Ducks' Ryan Getzlaf hits the Big City

Ducks’ Ryan Getzlaf hits the Big City

Sports Columnist

Sept. 8, 2009 6:17 PM PT

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In a startling and no doubt temporary flash of insight, the NHL realized that there are, indeed, good hockey players and good teams residing west of Chicago and invited Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf to participate in a media tour this week in New York.

Every year the league invites about 15 of its top players to take part in the media tour, which involves having them appear in promotional spots that will air on NBC, Versus, Canada’s TSN and other TV outlets. The headliners are the usual East Coast-based suspects--Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin, New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and Ranger-turned-Montreal Canadien Scott Gomez, as well as Chicago Blackhawk standouts Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

Getzlaf, who has been among the NHL’s top centers for the past few seasons even if the folks back East hardly know it, was added to the latest media tour after his career-best 91 points last season. Now, if Versus would only show Ducks’ games or Kings’ games, everyone would know about hm and Kings center Anze Kopitar and defenseman Drew Doughty.

In any case, Getzlaf and the other players did find some time to enjoy themselves in New York by taking in a Yankees game and learning how to make authentic New York pizza

-- Helene Elliott

Sports Now

Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.