Honda Center

Ducks defenseman Sheldon Souray was exploring the beauty of the unknown, the pristine hockey slate on the eve of opening night in the Stanley Cup playoffs. At this stage, no one can be wrong in the timeless playoff prediction game. "I think I've played in four playoffs," Souray said Monday. "I've been the first seed a couple of times and lost out in the first round and been the eighth seed and went to the second round and lost to the eventual Cup champion both times.

First, the Red Wings made Corey Perry almost disappear, turning the Ducks forward and former league MVP into a virtual nonfactor for seven games as he failed to score even once. For its next act, Detroit made Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf almost vanish in the final two games of the series, limiting him to one assist and making him look oddly mortal in the faceoff circle. There are plenty of reasons -- big and small -- why the Red Wings beat the Ducks in the Western Conference quarterfinals, finishing them off with a 3-2 victory in Game 7 Sunday night at Honda Center.

Rush is one of the most prominent groups of the 1970s and '80s prog rock movement whose fans have been screaming at the proverbial windmills for the 13 years that the band has been eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Forty-four years after it formed, the band responsible for songs such as "Tom Sawyer," "The Spirit of Radio," the epic concept album "2112" and dozens of gold records has made the first cut on its way to the theoretically hallowed walls of the Cleveland rock institution.

A great beginning turned into a sorry end for the Ducks, who burned up the NHL in the early weeks of this lockout-shortened season but were too burned out Sunday to put up much of a consistent challenge to the inspired Detroit Red Wings. What should have been a memory for the ages - a Game 7, a defining moment every NHL player craves - evolved into a dispirited 3-2 loss for the second-seeded Ducks, who were a step slower and a split-second behind the seventh-seeded Red Wings most of the night.

As the clock ticks hurriedly to NHL's opening night Jan. 19, the Ducks gathered Thursday at Honda Center for an informal practice without a coach partially to gauge where their conditioning is before the 48-game sprint of a labor-stoppage-shortened season. “From what I saw, the guys have taken care of themselves and I think we'll be ready to go,” said left wing Matt Beleskey, who spent three months of the layoff playing for the Coventry Blaze in England - the team covering his expenses with him funding his own insurance.

Kings-Ducks tonight When: 7. Where: Honda Center. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 1150, 830. Records: Kings 36-19-3, Ducks 27-24-7. Season series: Kings 3-0-0. Update: Something has to give. The Kings have won a franchise-record nine consecutive games. The Ducks have won their last nine at home. Goaltending has been a key for both teams. The Kings' Jonathan Quick leads the NHL in wins with 34. The Ducks' Jonas Hiller was 12th with 23. But Hiller has 11 fewer starts after sharing the job with Jean-Sebastien Giguere before Giguere was traded to Toronto.

Unlike the Sept. 15 conflict of boxing cards pitting Mexican stars Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., there won't be another conflict of dates between super-bantamweight champions. Golden Boy Promotions Chief Executive Richard Schaefer announced to The Times on Wednesday that World Boxing Council champion Abner Mares of Hawaiian Gardens will move off Oct. 13, and fight Anselmo Moreno on Oct. 27 at Honda Center in Anaheim. The date change clears a conflict with World Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire, who will defend his belts Oct. 13 at Home Depot Center in Carson against Japan's Toshiaki Nishioka.

Fittingly, "The Lord of the Rings in Concert: The Fellowship of the Ring" is an epic undertaking. "It's such a huge score," said composer Howard Shore, who won an Oscar for his work on Peter Jackson's 2001 first installment in his ambitious "Lord of the Rings" trilogy based on the J.R.R. Tolkien beloved fantasy novel. "It's nearly three hours. It is really difficult to do. It requires 225 people on stage to play the music, a symphony orchestra and chorus. " For the performance, which comes to the Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday, Ludwig Wicki conducts the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Chorale, Phoenix Boys Choir and soloist soprano Kaitlyn Lusk.

The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved $75 million in privately backed bonds to "set the table" for the NBA's Sacramento Kings to make Honda Center their new home next season. The bonds will be backed by three companies of Henry Samueli, the Anaheim Ducks' owner and Honda Center operator, and are designated to pay for relocation fees the Kings will need to pay the NBA, along with improvements to Honda Center. Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait called the meeting "historic" at its opening, and said after the vote he was "stoked" by the council's action.

When: 5. Where: Honda Center. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket. Radio: 830. Records: Ducks 4-2-0; Phoenix 2-3-1. Update: The league let the Ducks know on Saturday morning that there would be no hearing regarding the hit by forward George Parros on Krys Barch. The Stars' Barch was momentarily dazed by the second-period hit to the head in the 3-1 win by Dallas on Friday night. It was determined the hit was not a targeted one, the Ducks said. The Ducks' still-looking-for-first-goal-of-the-season club has many members, including forwards Ryan Getzlaf, Saku Koivu, Andrew Gordon, Devante Smith-Pelly and defensemen Lubomir Visnovsky and Cam Fowler.

The puck slipped away from Ducks defenseman Ben Lovejoy, but he had the presence, savvy and, well, luck to get it back and go around the Red Wings' Gustav Nyquist and Brian Lashoff and set up teammate Nick Bonino for the overtime game-winner. Lost and found. All this unfolded in a matter of seconds, and with the goal the Ducks find themselves one game away from advancing out of the Western Conference quarterfinals. The Ducks' 3-2 overtime victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night at Honda Center in Game 5 gave them a 3-2 edge in this series.

Corey Perry wanted to carry the Ducks on his shoulders in the Stanley Cup playoffs. At least that was his plan leading into the first-round series against Detroit. Four games later, Perry has produced just one assist and the Ducks now are in a best-of-three fight against the Red Wings, with Game 5 on Wednesday night at Honda Center. "Obviously, it's not the start that I wanted, we're tied 2-2," Perry said. "Hopefully, I can get it going and we'll take things from there.

DETROIT - The poke check, while slow-developing, might have pulled Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller out of trouble after Detroit's Gustav Nyquist split the defense and attacked with a burst of speed. But everything seemed to turn sideways. The puck went off the knee of Ducks defenseman Bryan Allen. Hiller alertly kicked out his left leg and made the save. But three saves? That was asking too much. BOX SCORE: Detroit 3, Ducks 2 The Ducks failed to pick up the trailing forward, Damien Brunner, a natural goal scorer who certainly wasn't going to miss an easy tap-in.

You go through 458 regular-season NHL games before appearing in the playoffs for the first time and the reward is spending quality time against Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. It's little wonder that speedy Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano endured what he called a sleepless night before Game 1 on Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. Fortunately, for Cogliano, his centerman and quasi-mentor happens to be Saku Koivu. Koivu served as a calming force, and that third line, which includes Daniel Winnik, kept the Red Wings' top threats off the scoresheet as Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Justin Abdelkader combined for eight shots on goal.

This was the moment Teemu Selanne was waiting for - one of the reasons the 42-year-old decided to slog through another regular season, albeit a shortened one. The career of a future Hall of Famer isn't supposed to end at a nondescript regular-season game in western Canada. Or after a disappointing playoff loss against Nashville. Selanne and the Ducks were back in the playoffs for the first time since 2011 and the Finnish legend wasted little time in marking his fine imprint on this first-round series, lifting Anaheim to a 3-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night at Honda Center in Game 1. BOX SCORE: Ducks 3, Detroit 1 Put Selanne on the power play and magic is bound to unfold.

Ducks defenseman Sheldon Souray was exploring the beauty of the unknown, the pristine hockey slate on the eve of opening night in the Stanley Cup playoffs. At this stage, no one can be wrong in the timeless playoff prediction game. "I think I've played in four playoffs," Souray said Monday. "I've been the first seed a couple of times and lost out in the first round and been the eighth seed and went to the second round and lost to the eventual Cup champion both times.

Ducks tonight VS. NEW JERSEY When: 7. Where: Honda Center. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 830. Records: Ducks 4-5-1, Devils 2-7-1. Record vs. Devils [2009-10]: 0-1-0. Update: Ducks forward Matt Beleskey will miss at least the next two games after being put on injured reserve because of a concussion sustained Tuesday at Dallas. Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas received an automatic one-game suspension for the play after earning a second game misconduct for boarding within 41 games.

Teemu Selanne was asked what most influenced the Ducks' run to the Western Conference No. 2 seeding in the Stanley Cup playoffs that probably begin Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings. “Pride,” the Ducks' legendary, 42-year-old wing said after practice Friday. Selanne's reference was to the grisly 6-20-6 start last season that got a coach fired and sat badly with a veteran group that included members of the franchise's 2007 Stanley Cup champion team. BOX SCORE: Phoenix 5, Ducks 3 “The disappointment of last season carried over to this year,” Selanne said.

Corey Perry was a fresh-faced second-year player and just 21 when the Ducks started their playoff run to a Stanley Cup championship in 2007. Now, the 2010-11 Hart Trophy winner is a little more than a month removed from signing an eight-year, $69-million extension, and the attention on him is far more glaring with the Stanley Cup playoffs just days away. "Starting from a young age and maturing as a player, you're taught to put the team on your back," Perry said after practice Friday at Honda Center.