Anaheim Ducks

Ducks in the Community

Last weekend was the 12th annual Fedorin Cup charity hockey game.  The format is a USA vs. Canada game where current and former pros including Bobby Ryan, Todd Marchant, Teemu Selanne (Honorary American) Luca Sbisa, (Honorary Canadian) Andrew Ebbitt, Sean Pronger, Dustin Penner, Jason Marshall and more are joined by local amateurs, sponsors, the occasional celebrity blogger (MIke V), and two online auction winners.  Held by the Athletic Sports Fund of America, it is a fun, low key afternoon of high scoring hockey (12-11 in shootout) and charity fund raising with a portion of this year’s proceeds going to Hockey Fights Cancer and grants for athletes in need.   (for more info on the ASFA click here) 

The highlights of the afternoon, aside from what must have been tens of thousands of dollars raised for charity, were mostly of a humorous nature.  There was Andrew Ebbitt’s first period breakaway being “expertly defended” by Bobby Ryan hauling him down with a bear hug from behind, and Dustin Penner seemingly trying to goad Bobby into a fight with the biggest hit of the night then mock lifting weights in his direction, or when Teemu Selanne whipped this glove into the goalie’s face before roofing the game winner in the shootout.  This year’s game was the second I have been able to attend in the past three years and I can’t think of a better way to end a long, hot, hockey free summer while supporting a great cause. 

The Fedorin Cup was the second half of the Ducks charity kickoff weekend after Joe DiPenta’s Shoot 4 the Cure youthskills competition.  Participating in both events were Bobby Ryan, Mike Brown and Andrew Ebbitt.  Unfortunately I do not have a report from Shoot 4 the Cure, but I was able to continue my Ducks kickoff weekend by finally getting over to the Discovery Science Center’s relatively new Science of Hockey exhibit.

State of the art games, videos and demonstrations allowing kids (of all ages) to skate alongside Ryan Getzlaf, stop a puck from Corey Perry and shoot on JS Giguere are indeed a great way to teach kids about physics and math, as well as hockey, not to mention being a whole lot of fun.  My favorite part was definitely you be the goalie where a digital Corey Perry skates in and shoots foam pucks at you from one of three holes in the screen.  I stopped all 5, but as I passed off the equipment to an eight year old girl the accomplishment lost a little meaning.  As I walked out of the Science Cube I saw two kids playing with mini sticks they had just bought at the gift shop and all I could think was what a great marketing opportunity that exhibit is.  I don’t want to end a post that started on such a charitable note so cynically, but Having been sold on hockey as a seven year old by Gordon Bombay, I think it is great that the Ducks are advertising to young kids again with things like this, the Wild Winger’s Kids Club and the Rinks program.  So what if Wild Wing is the Joe Camel of the NHL, they’re building a young knowledgeable fan base that will grow up being Ducks fans like so many kids in the traditional hockey markets grew up with the original six, and they’re learning about physics.  It worked for me.  Now that I’ve kicked off the rust expect some real hockey writing leading up to training camp and beyond.