If Fullerton wants to look to turn around their season, now is the time to do so.

Four of their next five games are teams ranked 5th and below in the conference. After facing Long Beach State (8-12, 4-2) the Titans will be facing UC Riverside, Cal State Northridge, UC Davis, and Hawaii. Davis and Riverside sit behind Fullerton in the Big West at 2-4 and 2-5 respectively.

This is a crucial stretch for Fullerton, and will look to carry their momentum of a big upset against top seed UC Santa Barbara last Saturday.

Michael Williams and Alex Harris have been on fire lately for the team. Williams is averaging 17.3 points in his last three games, while Harris is right behind him at 17 points a game in his last 3.

Fullerton has not seen much success beyond these two leaders as they went 1-2 in those games.

Secondary scoring has been under-performing, as Harris and Williams have combined for exactly 500 of the team’s 1255 total points in the season. Williams holds a quarter of Fullerton’s scoring with 304 points in 19 games.

The Titans will need to have other players start stepping up soon, especially in their weak part of the schedule, or Fullerton’s dream of a Big West title this season will surely be lost.

Teemu Selanne skating for Team Finland in 2010

The Winter Olympics are a fun time for any hockey fan, or any sports fan for that matter. And without question it is a big honor for any hockey player to participate in the tournament representing their respective countries on hockey’s biggest stage. It’s one thing to participate in the Stanley Cup finals, and granted, most professional hockey players would tell you they’d prefer to win a Stanley Cup over an Olympic Gold medal, but internationally there isn’t anything quite like the Olympic Men’s Hockey Tournament.

It should be a fun few weeks to watch, seeing our players compete in ultra-competitive national hockey, but it does raise a question. What kind of effect will this have on Anaheim’s momentum going forward? Getzlaf, Perry, Fowler, Selanne, Fowler, Silfverberg, and Hiller are key players.

Well most of them anyway, Selanne and Silfverberg do rotate in and out of the lineup as per head coach Bruce Boudreau’s needs, but regardless the Olympic break will give more than 1/3 of an active lineup that the Ducks will ice at a time an extra few weeks of practices and games to add to an 82 game season plus the playoffs.

Will the break take its toll on the players? Luckily for Anaheim, they are already mighty close to playoff type point numbers (83 points, and 100 is a pretty secure spot to make it in). A few losses here and there may irritate fans but it won’t be the end of the world.

Anaheim can make it into the playoffs with a losing record at this point. However, just making it in isn’t enough for any fan and it’s not enough for our management. General manager Bob Murray has gone on recent recently with the LA Times saying our management team is actively looking for ways to improve the roster.

Murray and co. are not content with anything less than continued success, and I’m sure they’d love to take home a Pacific, Conference, and League title at the end of the regular season. Silfverberg and Selanne can be rotated through the lineup and Vatanen has been spending time with Norfolk as a result of Sbisa’s return to the lineup, but Fowler, Getzlaf, Perry, and Hiller are key pieces to the Ducks. Quite possibly Anaheim’s most important players, and 3 of 4 of them are medal contenders and should have some of the longest tournaments of our participants. Any opportunities for rest should be handled carefully by Boudreau. He needs to find a way to get his top players in top shape when they return from Sochi.

The Anteaters outscored their opponents, 262-216, in those first four games which included wins over Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton, UC Riverside, and Cal State Northridge.

The combined record of UCI’s first 4 opponents is 9-13 in conference play – nothing to write home about. Only Long Beach State has a record over .500 (3-2).

Facing Hawaii turned into a battle that went deep into OT. UCI was not able to keep the magic going against the 14-5 Rainbow Warriors, dropping the 90-86 contest. Isaac Fotu dominated in the game for Hawaii, scoring 30 points. The top scorer on UCI was Alex Young with 14 points.

Success for UCI has resulted from their balanced attack from their starters. Chris McNealy prior to Saturday night scored almost 16 ppg, and recorded 12 against Hawaii. Facing Cal State Northridge, four of the five starters had 10 points or more.

The true measuring tool for Irvine will soon come, as their next 2 games are against top Big West opponents. The list includes Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara. Irvine still sits in first place even with the loss to Hawaii, as both Cal Poly and Santa Barbara lost as well.

With only 11 games left in the regular season for Irvine, wins will become crucial especially against the best teams in the Big West.

After yesterday’s televised practice, the players seem happy with the conditions, as did Kings head coach Darryl Sutter, who was on the ice with his granddaughter. He had this to say about the atmosphere.

“Well, the atmosphere is pretty cool when you look at it.” Sutter told Fox Sports. “I was lucky to be here this afternoon when they were doing their rehearsing for their music and all that’s going to go on.  We’re not going to get to see that, so that was good to see that.  Obviously, just being at Dodger Stadium and part of this is pretty impressive.”

Anze Kopitar had this to say about the ice.

“The ice looks pretty good, maybe the glide is not quite there yet”

This is nothing to be alarming about and the players all had mostly positive things to say about playing on this type of setup and the work done to make this happen.

It’s hard to believe that this is all happening in Los Angeles in one of the most summer-like Winters many have seen in years. With all the effort put into keeping the ice perfect I believe the NHL hit a home run on picking LA!

Before the event there will be pre game festivities in the parking lot including music performances, another ice-skating rink and plenty of food and exclusive merchandise for the event. This all begins at 3:30pm when the doors open to Dodger Stadium. Inside their will be even more going on field wise with a volleyball court setup, mini pools in the outfield, a stage area where KISS will perform and much more.

This reporter will be there behind KISS in the right field bleachers watching the game and witnessing the largest hockey game in California history!

This isn’t the first time the two crosstown rivals have made NHL history though. In September of 2007, the Ducks and Kings played the first regular season NHL game overseas. It was announced that the two teams were selected to participate in the inaugural NHL premiere series at the 02 Stadium in London. This was not the first time the Ducks had played a game overseas. The Mighty Ducks and Vancouver Canucks played a 2-game series in Tokyo, Japan on October 4^th and 5^th, 1997. Vancouver won the first game by a score of 3-2, and the Mighty Ducks won the next night by the same margin.

Los Angeles had a brief period of time to prepare for the season opener with two exhibition games in Salzburg, Austria on September 25^th and 26^th. They played Red Bull Salzburg on the 25^th and won 7-6. The next day they won a match against Farjestad Karlstad with a 3-2 score. Meanwhile the Ducks spent one of their last days with the Stanley Cup they won that June, as it made the trip to London, the names of the champions forever engraved in its many rings.

September 29^th, 2007 marked the official start to the NHL season. With 17,000 fans from Europe and North America alike, and the Ducks being the first teams to don the new Reebok EDGE NHL jerseys, the puck dropped on a historic hockey game in the new O2 Arena between the reigning Stanley Cup Champions and their interstate rivals.The Kings dominated a good majority of the game. Mike Cammalleri’s first period goal and first goal of the season got things started with an assist from future Duck Lubomir Visnovsky. The Kings would add two more goals, a powerplay goal by LA Kings great Rob Blake and another powerplay marker from Mike Cammalleri.

Anaheim got its first goal of the season from top rookie forward (and Calder finalist for rookie of the year) Bobby Ryan on the powerplay from Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin with a little under 7 minutes to go in the third period. Trailing 3-1, Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle pulled goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov for the extra skater, which allowed Michal Handzus an empty net goal to seal up the first game of the season with a 4-1 Kings victory.

The next day, in the same arena, it was the Ducks’ turn to take it to the Kings. In the first period the Ducks scored twice on two powerplays with goals from Corey Perry (assisted by Andy McDonald and Pronger) and Chris Kunitz (assisted by McDonald and Perry.  In the second period Perry made it a 3-point night for himself and a 3-0 lead on the Kings at 2:53 with a slapshot set up by defensemen Kent Huskins and Joe Dipenta. A little over a minute later, Travis Moen, with help from Rob Niedermayer and Todd Marchant, made it 4-0 Ducks.

The Kings could only mustered one goal from Cammalleri, his third of the year, and the Ducks and Kings traded 4-1 victories and defeats before heading back home. Returning to North American NHL hockey proved to be a tough transition for both clubs. Including the loss to Anaheim, the Kings lost 5 straight games and 6 of 7 games from September 30^th to October 18^th before rebounding with 6 wins in 8 games. The Ducks returned to the States with struggles of their own, losing 8 of their 11 games in the month of October (2 coming in the shootout).

The Ducks and Kings will once again make history this weekend playing the first hockey game at Dodger’s Stadium in its long history. The event is sure to be a spectacle and possibly a once in a life time opportunity for those in attendance.

But it’s already filled with great history. Both teams have won Stanley Cup championships since the 2005 lockout. They have faced off against each other to open a season in London’s O2 arena. They have provided Southern Californian fans with high intensity hockey games to fuel a bitter inter-fan rivalry. And though the rivalry hasn’t reached its form of a playoff matchup between the two teams, another important point in the history of the Freeway Faceoff is coming up in a matter of days when the two teams will face off under the Southern Californian sky at Dodger Stadium.

The Ducks will face off against the Kings on Thursday before the Saturday contest and the home and home series will be crucial for both teams. Two wins for the Kings could make up for the points disparity between the two teams in the standings. Two wins for the Ducks could give them a ton of breathing room between them and the Kings in the Pacific division race, as well as guaranteeing they finish the month of January with at least 83 points (with the potential for 87).

So who has been the more dominant of the two SoCal hockey teams in recent years? The Kings have the more recent Stanley Cup. It can be argued that over the last two years, it’s been the Kings who have been wearing the crown (pun intended). In the 2013 truncated season, the Ducks finished 2nd in the Western Conference and 3^rd in league standings with a 7-point advantage on Los Angeles. It was a season to remember for the Ducks, but they faltered in the first round – losing to the Detroit Red Wings. LA lost the battle for the division, but they took their run as far as the Western Conference finals, eventually losing to the champion Chicago Blackhawks in 5 games.

2011-2012 clearly belonged to the Los Angeles Kings. Although they were 8^th in the Western Conference standings, they went on to win the Stanley Cup while the Ducks floundered to the tune of a 34-36-12 record. They finished 6^th to last in the NHL standings and were a good 16 points out of LA’s 8^th seed. In the 2010-11 regular season, it was a virtual wash between the two teams. Anaheim finished with 99 points and the 4^th seed in the playoffs while LA finished with 98 points and the 7^th seed. The Ducks had more goals for (239 to 219) and the Kings had fewer goals allowed (198 to 235). Both teams exited the playoffs with 4-2 series losses to San Jose and Nashville. Anaheim gets the slight advantage there for finishing with home ice advantage in an ultra-tight Western conference race, as it was victories against the Kings that put them there. The 2009-10 the Ducks missed the playoffs by virtue of only getting 89 points. While the Kings made the playoffs with 101 points.

Objectively speaking, the Kings have been the more successful team over the past 5 years. General manager Dean Lombardi has put together a team that can hang with the best of them (after years of rebuilding) and head coach Darryl Sutter has turned the core into a group that emphasizes puck possession, tight defense designed to infuriate their opponents, and lots of scoring opportunities whenever possible. Like it or not, from a Ducks perspective, the Kings have become an elite force in the league. Even if it took them about 40 years to get there, they’ve arrived.

However, it seems as though the tide may soon be turning in Anaheim’s favor. Over the last two seasons (or call it one and a half if you want) the Ducks have posted a record of 67-22-11 while the Kings have put up a 56-32-11 record. Which in and of itself is a terrific record but Anaheim clearly has the regular season edge over the past 90 games. This season Anaheim has a 15-point advantage over the Kings with 30 games to go. They also have a much larger advantage in goal differential (Anaheim’s is +48 and LA’s is +23) with 177 goals for to LA’s 131.

Anaheim finds themselves atop the league by a four point margin on the second place Blackhawks while LA finds themselves sitting in 6^th place in the Western Conference race and 8^th among the entire league. With two wins this weekend the Ducks could expand their Pacific Division lead on the Kings to 19 points. This would put 10 games in 31 remaining between the two rivals, leaving only San Jose as the Ducks’ only competition for their second straight Pacific division title. San Jose trails Anaheim by 9 points with 2 fewer games played. Assuming they win out those two games the Sharks will only (in theory) be behind Anaheim with 5 points. To ensure home ice advantage in the playoffs the Ducks double-header with the Kings this weekend have become the biggest games of the season to date. Hopefully the Ducks do not become too distracted by the spectacle of the Stadium Series game and they remember what’s at stake.

So what’s next for the Angels? They lost out on their biggest target in the free agency for pitching, and Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto will have to search elsewhere for another veteran arm.

Garza was 10-6 last year with a 3.82ERA in 24 games.

Looking at the positives, the Angels won’t need to take a chance on a pitcher worth over $13 million a season, and who has been on injured reserve four times since 2009.

The negative is that the Angels lost out on a potential #3 starter in the rotation that could have given the team an added boost after a poor season on the mound last year.

Be sure to check out our previous coverage of Garza, including the Angels’ next realistic targets for a free agent pitcher, which could include Bronson Arroyo, Ervin Santana, or Ubaldo Jimenez.

The Ducks have been getting along just fine with the current core of defenders in Cam Fowler, Ben Lovejoy, Francois Beauchemin, Hampus Lindholm, Bryan Allen, Sami Vatanen, and Mark Fistric. Vatanen brings a strong point shot but lacks the size to outmuscle opposing forwards on a consistent basis regardless of how hard he tries to do so. Allen brings the physicality and size lacking in Vatanen’s game, but doesn’t bring Vatanen’s speed or offensive ability.The two compliment each other quite well when they are paired up together. They make for a decent replacement for Souray. Add that pair with the chemistry between Lovejoy and Fowler, and Beauchemin and Lindholm.

Anaheim’s blueline can’t be called the best in the league, but they are among the best boasting the 10th lowest goals against average in the league (2.40 GAA). However Vancouver and Tampa are tied for the next lowest with 2.39 GAA and Anaheim is tied with Tampa Bay and Vancouver. The Ducks are also tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the 5th lowest shots allowed per game with 27.7 as of the 21st of January. The Ducks defense, if anything is one of the most underrated in the league. They haven’t missed Souray MUCH, of course there is always room for improvement.

On the 21st, the Ducks made two roster moves that may, for the moment, disrupt the current dynamic that has been so successful. Vatanen was sent down to Norfolk in the AHL and Luca Sbisa was recalled from a conditioning stint in Norfolk as he has gotten over his injury. Unfortunately for the Ducks, and Vatanen, Sbisa’s play has been in decline for about a year now. His questionable positioning, poorly timed pinches along the boards and missed checks in the neutral zone result in many chances for the other team. Sbisa has benefit of the doubt from the Ducks’ coaching staff and management team but even that has been carrying him so far.

When he was with the team and healthy, Sbisa found himself being a healthy scratch from time to time. He began the season needing to prove himself with Vatanen, Lindholm, Fistric, and Allen proving themselves as useful to the Ducks blueline. Sbisa has already found himself in this situation. He was a healthy scratch in the 3-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. This was likely to give Sbisa a little more time to get healthy. However, it’s clear to most Ducks fans that the player sent to Norfolk is currently the stronger performer than the one who came back up.

There has been no indication as to whether or not Sbisa will in fact be traded this season, but there’s no way the Ducks can bring Vatanen back up without moving Fistric or Sbisa. Word among the rumor wire is that Anaheim is looking for a top 4 shutdown defender (Dan Girardi of the New York Rangers in particular).

Dan Wood, Anaheim’s radio color man, even speculated on Twitter that the Ducks would possibly make a move to add a defender.

If the Ducks want to bring back Vatanen, they’ll have no choice but to move Sbisa or Fistric, and Sbisa has very little time to prove himself before the March 5th trade deadline. Believe it or not, the Ducks will play 8 games before the deadline and a home game against Montreal on deadline day. And 30 games total to prove he deserves a spot in the playoffs.

Regardless of Sbisa’s personal challenge ahead, the Ducks need to figure out what to do with him quickly. If his disappointing play continues the team faces the risk of a massive disruption in defensive dynamics. Something the Ducks simply cannot afford.

Original article:

Masahiro Tanaka is one of the most prized, and most expensive free agent pitchers still out in the market.

Unless there is another move where the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pull the rug from underneath every team, the Halos stand little-to-no chance of signing Tanaka.

Angels owner Arte Moreno has made comments saying it would be troubling to fit Tanaka in their budget, as they are close to the $189 million dollar cap. With 4 players set to make over $15 million this next season, the Angels only have one more big splash to make.

Don’t disregard Moreno and his comments, however, as recent history has shown that the Angels swooped in at the last second and took Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton in back-to-back offseasons.

Realistically speaking, the Angels will most likely be targeting the following pitchers:

1. Matt Garza

Garza is projected to be worth between $14 million and $17 million a year. Garza has been and continues to be pursued heavily by the Angels, but missing out on him would mean moving to less-desirable options like Paul Maholm, Jason Hammel or Chris Capuano.

Garza is likely a long-term commitment, as he will be seeking stability in a career marked by recent change. Garza is said to be looking for a 4-6 year deal, and the reality remains – Mike Trout will need a massive extension soon. If the Angels work a deal for Garza, look for them to make a corresponding trade somewhere down the line to dump payroll.

2. Ubaldo Jimenez

Reports have surfaced that the Angels “prefer” Garza over Jimenez, due to the team wanting to keep their first round pick in this year’s draft. Jimenez will turn 30 this season, and had a dreadful 2012 – posting a 9-17 record with a 5.40 ERA for a offensively-challenged Cleveland Indians squad.

But being in the middle of his career could work in Jimenez’s favor. Jimenez will be 4 years out of a 2010 campaign in which he won 19 games while pitching for the Colorado Rockies and making the majority of his starts in hitter-happy Coors Field. He showed signs of life last season in Cleveland, posting a respectable 3.30 ERA, racking up over 182 innings pitched. If Jimenez can be reliable once again, he could be a bargain signing with an average contract.

3. Ervin Santana

Bringing back Santana is also an option, but if the Angels sign either Jimenez or Santana, it means they will have to surrender their a draft pick because both pitchers rejected the qualifying offers from their respective teams. Santana is a fly ball pitcher, and Angels fans remember him for the homers he used to give up on a regular basis.

However, Santana went to a smaller market team (Kansas City Royals), and revamped his repertoire while posting a modest 3.24 ERA. Santana has tallied 3 seasons of 16 wins or more, and if he can capture some of his former magic with the Angels, he could find himself in the middle of the Halos’ rotation.

4. Bronson Arroyo

Arroyo is an aging veteran, but would be the fail-safe option for the Angels. Arroyo is a ground ball pitcher, which would suit him nicely at Angel Stadium. He would be a back-end rotation option on a shorter deal – something to the tune of 2-3 years and likely $10-12 million per season.

Arroyo matches up similar to Capuano – he could fit into the rotation or move to long relief with the emergence of Skaggs.

The club has continued to say they would like to add another arm to the rotation, which would give the team at least one extra player to cycle in the rotation. Beyond the current 5 projected starters the team already has in Jered Weaver, CJ Wilson, Hector Santiago, Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs, there is not much MLB-ready talent for the upcoming season.