George Parros: An enjoyable road trip, winter weather and wins combined
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The Times again this season has Ducks enforcer George Parros blogging on the ups and downs of life in the NHL. Here is his latest post:
One of the things I like most about playing in Anaheim is that I get to go play in the cold weather climates for a few days at a time, but always come home to that beautiful California sunshine.
It’s the best of both worlds because, believe it or not, I really enjoy the snow, cold weather and the winter atmosphere. However, it’s also nice not to have to start my car an hour early to let it warm up, or shovel my driveway every day.
Although there is a lot of snow on the ground here in Edmonton (we just checked into our hotel), it’s not as cold as our last trip here when my moustache had icicles hanging off of it during a walk to Tim Horton’s for a bagel and hot chocolate.
This road trip has provided us with some pretty nice weather as well as a couple big wins so far. We started out in Vancouver against the Western Conference-leading Canucks. It was the long-awaited return of our fearless captain, Ryan Getzlaf, and the Canadian media was all abuzz.
I’m not going to lie, it was nice to have him back in the lineup, although I assured him that his return wasn’t necessarily a great thing since we were doing just fine without him (10-4-0).
He didn’t like that so much.
Fortunately his presence didn’t mess with our obvious team chemistry. Admittedly, it may have even helped that chemistry flourish. His highlight-reel, behind-the-back pass to Bobby Ryan for our third goal in Vancouver may have something to do with that also.
In all seriousness, your Anaheim Ducks are playing with a dangerous amount of confidence right now and having Getzy back is a major part of that.
Another reason for our recent successes (and hopefully future ones) was the addition of Francois ‘Boom Boom’ Beauchemin to the squad. His triumphant return to the Ducks surely will bolster an already highly skilled and highly meaty group of defensive animals.
Sadly, you must always pay a price for high-caliber talent and we had to say goodbye to a great soldier, Joffrey Lupul. He definitely helped build this great chemistry that we possess right now. He will be missed and I believe he will be great in Toronto.
We have but one game left here against the Oilers and I know that we are all still hungry for a win. It would be a great way to end this trip, having already won five straight on the road. Hopefully we return to SoCal on a high note and continue a big playoff push at Honda Center this Wednesday against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
Over and out.
--George Parros