It didn’t take long to crush Ice

The Stanley Cup will be on standby in Anaheim tonight, and seeing the Ducks a victory from their first NHL title reminds us of their very different -- and very goofy -- early days.

They were called Mighty back then even though they weren’t. But they had two game-saving goalies, Guy Hebert and Ron Tugnutt, and they had Stu Grimson and Todd Ewen -- a couple of pugilists when they took off their gloves who were princes when they took off their skates.

And for just one night, the Ducks had the Iceman.

The silver-faced, glittery character was part of the Disney-fied entertainment for the franchise’s first game Oct. 8, 1993. He and skating cheerleaders called the Decoys were booed heartily when they tried to draw the crowd into “Twist and Shout” with the Ducks trailing by four goals during a 7-2 loss to Detroit.

The next day, Tony Tavares, the club president who would become known as a difficult boss, canned the cold guy.

“He’s in a cryogenic freeze,” Tavares said. “The Iceman cometh, and the Iceman goeth.”

Trivia time

Who scored the first goal in Ducks history?

Just say, “Go team”

Taking a cue from the Arte Moreno school of marketing, the Long Beach Armada has changed the team’s name.

It’s now the Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska.

Or for short, LBALACUSNAIBA.

It’s not a hoax.

“It’s the real deal. We’ve got merchandise on the way,” said David Kaval, owner of the Armada and chief executive of the Golden Baseball League.

“The abbreviation is great, especially on a hat. It wraps around.”

The Armada, which opens its season June 13 at Blair Field, will host “Barrow, Alaska Day” on July 30 to honor the team’s sister city.

“Everyone knows what the Angels did,” Kaval said, adding that “being a real Los Angeles County team, we wanted to extend our reach as far north as possible.”

By the way, Kaval said city of Long Beach officials are not upset.

Their name’s still first.

Waffle King

That’s what they’re calling Billy Donovan in Orlando, along with Billy Bail-out and Billy the Kidder, apparently less impressed with the soft spot in his heart for the Florida Gators than the soft spot in his head for wanting to walk away from the Magic’s $27.5 million.

The Orlando Sentinel phoned another famous flip-flopper, Bobby Cremins, to see if Donovan has been inducted into the club yet.

“I might even nominate him for president,” said Cremins, who once jilted his alma mater, South Carolina, to remain at Georgia Tech and now coaches at College of Charleston.

“I can empathize with Billy,” Cremins said, adding that the aftermath of his decision was so difficult he sought counseling. “Basically, you get all screwed up a little bit. It’s easy to see him make the choice to go to the NBA, because he did everything he could at Florida. But what happens is once he went over that fine line, he realized college is for me and he realized he made a mistake. That’s when things get really rough because of the embarrassment part. But I respect what he did. He followed his heart and mind.”

Dick Vitale put it another way, citing the words of the late Jim Valvano: “You don’t mess with happy.”

It’s all yours, Chicago

The Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions contends that more than 2 million people in seven cities have been displaced by the Olympic Games over the last 20 years, many of them homeless or poor.

Maybe vying to host an Olympics is getting to be like trying to get an NFL team. Seems like Los Angeles will be fine without either.

Trivia answer

Defenseman Sean Hill.

And finally ...

Jeff Van Gundy, who has worked as a guest analyst for ABC and ESPN during the NBA playoffs since being fired by the Houston Rockets, commenting on the buzz LeBron James is creating among “normal people” on talk radio:

“Normal people on talk radio ... that’s an oxymoron right there,” Van Gundy said. “There’s no such thing.”

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com