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Curtis Zupke grew up in Los Angeles and got hooked on hockey (along with thousands of other Southern Californians) upon Wayne Gretzky’s arrival to the Kings in 1988.

He
covered the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County (Calif.) Register from 2006 to 2011.

His work has also appeared in The Hockey News, Associated Press and QMI Agency (a Quebec-based wire service that serves 250 daily and weekly newspapers in Canada).

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Ducks' locker room is a five-ring circus Print
Pacific
Written by J.P. Hoornstra   
Tuesday, March 02, 2010 05:24
Pacific Division notebook:

If NHL players are forbidden from playing in the 2014 Olympics, recent history indicates that the Anaheim Ducks will be affected more than any other team.

Seven Anaheim players collected medals last weekend in Vancouver, the most in the league. That matched a record set in 1998 by the Pittsburgh Penguins and matched in 2002 by the Detroit Red Wings.

Team Canada’s Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Scott Niedermayer collected gold medals on Sunday, spelling sliver for teammates Bobby Ryan and Ryan Whitney of Team USA. Saku Koivu and Teemu Selanne of Finland won bronze on Saturday by defeating Slovakia.

“These guys went out and had opportunities to compete for their country,” head coach Randy Carlyle said Monday. “They were selected because they brought a specific skill set. It’s a tribute to the players, to our scouting staff, to our management, to be able to identify these types of people to be able to represent our organization.”

Some other five-ringed factoids about Anaheim:

• Ducks players have won 15 medals in the four Olympic Games involving NHL players (1998-2010), second only to the Detroit Red Wings (16). New York Rangers players have also won 15.
• With gold medal winners in each of the last three Olympic Games (Kariya 2002, Pahlsson, 2006, Niedermayer, Getzlaf, Perry in 2010), the Ducks join the Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks as the only NHL teams to have gold medalists in the last three such tournaments (2002-2010).
• The Ducks, Dallas Stars and Philadelphia Flyers are the only three NHL teams to have multiple medalists in each of the four Olympic tournaments involving NHL players.
• The Ducks also became just the second NHL team to have players with multiple medals of each color in an Olympic tournament (2002 Red Wings, two gold, two silver, three bronze).
 
DALLAS

Agitator Steve Ott inked an $11.8 million, four-year contract extension on Monday that will keep him in Dallas through 2014. The 27-year-old has 11 goals, 23 points and 100 penalty minutes in 52 games this season. … G Alex Auld was claimed on re-entry waivers by the New York Rangers on Saturday. He went 9-6-3 with a 3.00 goals-against average and a .894 save percentage for Dallas, but became the odd man out when Kari Lehtonen was acquired from Atlanta. … The next game for G Marty Turco will be the 500th of his NHL career.
 
SAN JOSE

A swarm of reporters greeted Evgeni Nabokov in practice Monday. The Russian netminder gamely answered all the questions about his Olympic performance, which included a 7-3 blowout at the hands of Canada in which he allowed five goals. “I had my depressed couple of days,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle, “but now I’m back to work.” … D Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, who missed five games prior to the Olympic break with a lower-body injury, is not expected to be ready for Tuesday’s game against the New Jersey Devils. … C Manny Malhotra also missed five games before the break, but should be ready, head coach Todd McLellan said. … Former Sharks goaltender Steve Shields practiced with the team during the Olympic break, according to the San Jose Mercury News’ Sharks blog.
 
LOS ANGELES

RW Justin Williams, sidelined by a broken ankle since Dec. 26, resumed practicing last week and accompanied the team on its two-game road trip to Dallas and Nashville. … Former Kings G Jamie Storr, who now runs a goaltending school in Southern California, donned the pads in practice last week with Jonathan Quick playing for Team USA. … Despite salary-cap space and a trove of draft picks and prospects, GM Dean Lombardi isn’t expected to swing a major deal at the trade deadline. “There’s not a lot out there,” he told the Los Angeles Daily News.
 
PHOENIX

The Coyotes are also in a position to buy at the trade deadline, with ample salary-cap space and a pair of first-round draft picks. But GM Don Maloney is more concerned with taking on more debt, as his team is still financed by the league’s other 29 teams, according to SI.com. … D Anders Eriksson and F Joel Perrault were recalled from their conditioning assignments with AHL San Antonio on Monday. … With one more victory, G Ilya Bryzgalov will match the franchise record. Current goaltenders coach Sean Burke recorded 33 wins in 2001-02, the last year the Coyotes made the playoffs.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 11:24