Anatidaephobia: The Fear That Somewhere, Somehow, A Duck Is Watching You

The title is from one of the best Far Side cartoons...

Tonight the Washington Capitals take on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The game is at Verizon however the start time is 7:30. I guess because the game is on Versus. Here is my game preview:

A Sad Day For Sports; And Perhaps Mankind:

The greatest atrocity to ever happen in the history of the NHL was the day the Anaheim Mighty Ducks became the boring, and almost hockey-sacrilegious Ducks. Keep in mind everything I say is from the opinion of a young child in 1994, but I thought that the Mighty Ducks team name and cartoony Disney logo was the greatest thing to happen to professional sports. (since sliced bread? Since the forward pass?)

The film in itself was reason enough to create a hockey team. Not only was the movie a brilliant tale of the struggles of children to win at the greatest sport of all, life, but it was a movie snubbed by the Academy at the Oscars. I know, I know. Everyone always says Repo Man is Emilio's best film, but I think those people are nuts. The Mighty Ducks was his shot at Best Actor.

Why Aren't They Mighty Anymore!?

When did this happen? When did the Ducks lose the "Mighty" My MBA mind tells me that it has something to do with Disney. Perhaps Disney owned the team and sold it, and wanted royalties for the trademark? Was there any satanic imagery portrayed by the word "mighty"? (see Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Was there no place in this manly contact sport of hockey for a cartoon duck? ("Mighty" sounds pretty manly to me)

I think that moving away from Disney is a mistake. In fact I think other teams should change their names and logos to be MORE Disney. How about the Detroit Lion Kings. The Washington Ups. The Pittsburgh Mulans. The Philadelphia Princesses & The Frogs. Now we are talking hockey!

Anatidaephobia:

Notes For The Game:

• Mike Knuble is now on the 4th line. This means nothing to me, I haven't tackled lines yet.
• DJ King asked to be waived and was. This also means nothing to me as I haven't heard of DJ King yet.
• Mike Green is still out with that Lower Upper Mid Body Injury
• Some random dude named Cody Eakin is gonna play tonight.
• John Erskine, another guy I don't know, will play tonight
• The Vokoun will be in goal, at least for a minute.