Major League Baseball is already in its league championship series with the surprising Arizona Diamondbacks facing the Philadelphia Phillies for the National League pennant and the Houston Astros meeting the Texas Rangers for the American League crown in an intrastate hardball battle.
The winners of the respective series advance to the 2023 MLB World Series.
The Diamondbacks, seeded sixth among National League teams, are 5-0 after sweeping the third-seeded Milwaukee Brewers in the teams’ best-of-three wildcard series and doing the same to the second-seeded Los Angeles Dodgers in the teams’ best-of-five divisional series.
The Rangers, seeded fifth in the American League bracket, are also 5-0 after sweeping fourth-seeded Tampa Bay (wild card series) and top-seeded Baltimore (divisional series).
Philadelphia (seeded fourth in the NL playoffs) and Houston (seeded second in the AL playoffs) are both 5-1 entering the league championship series.
The Philies bested the top-seeded Atlanta Braves, 3-1, in their divisional series after sweeping the Miami Marlins in the wild card round.
Six teams in each league qualified for the playoffs.
The Padres were nowhere to be found again.
The Dodgers captured the NL West Division with 100 wins, followed by Arizona in second place with 84 wins. The Padres, experiencing a late but futile burst to make the playoffs, finished third in the division with 82 wins ahead of the fourth place Giants (79 wins) and Rockies (59 wins).
Milwaukee won the NL Central Division with 92 wins; the Phils finished second to the Braves in the NL East standings with 90 wins.
Atlanta won 104 regular season games to top all NL teams while the Orioles won 101 games to top the American League.
Tampa Bay finished runner-up in the AL East to the Orioles with 99 wins while the Astros and Rangers tied for the AL West top spot with 90 wins each. The Minnesota Twins earned the No. 3 seed in the AL playoffs after winning the Central Division with 87 victories.
All the teams that made the MLB playoffs had more regular season wins than the Padres, who are now faced with a lot of unanswered questions after being touted in the preseason as a World Series participant.
The hype was obviously just that.
Icing on the cake
The NFL is now six weeks deep into its regular season schedule that will extend into the new year. The Philadelphia Eagles and Sn Francisco 49ers are the league’s lone undefeated teams thus far at 5-0 while the Kansas City Chiefs are 5-1. The Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions are both 4-1. The Tampa Bay Bucs and the Seattle Seahawks are both 3-1.
The Chargers are 2-2 in sole possession of second place for now behind the Chiefs in the AFC West. But a couple of near-misses early in the season showed the Bolts – once again – have some potential to make noise in the standings.
But this is another under-performing team given the talent on its roster.
The long journey to the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals faces off this weekend. It’s an arduous eight-month voyage to determine a champion among the league’s 32 teams.
The San Diego Gulls face off their quest to advance to the American Hockey League Calder Cup playoffs this weekend with games Friday and Sunday against the Ontario Reign at the Toyota Center before hosting the Reign in their home opener on Oct. 20 at Pechanga Arena.
The Anaheim Ducks, the Gulls’ parent club, face off the 107th NHL season (and the 30th for the organization) on Saturday, Oct. 14, at the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights and return to home ice at the Honda Center on Sunday, Oct. 15, to engage the Carolina Hurricanes. Another home game follows on Thursday, Oct. 19, against the Dallas Stars.
All eyes in the organization will be on those first few games at both levels.
The Ducks (23-47-12, 58 points) and Gulls (20-49-3, 43 points) both finished in last place in their respective leagues and will need to build on porous defenses that ranked last in both the NHL and AHL. The Gulls were out-scored 281-180 while the Ducks were out-scored 338-209.
Both teams have new head coaches to start their respective rebuilds: Greg Cronin in Anaheim and Matt McIlvane in San Diego.
The destinies of both the Ducks and Gulls are intertwined with a player pipeline that goes both ways. In fact, the future could be rosy for both teams
The Ducks are No. 1 among NHL teams in pipeline rankings based on draft picks and prospects already in the system. Anaheim’s 2023 draft class was ranked near the top of the chart by several hockey publications.
McIlvane appears chomping at the bit to get started with the talent he’s already seen in Anaheim’s development camp this summer, rookie camp to face off the main preseason training camp and in now preseason games.
“I think the skill level is going to be bright for the Ducks in the future,” McIlvane said.
Local fans finally got an opportunity to see that future talent up close when the Ducks hosted the Los Angeles Kings, their Southern California arch-rival, Sept. 29 at Pechanga Arena.
It was apparent by the turnout of 10,000 fans for the Ducks’ first NHL preseason game in San Diego since 1994 that local hockey fans are starved for the product, and that hockey fans have deep allegiances to their favorite teams.
Spontaneous cheers of “Let’s Go Kings!” reverberated throughout the nearly full arena to the chagrin, no doubt, of Ducks fans.
With the score narrowed to two goals, then one goal, Anaheim fans came alive with their chants of “Let’s Go Ducks!” late in the game.
It was a fun, though extremely crowded, event.
Former Charger quarterback Drew Brees dropped the ceremonial first puck while San Diego sports icons Bill Walton (Helix High School, UCLA, NBA Portland Trailblazers/San Diego Clippers) and Willie O’Ree (first black man to play in the NHL, WHL San Diego Gulls 1967-74) were in the stands to cheer on the teams.
Ducks mascot Wild Wing and Gulls mascot Gulliver were also in attendance to help liven up the festivities.
The Ducks entered the preseason game 3-0 riding a 3-2 overtime win over the Kings and a pair of 4-2 wins over the San Jose Sharks. The Kings scored first before the Ducks tied the score, 1-1. However, the Kings would eventually skate to a 4-1 bulge on the scoreboard before the Ducks began a late rally.
The puck slid tantalizingly under the body of Kings goaltender Erik Portillo – and beyond the crease – in the game’s final seconds.
The Kings improved to 3-1-1 in preseason play with the win, building on some hockey history after facing off preseason play with a pair of games in Melbourne, Australia. The Sept. 22-23 games Down Under were the first NHL games played in Australia and the first NHL games played in the Southern Hemisphere.
Hockey has truly gone global.
Former Gulls Andrew Agozzino and Max Jones scored power play goals for the Ducks, who also received a goal from rookie Nathan Gaucher. Agozzino earned an assist to finish the night with two points while Glenn Gawdin, Jackson LaCombe, Brett Leason and Blake McLaughlin each picked up one assist.
Calle Clang finished the game in relief after starter John Gibson suffered a second-period injury. Gibson was the Gulls’ main puck-stopper when they first landed in San Diego in 2015.
Some of the players from the Sept. 29 game have already made their way to the Gulls’ training camp in advance of Friday’s season opener.
Among them, Gaucher was selected 22nd overall by the Ducks in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft while LaCombe was selected 39th overall in the 2019 draft.
With a slew of incoming draft picks, the parent club will be keenly interested in charting their progress and development. Not all players develop on the same timeline.
The Ducks finished their eight preseason games 4-4, finishing with three consecutive losses — 4-1 to the Kings on Oct. 3, 4-2 to the Arizona Coyotes on Oct. 5 and 7-1 to the Coyotes on Oct. 7.
The AHL is the NHL’s top development league and is just that. Player development is first and foremost, though NHL teams certainly would like to see their prospects develop in a winning environment.
Part of McIlvane’s task will be to translate his success in Europe to winning in North America.
But winning isn’t always a certainty, nor immediate.
The Gulls lost 6-2 to the Reign on Sunday, Oct. 8, in Ontario in their only preseason game.
Defenseman Scott Harrington and right wing Jaxsen Wiebe each scored goals for the Gulls, who fell behind 4-0 midway through the second period. Portillo stopped 20 shots to pick up the win between the pipes for the Kings, who received two goals and one assist each from Alex Turcotte and Alex Laferriere.
Wiebe’s goal came on the power play.
There are a lot of new names on this season’s Gulls roster for fans to digest such as center Nikita Nesterenko (sixth round, 2019 draft by the Minnesota Wild), right wing Sasha Pastujov (third round, 2021 draft by the Ducks), right wing Judd Caulfield (fifth round, 2019 draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins) and defenseman Olen Zellweger (second round, 2021 draft by the Ducks).
There are also quite a few familiar names on the 2023-24 roster. McLaughlin, left wing Brayden Tracey, right wing Jacob Perreault and defensemen Drew Helleson and Trevor Carrick are all back in Gulls jerseys to start the season.
What will it add up to? Management in Anaheim hopes it’s something good, at least in the long run. McIlvane has earned a reputation as a good motivator.
ESPN has picked the Golden Knights as its top team entering the 2023-24 NHL season, followed by the No. 2 Colorado Avalanche, No. 3 Carolina Hurricanes, No. 4 Edmonton Oilers and No. 5 New Jersey Devils.
Rounding out ESPN’s top 10 are the No. 6 Toronto Maple Leafs, No. 7 Dallas Stars, No. 8 Florida Panthers, No. 9 New York Rangers and No. 10 Boston Bruins.
The Kings rate No. 12 while the Seattle Kraken is No. 15 on the list. At the bottom end of the rankings are the Coyotes at No. 27, Ducks at No. 31 and Sharks at No. 32.
The minors are harder to predict as teams largely depend on players assigned to them from their parent clubs. Injuries and call-ups can play havoc at both levels.
It will obviously take time to turn things around.
Just how good was the Ducks’ 2023 draft class? We’ll know in a few years.
