Help Me Ponda, Help-Help Me Ponda

On a night when we needed a win, the boys got their heads screwed on straight and delivered bliss.

It wasn’t a rout, it wasn’t brilliant, it certainly wasn’t pretty, but it was the first win of the season on opening night at the Honda Center so we’ll take it.

The pregame, on-ice presentation wasn’t as elaborate as those of the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the Ducks still delivered one of their core tenents, that sense of community and connecting with the fans.

Prior to puck drop, a video of fans from all over the world showing their support was shown and members of the Junior Ducks assembled on the blueline to welcome our guys back to home ice.  Who received the biggest cheer from the sellout crowd?  No, it wasn’t Teemu Selanne or even Ryan Getzlaf, it was Cam Fowler.  A nice switch from the ‘boos’ he had to endure when he was selected at the Draft.

Speaking of Teemu, he became Mr. 607 last night.

Dan Sexton’s new nickname needs to be “Little Black Fly”, the way he pokes, pesters and generally makes the opposition nuts trying to escape from him.  I’ve never so much puck picking in my life!  At one point Sexton was digging so determinedly for the biscuit under Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo, I thought he was going to emerge with Luongo’s underpants on the end of his paddle.

Our big line of Captain Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry finally pulled together as they should have been from the get go.  Ryan and Perry both scored and Getzlaf managed to stay out of the sin bin for an entire game and netted his first goal of the season.

Perry got two minutes for goaltender interference that could very well have been a case of being pushed by a Canuck and Ryan was also forced to cool his jets on a highly suspect hooking call.  I think Big Bob’s under the microscope right now.  Hopefully he can keep his nose clean for the next few games and get the Eye of Sauron off of him.

Of the game, Getzlaf said “It was nice to be able to calm things down and play hockey. It didn’t matter what the score was. We’re coming home where we’re comfortable. We love this building. The fans and everybody showed us what it’s going to be like all year. We’re excited about it.”

I see the public speaking microchip has been implanted successfully.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt for a nanosecond that the entire team actually feels that way, but all those safe answers get a bit tiresome after a while.