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Southern California hockey has always been a study in contrasts.  Recently, the contrast has been one good team (down the 5 Freeway in Anaheim), one bad one (keeping Staples busy between Lakers games).  The future, though, is cloudier.  The Ducks have had a great run of success, but may have only this season to make another Pronger/Niedermayer/Selanne incarnation of the team.  After a terrible 1-5 start, Anaheim has found its stride, piling up goals in bunches (go figure) while keeping just enough pucks out of their own net to fuel a 7-1-1 run over their last nine games before Tuesday night’s matchup against the Kings.

Still, the numbers aren’t all healthy.  Anaheim has had great production out of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, and Selanne up front, but pucks are flying at JS Giguere (right) with alarming frequency.  The Ducks currently sport a -3.4 shot differential, and are near the bottom of the league in goals allowed.

To gain more insight into the Ducks, I spoke with Hall of Fame hockey writer Helene Elliott of the LA Times.  Among other topics, we talked about Anaheim’s lack of a reliable fourth defenseman behind Pronger, Niedermayer, and Francois Beauchamin, their future under GM Brian Burke, and the possibility of bringing in Mats Sundin.  And since it’s often instructive to compare LA’s two squads, we kicked around the Kings a little- optimism for the future, the work of Terry Murray vs. Marc Crawford, and the play of rookie blueliner Drew Doughty.

Enjoy.

Helene Elliott Podcast

Brian Kamenetzky hosts the Lakers Blog and Blue Notes: A Dodgers Blog for the LA Times.com. He’s a contributing writer to ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, and is a frequent guest on 710 ESPN radio in LA. Write him at bk@sportshubla.com.

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