The Sun Always Shines on TV

and it will continue to shine, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

Like any other Wild fan, I was deflated when the playoof run ended after only 5 games back in April. I waited with great anticipation of the Wild's first meeting with the Orange County Fowl, reigning tainters of Lord Stanley's Cup and the team that sent us to the lake six months ago.

That first game was this past Sunday night. The Wild prevailed 2-0 on the half-assed slush they provide at the Ponda Center, and it was quite a grind.

This was a true character win with the tone being set on the very first shift when Wes Walz dumped Travis Moen by the Wild box. Minutes later, Nick Schultz, who would later fight Ryan Getzlaf, creamed Corey Perry.

"Everyone battled for the guy next to him," Parrish said.

While watching road games on TV, I sometimes geek out and post on the Wild's message boards. It's fun to get others' take on what just happened. It's also fun to see what's being posted on the opposing team's message boards. Since Sunday's challengers are based in La La Land, it was quite interesting to witensss the, uh, "local knowledge of the game."

Since most of what was being posted on the Ducks' boards about the game in progress was on intellectual par with star-struck twelve-year olds, I thought some good natured text-based tussling was in order. I registered as a user of the boards, recieved my confirmation link via e-mail and logged on. Trouble was, I couldn't post anything on the game day thread. I e-mailed the site administratror:

I registerd for a message boards account today, got the confimation e-mail, clicked on the link, am able to log in, but when I try to reply to posts (in a game-day thread) I get this:

Sorry, an error occurred . . . you do not have permission to reply to that topic.

When I register and post to other teams' message boards, I never had trouble, so I figured I must have clicked something wrong this time. Not so; here's what I got from Ken, the site administrator:

(T)his the Anaheim Ducks Message Board . . . Since you did not fill in the blanks as to your location, and do not have any reference to the Ducks in your profile, or you are a fan of another team, I did not approve you for the entire message board. You are limited to the Visitors Bench and Playoffs Forums.

If you are a Ducks fan, or assure me that even though you are a fan of an opposing team and do not intend to start problems, let me know and I will remove the restrictions. If you are a fan of another team, and can keep your comments about our team to yourself, I will open the account up. If you cross that line, your account and ip address will be banned from our board.

Let me sup up Ken's warm welcome, as if it was delivered by Yosemite Sam: "You better get your head right, varmint. We don't cotton to no dissension 'round these parts. This here's where we love the Ducks, no matter what, and won't hear nothin' to the contrary!"

Maybe I'm too tough on ol' Ken. After all, he's working for a hockey franchise in citrus country, a one-time Disney property, and an outfit that only recently began to sell every seat in the building. It's possible that some abrasion via website is more that their precarious situation can handle.

I gotta tell ya, it's more fun to love to hate the Ducks all the time.