George Parros: Ducks hit the road and hope the road won’t hit back
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Welcome back, everybody and welcome to my first blog from the NHL warpath. Yes, we finally hit the open road for a four-game swing and a tour of the East Coast and Midwest. Hopefully the road will breathe some life back into our club and allow us to gain back some much needed ground in the conference standings.
After a few more games at home, we got the chance to let off some steam last Sunday. The team got together and had our yearly Halloween party. Even though the holiday had come and gone, it is still hilarious to dress up and head out for the night in ridiculous get-ups.
Halloween is my favorite time of year, so I was very excited for the event. We had an unbelievable ‘80s pop cover band play and everyone wore some amazing costumes ... everyone except Getzy [Ryan Getzlaf] and Mike Brown, who managed to rent the same Fred Flintstone outfit! The night was a blast and afterward we geared up for our big road trip.
Sometimes the road has that healing power that a club needs. It can give a new group of guys the chance to bond more since there is not much else to do besides practice and play. I have always loved playing on the road simply because we travel so well compared to the minor leagues and college hockey.
There are not too many crammed bus trips anymore, especially for us West Coast teams. Now we have the luxury of a private plane, where Getzy, Teemu Selanne, Corey Perry and I have a regular euchre game. It’s a far cry from eating Domino’s pizza every night and sleeping on the shoulder of the guy next to you, or underneath the seats on a sticky, soda-covered bus floor.
Perry and I are teammates and so far this trip, we are up a few games on the Finnish Flash and his partner. Sometimes the guys sitting at the card table next to us will join in for a big game of Schnarples, but mostly they just sleep, listen to music or watch movies like everyone else on the plane.
This trip holds a lot of importance for me because I have lived in three of the four cities we will visit. I was born in Pittsburgh, lived for a couple years in Columbus, Ohio, and grew up mostly in New Jersey. It goes without saying that I am excited to play in these arenas I visited during my youth and I will have plenty of friends and family there to watch me play.
We also play in Detroit against the Red Wings, a game which often times in my career, I’ve been a healthy scratch because they (Red Wings) are generally very fast and haven’t had a heavyweight fighter in some time. Anyway, I guess that’s about it for this week ... oh yeah, thanks for dinner Scotty! What a guy!
--George Parros