LONDON - Welcome to a new National Hockey League season.
Sure, training camps have been going for a while, but it's only now that the Anaheim Ducks have arrived in London for their opener against the Los Angeles Kings that it gets serious and the recognition sinks in that the start is only days away.
Even though the Ducks travelled in luxurious fashion, it wasn't an easy trip. First they went coast to coast from Long Beach, Calif., to New York, then after a refuelling, across the Atlantic to London.
They landed at Stansted, one of London's more remote airports, and by the time they got to their hotel — a Marriott, of course — the trip was well past the 12-hour mark.
Add to that the fact they they had crossed eight time zones and it was no wonder that they were a little disoriented when coach Randy Carlyle put them through a two-session practice yesterday.
But if you're going to have to make that kind of trip, it's best to do it the way the Ducks did.
They had a charter flight, which means they avoided the usual troglodytes who run the airport-security lanes that you and I have to use. And their plane had none of those five-seat rows that we seem to get stuck in when we fly.
Instead, it had 48 private compartments with seats that fold down into flat beds so that even someone as tall as Chris Pronger could get some comfortable sleep.
But they still need to force themselves to get their bodies on English time for Saturday evening's season-opener against the Los Angeles Kings, so there was a strict command in large letters on the dressing-room board: No Naps.
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The Ducks skate on the new ice at London's O2 Arena on Wednesday. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
The Kings came to Europe earlier and were to arrive in London on Wednesday night.
Ice would be nice
Whenever a season starts, the ice is new. But in this case, it's really new.
The O2 Arena in London opened its doors on June 22 and although some rock concerts have been staged, no ice had ever been laid down.
So three days ago, the NHL's ice guru, Dan Craig, started work on the surface. In a case like this, more is involved than just dumping some water on the floor and chilling it.
For starters, the floor had been swept after the concerts, but never properly cleaned. So the first job was to make sure that the surface was free from any contaminants that might affect the ice.
Then the boards had to be installed. The O2 Arena was built to accommodate European hockey with its larger ice surface and the stadium's personnel had used those boards only to control crowds. But Craig had to oversee the installation of boards for an NHL-size rink. That, too, was a first.
Building an ice surface from scratch is like making a cake from scratch. You have to give it a try, then make some variations in the recipe and hope the product improves.
But matters seem to be off to a good start. The ice held up well during the practice and although Craig would certainly never make such a concession, it seemed to be a lot better that the ice the Ducks play on at home, one of the worst surfaces in the league.
Close enough?
In explaining the decision to start the season over here, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said, "This is a good opportunity to dip our toe in the water. A third of our players come from outside of North America and the hockey fans in those countries like to follow their players."
Right. And how many English players does the NHL have? Try zero.
But by a remarkable coincidence, the O2 Arena just happens to be owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, the same corporate empire that owns the Kings.
Surely that couldn't have been a factor in all this, could it? Or in the Kings' decision to play a couple of exhibition games in another European arena also owned by AEG?
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The Ducks' Francois Beauchemim, Travis Moen and Ryan Carter look for their names on the Stanley Cup in London on Wednesday. (Tom Hevezi / Associated Press)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Of course not. It's because of all those fans in Sweden and the Czech Republic who might travel to London to see the games.
On the mend
The best news to emerge from the Ducks was that goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere's five-month-old son is doing well.
He was born with a serious eye problem on April 4, which is why Giguere had to miss some of the Ducks' Stanley Cup run.
"He's awesome," said Giguere. "He still has a challenge with his right eye, but for the rest, everything is normal. We're trying to save the eye so we dont have to remove it."
If the eye doesn't grow properly, it can cause pain and facial deformity.
But the doctors at UCLA feel that the operation that was performed during the playoffs to save the eye was successful.
Now, its just a matter of waiting to see what further developments occur. In this area, like so many others, technology is improving rapidly. "They couldnt have done the surgery that they did 10 years ago," said Giguere. "But the other eye is fine. He's tracking and laughing at me."
