twice before to get a team to Buffalo. First time they tried was during the expansion of 1967 (think Philadelphia Flyers). The second time, they tried to purchase the Oakland Seals and move them to Buffalo, but the NHL denied them. Finally, they got it on the third try. In a move of great forethought, the Sabres organization exercised their right to created an AHL team, thus the Cincinnati Swords (I know, really creative) were born.

So, now I get to add my thoughts, and luckily for you I don’t have too many on this topic. As many of you know, I always have a lot to say, and could probably talk for hours on this topic, but I will spare you. The issue I have comes from Seymour saying that the sabre is a defensive weapon. Yes, I guess if you had to, you could use it to block an attack, but the sabre is designed to be completely offensive.

honestly, what about this screams "defense?"

In the cavalry, you use the sabre to cut down enemy soldiers from atop a horse. You aren’t hopping down and pulling out your sabre and saying, “Hey, you. Yes, you. I challenge you to a duel with my sabre.” Unless you are an Olympic athlete, you are not using a sabre defensively. The design of the weapon prevents it from being used on defense. Its curved blade does not give a surface to parry on, and the hilt is minimized to make it less bulky and transfer the weight appropriately for a downward cut. Therefore, I say that Seymour sees less. I say he has no idea what a sabre is used for, and he should go back to his mansion and swim in his dollar bill swimming pool.

Not much else is left to tell about the Sabres. They have won 6 Division championships, three Conference championships, and one Presidents’ Trophy (most points in the league at the end of the regular season). Something fun to note, in 1974, Buffalo went to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time. They were playing the Philadelphia Flyers (who were recently dubbed the Broadstreet Bullies). In this series, the legendary Fog Game occurred. Due to excessively hot weather in Buffalo, portions of the game were played in heavy fog. Players, officials, and even the puck were invisible to most of the spectators. During a face –off, Jim Lorentz (a Sabres centerman) sees a bat flying through the fog. He takes his stick and smacks the little bastard right out of the air. After that, the puck dropped and the game continued (he didn’t even get a penalty for high sticking). It is the only time an animal has been killed during an NHL game. It happens all the time in baseball…

The Atlanta Thrashers

Most of the people who read my blog know who the Atlanta Thrashers are, but there are still some of you who will say, “Wait, they have a hockey team in Hotlanta?? And it is professional??” Well, I am here to say to you that the answer to both of those questions is yes. Especially after the exodus-like moving of players from the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks this past summer, the Atlanta Thrashers have a very professional team.

It's hard to be tough in baby blue...

The team itself has not been around for very long. The city of Atlanta was awarded its first hockey team in 1972, the Atlanta Flames, but they left Atlanta because the ice kept melting. So in 1997, the NHL gave Atlanta its second team. The technology was much more advanced by the 1990s, so the ice stayed cold for longer. The team was actually an experiment by the NHL. They wanted to see how the market had changed since the 1970’s when the Altanta Flames went up in flames due to a lack of interest in hockey in the South.

It turns out there is some interest as long as you go for the right demographic. It also helps to let the fans pick the team name (or at least think they are picking it). There was a fan poll to decide the name of the team, and just like so many others, the name “Thrashers” was not even the first on the list. The fans liked the name “Flame,” but there was a problem, there was already a team called the Flames, and they were playing in Calgary.

So Ted Turner, owner of Turner Broadcasting—the group that originally owned the team—chose the runner up. The thing he liked about the Thrashers was that it connected the team to the state.

This guy just has CRAAAAAAZY eyes!

The Brown Thrasher is the state bird of Georgia, and a member of the mockingbird family. They are small birds, about 11 inches tall, and weigh about 2.4 ounces. If you can’t imagine something that is 2.4 ounces, imagine something that is 68 grams because they are the same weight. The thing to note about the Thrasher, which makes it a good bird to name a hockey team after is that it is omnivorous. It will consume everything from berries, nuts and seeds, to earthworms, snails and even lizards.

You are probably wondering what the Thrasher’s diet has to do with a hockey team, or whether Evander Kane eats lizards before a game. The answer to the second question is: most likely, unless Dustin Byfuglien eats them first. The point is that the Thrasher will go through anything, even a lizard that weighs almost as much as the Thrasher itself. In that same respect, the hockey team will play (and beat) anything in its path, even a team that, on paper, is better than they are.

Another fun fact, having nothing to do with birds or Dustin Byfuglien’s diet, has to do with the Phillips Arena. Phillips was built on the site of the former Omni. The Omni was the home of the Flames for eight seasons. Coincidentally, the site was also the site of the first pioneer encampment in Atlanta. Due to the massive number of Brown Thrashers that made their nest there, the encampment was referred to as “Thrasherville,” which is what the arena is sometimes referred to as during hockey games.

The Anaheim Ducks

I'm pretty sure he is holding that up with his other hand...

I can remember the first time I saw the movie. Lines like “But Goldberg, you’re the goalie!” and “Quack Qauck Quack Quack” were not famous. Emilio Esetvez was still just some random guy I had never heard of before. I honestly couldn’t care less that the movie The Mighty Ducks was in the process of starting a California hockey revolution.

In 1993, after the amazing reception of their movie The Mighty Ducks, the Walt Disney Company decided to make a bid to start a hockey team in the city of Anaheim. The team name, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, was chosen based on the group of misfit kids who turn their losing youth hockey team into a winning team with the help of lesson-learning coach, Gordon Bombay. Along with the hockey team, Disney created an animated series, Mighty Ducks, featuring a fictional Mighty Ducks of Anaheim team that consisted of anthropomorphized ducks led by the Mighty Duck Wildwing. It was pretty awesome, as they had guns that shot pucks and were big ducks. It was the first time that ducks were cool since someone left Chinese food in the refrigerator too long.

The team was well received in Anaheim, and being that it was the 90′s, they were able to get away with the awful jersey colors. To this day, the only NHL team with harder colors on the eyes is San Jose, but the Ducks thankfully came to their senses and changed their color scheme. Originally, everything about the Ducks was based on the film. They were a marketing masterpiece as Disney could shamelessly plug them in to the Mighty Ducks movie series whenever they wanted. It made for excellent advertising. They even had the same logo as the one used in the second Mighty Ducks film.

In the 1993 NHL entry draft, the Ducks chose speed demon Paul Kariya. It ended up being an excellent pick for the team, as Kariya would soon become the face of the Ducks along with Teemu Selanne, who was picked up in 1996 in a blockbuster trade with the Winnipeg Jets. Selanne was the 10th pick in the 1988 draft, then finally got his NHL start in 1992-1993 with the Jets. He had an ok season, you know, one of those 135-point seasons that everyone was having back in those days. Selanne holds the record for most goals in a rookie season with 76, and he had one of the best goal celebrations for a record-breaking goal. Needless to say, he was a great pick up for the Ducks.

The Ducks had limited success in their first 10 years of existence, making it to the playoffs only twice (’96 and ’99). Then the team revamped its coaching staff, hiring Mike Babcock (the current coach of the Detroit Red Wings). Babcock took his team to the Stanley Cup finals, where they lost in game 7 to the New Jersey Devils. After that heartbreaking loss, Paul Kariya promised the team would be back in the Finals the following year. Problem was, Kariya left the team that summer to play for the Colorado Avalanche with Teemu Selanne (who had moved there from San Jose at around the same time), so the team didn’t make it past 12th place in the west.

Wait...you forgot about Chris...

In 2004, with the lockout looming, Disney tried to sell the team but received a price that was $40 million lower than their original bid. They ended up selling in 2005 to Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli and his wife Susan. They pledged to keep the team in Anaheim, but revamped the roster, hiring Scott Neidermeyer to play with his brother Rob, and first round draft pick Bobby Ryan. Playing with Ryan, 2003 first rounders Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf had break out seasons. The team went to the playoffs and lost to the Oilers in the Conference Final.

Just before the 2006-2007 season, the Samuelis, with the help of their GM Brian Burke, decided that to change the team’s name to the Anaheim Ducks. They wanted to get away from the team’s association with both Disney and the Mighty Ducks movies, but wanted to keep the spirit of the team’s name alive. They also changed the logo on the front of the jerseys from a duck-shaped goalie masked with crossed sticks to the word “Ducks.” This was actually inspired by the United States Military Academy (black and gold), with a little Anaheim (orange for Anaheim’s location in Orange County) mixed in. The logo also features a webbed foot that makes up the D in Ducks, which ties the whole thing back to the old motif. With the jersey change, they became one of four NHL teams to have their name across their jersey (not including alternate third jerseys). The others are the New York Rangers, the Washington Capitals, and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

With the change in uniforms, and the team full of star players, they headed off into the 2006-2007 season. They went on to win the Stanley Cup, making them the second California team to win a championship after a major uniform change. As it turns out, the Anaheim Angels did it in 2002. I guess it’s an Anaheim thing.