Earl Sleek: Audio Idiot

Well, the Ducks won their "home" game in England, 4-1, to put the Sharks squarely in the BoC basement, and also it prevented me from mass producing my "0-2 in the O2" t-shirts. All in all, it seems playing in England was a pretty good opening gesture for the NHL--no major head hits or stick swings, some decent back-and-forth hockey, and two rookies getting the season's first two NHL wins. It did take 15 minutes for the lights to turn on, 5 periods of hockey for an even-strength goal to be scored, and a bit longer to see find out that English fans love fights, but those glitches aside, it seems to have gone off rather well, or at least not badly.

In terms of the game, here's the key stat that caught my eye: in the first game, Coach Carlyle had Ryan Getzlaf out for 5 1/2 shorthanded minutes; he was on the ice for all three L.A. power play goals. In game 2, Carlyle dropped Getzlaf's PK time to 20 seconds while rookie Ryan Carter picked up more than 3 minutes, and the Kings' power play didn't score once.

Anyway, I didn't even get to see this game live--I figured the Ducks stood a better chance of winning if I went to church. But that didn't stop me from listening to the postgame show Duck Calls on my way home (not that rare), nor did it stop me from calling in (a first!). I was on with host Josh Brewster and L.A. Times writer Eric Stephens for what ended up being a 17-minute segment, talking about all the BoC teams. Most of that time I was pacing around a convenience store parking lot like a lunatic, but I guess I ended up sounding intelligible enough.

You can access the audio at the Duck Call site here -- my segment is labeled 'Sept 30 Part 4'. I can't say it's the most inspired piece of call-in-show dialogue, but I will direct your attention to about 55 seconds in, when Stephens throws in this gem: "Yeah, Earl. I have seen your site. It's well done, by the way."

I think I might have to see a doctor about my suddenly bloated head.