Long before OC Vibe was more than a twinkle in Samueli eyes, spring in Anaheim regularly delivered a different vibe altogether.
Ducks fans expected the postseason and embraced it with a passion that rocked Honda Center during 12 playoff trips in a 15-season span, including two trips to the Stanley Cup Final and the 2007 championship.
After the Ducks were swept by San Jose in the first round in 2018, however, the playoffs suddenly were for other teams. They missed the postseason seven consecutive seasons and left Honda Center available for whatever concert or performance needed the venue.
On Friday, however, the playoffs returned to Anaheim.
There was no way Huntington Beach’s Michael Greer and his son, Shane, were going to miss the moment the Ducks took the ice in Game 3 of their first-round series against the Edmonton Oilers, the team’s first home playoff game since April 14, 2018.
“It makes it so meaningful to see them succeed after hanging in with them during all the rough times,” Michael said and nodded toward his 11-year-old son, a right wing on a Junior Ducks team. “We’ve got a lot of pictures of him crying as we’re leaving games they lost. Now we’re seeing something special.”
Shane was wearing the jersey of Ducks rookie Beckett Sennecke, who is only nine years his senior and scored 60 points in the regular season. Shane, however, brought some hockey history to his first playoff game since he was a baby.
The great-great-grandson of Frank Zamboni, the inventor of his namesake ice-cleaning vehicle, attended his first postseason game since the Comeback on Katella, a Ducks double-overtime victory over Edmonton in the second round in 2017.
“He was here, but this is his first real experience,” Michael said.
Another fan in a Sennecke jersey, Matthew Jones, made the trip from Texas with his mother Linda and his girlfriend Amanda Whitley to see his favorite team in the postseason.
He even thought the moment was big enough to break his autographed Ryan Getzlaf jersey out of its frame so Whitley, a fellow Texas Christian student, could wear it. Getzlaf, of course, was the captain for several Ducks playoff teams, including that most recent one in 2018.
“We’re huge Ducks fans,” said Linda Jones, who lives in Wichita Falls, Texas. “We used to come to games before we moved, and we had to come back for this.”
While some fans rushed inside Honda Center to grab their souvenir towels and get pictures along the ice, Jones was joined by Orange County family members as they took in the pregame festivities just outside the arena, with a clear view of the OC Vibe construction project all around the excited fans.
“What’s going on with this team is amazing for Anaheim, and so is all of this,” Jose Munoz, an Anaheim native, said as he motioned around at the OC Vibe development launched by Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli to build a central gathering spot of sorts for Orange County. “It’s really exciting to see what they’re doing here.”
His friend, Rodolfo Plaza, said it reminded them of what Petco Park has become to San Diego. The Padres’ home is widely considered one of the top places to visit in Major League Baseball.
Mainly, though, they were thrilled to get a taste of playoff hockey after they entered the season with relatively low expectations. After all, the Ducks hadn’t given their fans much reason to hope for much the past several years.
“It really feels like we’re playing with house money,” Munoz said. “No one thought this would happen.”
That combination of surprise and delight led to a sellout Friday – the stands were packed well before game time – and a challenge for anyone who searched for tickets. Five hours before the puck dropped, the get-in price was $239 for a ticket in the top row of the arena. Visit Anaheim also said hotel rooms in the city were at a premium, with more than 91% booked Thursday and Friday.
Brian Lee was one of those who made the trip from afar to see his favorite team, and the journey served as a belated birthday gift to his 10-year-old son Carson. They flew in from Pennsylvania, where they’ve seen the Ducks play the Philadelphia Flyers, for Carson’s first chance to see them at home.
“I’m a ’90s kid and I loved the ‘Mighty Ducks’ movies,” Brian said. “They’ve been my favorite team for a long time, and now they’re his, too.”
Carson sported the No. 91 jersey of Leo Carlsson, the Ducks’ 21-year-old star, continuing a theme found throughout the arena. If fans didn’t have the jersey of an all-time Ducks great like Teemu Selanne or Getzlaf, they leaned young, just like the current version of the team.
They clearly don’t view the Ducks’ return to the postseason as an aberration. They seem to think this could become a regular rite of spring in Anaheim again.
“They’re so young,” Shane Greer said. “You look at how good they are. I think they’re going to be playing for a Stanley Cup sometime soon.”