Anaheim Ducks (2-1-1) at New York Rangers (3-1-0)
Go visit Blueshirt Banter for your Avery longings.

What a nice east coast swing Teemu Selanne is enjoying the past two games -- fall behind by a goal, Teemu will score you a pair to pull ahead.  Fall behind by two goals, Teemu will score you a pair plus a shootout winner.  For those of you scoring carefully, Teemu has scored on his last five shots-on-net (counting the one shootout goal) -- that's a charmed life.

Originally posted May 7, but never more appropriate than today.

Then again, Artoo (Evgeny Artyukhin, but I don't intend on spelling it out much longer) is still humming along at 100% shooting accuracy -- two goals on two shots this season, and he nearly stole Teemu's dying-seconds heroics with a barely-wide shot near the end of period 3.  We'll let his offensive zone penalty slide for one day, at least -- wins tend to overshadow sins.

And speaking of sins, I suppose it's time I committed some:

I'm a sucker for popular demand, I suppose.  In case you're unfamiliar with State Rape, this BoC tradition all started back two-and-a-half years ago, and has made odd appearances ever since.  As always, I'll start with the justification:

Oct. 7 @L.A. Dodgers 5, St. Louis Cardinals 3.

Oct. 8 @L.A. Dodgers 3, St. Louis Cardinals 2.

Oct. 10 L.A. Dodgers 5, @St. Louis Cardinals 1.

Bonus win: Oct. 10 L.A. Kings 2, @St. Louis Blues 1.

Totals: Los Angeles 15, St. Louis 7.

L.A. wins 'em all.  Of course, I've already made a State Rape cartoon for Missouri before, so this was easy enough to update:

Hey, what do you know?  There actually was a Second Missouri Compromise. Thanks, history!

* * *

This one's not yet complete, but it is promising:

Oct. 8 @L.A./Anaheim Angels 5, Boston Red Sox 0.

Oct. 9 @L.A./Anaheim Angels 4, Boston Red Sox 1.

Today -- G3 @ Boston, 9 am.  Go Halos.

Bonus win: Oct. 8 Anaheim Ducks 6, @Boston Bruins 1.

Totals so far: Anaheim 15, Boston 2.

I don't want to jinx anything, though, so I'll just leave a placeholder.

Probably this is too much, but hey, it's not my team's playoff curse on the line.

[Update 1pm -- Boston blows it with two outs in the ninth, karma has been preserved.  Angels 7, Boston 6.  Another SoCal sweep.]

Sweet, sweet revenge.

* * *

And don't think you're off the hook just yet, New York.  Ducks are in town for a game today on a seesaw streak*, and it's looking like there could be an Anaheim-NY collision coming in baseball, too.  Plus, I already have a template.

* Sharks score 4 goals, then Ducks score 1.  Ducks score 3 goals, then Wild score 4.  Bruins score 1 goal, then Ducks score 6.  Flyers score 2 goals, then Ducks score 2-plus.  Every game seemingly has exactly one turning point -- no more, no less.  Perhaps that's the upside to terrible first periods.

Prediction: Ducks 5, Rangers 3.  Goals by Whitney, Marchant, Perry, Lupul, and Koivu.  I may be getting to this game's comments a bit late today -- because of the carto/porno-graphic sinning on display today, I'll be spending the morning confessing in church, and will have a DVR'd Angels game to go through once I get home.  Still, feel free to comment on whatever -- baseball, state rape, hockey, or confession.  Today, it's all relevant.

Go Ducks.