Ducks’ George Parros: Slow start is a mystery

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Ducks forward George Parros has a job that’s rare among his fellow Princeton graduates: He’s an NHL enforcer -- and he’s immensely popular in Anaheim for his muscle as well as his impressive mustache and generous charity work.

Like most enforcers, he’s soft-spoken and articulate off the ice. He’s going to share some of his thoughts on the Ducks, his role and other issues as the season goes along.

Another week gone by early in this year’s campaign and sadly, I cannot talk about our recent winning streak at home because it does not exist. We have played two games at home since my last installment, neither one inching us closer to the top of the league standings.

I’m sure some of you are tuning in to figure out what has gone wrong this week, in which case you might be out of luck, for I have no answers. It seems like we were behind the eight ball too early and too often against St. Louis and Dallas. At least in the Dallas game, we played a solid third and gave ourselves a chance to tie the game. But all of us have agreed that it is not good enough. We are determined to right this ship and attitudes were better today in practice as we were a more determined bunch looking forward to Saturday’s game against Columbus.

Speaking of Saturday’s game, I am very excited about this particular match. This summer, Bobby Ryan and I made a significant voyage inland to Fort Irwin, just outside of Barstow. Fort Irwin is the National Training Center for the U.S. Army and is one of the few places where the military runs life-like war simulations. They use Hollywood special effects and hire and Iraqi and Afghani expatriates who bring a recreational town in the desert to life, in an attempt to prepare our troops for service in the Middle East. It was an incredibly eye-opening experience to go through the village and watch the simulations, explosions and all that goes into the military training.

My cousin recently accepted a new assignment and is stationed at this same base. It was a crazy coincidence to find this out. So for this Saturday’s game, my cousin and one of his buddies on base are coming down to our game to see what OUR life is like in the military zone we call Honda Center. Hopefully we can make it a more hostile environment for visitors, we certainly owe that much to our fans. See you all Saturday Night.

-- George Parros