Menu

Anaheim Mighty Ducks

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks Reach The Western Conference Finals

The NHL’s Western Conference Finals are set. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks beat Calgary in five games, closing out the series on Sunday night to advance and face the Chicago Blackhawks. Here’s a look back on how the Ducks did it…
I don’t know that this series necessarily had a “key”, unless you want to say Anaheim having much better hockey players than Calgary is a key. But that sounds like those Keys To The Game that Tim McCarver used to inflict on baseball audiences before he retired. We can say though, that Anaheim’s aggressiveness ensured that their talent would prevail.
The Ducks made tone-setting a priority in the first two games in their building. Matt Beleskey, whose five goals in this series led all scorers, scored right out of the gate in Game 1. Corey Perry, the best player in the ice, also scored twice and had two assists in a 6-1 rout.
Continue reading “The Anaheim Mighty Ducks Reach The Western Conference Finals” »

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks At The Olympic Break

, , , , ,

Who’s the best team in the NHL as we prepare to resume regular season play after the Olympic break? It’s not the 2013 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. It’s not the star-laden Pittsburgh Penguins, nor is it last year’s finalist and 2011 champ, the Boston Bruins. The best team in the NHL right now is in SoCal…only it’s not the 2012 Stanley Cup winner Los Angeles Kings either. No sports fans, the team with the most points in the NHL is the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

The Ducks won a Stanley Cup in 2007, but have otherwise been mostly off the grid in recent years. Their strong showing in the lockout-shortened year of 2013 ended with a disappointing first-round playoff exit. This year, they’re playing like a hungry team, as we approach another postseason.


Anaheim consistently wins the battle of shots on a nightly basis. They rank 8th in the NHL in both shots taken and shots allowed. When you combine this with the fact that their play in the standard 5-on-5 is much stronger than on the power play (for or against) and you understand why the Ducks’ game has a real consistency, and also why they don’t necessarily seem overwhelming on paper.

This is not to say there isn’t some serious talent in the Ducks’ lineup. Corey Perry is a solid scorer from the right wing, and with only 15 goals thus far, he’s more than capable of stepping up his game. Teemu Selanne is a reliable veteran at the same spot and fresh off scoring two goals for Finland in their bronze medal game victory over the United States at Sochi. Ryan Getzlaff anchors everything from the middle and is a superior passer.

***************
READ THE BLOG COLLECTION OF THE 2013 NHL SEASON & PLAYOFFS
Buy Windy City Ride today at Amazon
***************

What Anaheim does not have is elite goaltending. Viktor Fasth was injured back in November and has yet to make it back. It’s a “lower-body” injury, as NHL injury reports tend to be vague enough that you think Bill Belichick must write them all. All we know right now is that Fasth is on a “long-term assignment” for rehab, which included starting a game in Norfolk last week.


Does “long-term” mean Fasth will be able to get a few games in at the end of the regular season and be ready for the postseason in mid-April? If Anaheim wants to win the Stanley Cup again, they have to hope so. Jonas Hiller and Frederik Andersen have been tolerable as fill-ins, but tolerable isn’t going to win you four postseason series in succession, especially not when goaltending takes on a greater importance in the playoffs.

Anaheim still deserves tremendous credit for navigating the loss of Fasth and producing the best record in the NHL. The offensive balance is a bit better than last year, when everything was even more dependent on Perry. Now the Ducks just need to get healthy in net and it could be a sunny spring in SoCal.

Are The Anaheim Mighty Ducks Really Best In The West?

, , , , ,

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks are leading the NHL’s Pacific Division, and have moved past the Chicago Blackhawks in both the Western Conference, and the league overall for the best record in hockey. The smart money in Las Vegas has taken notice, with Anaheim now at 5-1 to win the Stanley Cup, narrowly better than defending champion Chicago, at 11-2. Is it time to take the Ducks seriously as one of the league’s elite?

Anaheim won the Cup back in 2007, but has missed the playoffs twice in the ensuing six seasons and only once have they even made the second round. But they seemed to be knocking on the door last year, getting the #2 seed in the Western Conference before having their hearts broken by the Detroit Red Wings in a seven-game first-round series.


The problem Anaheim had then, and a reason I picked them to lose that series to Detroit, is a lack of offensive balance. This team is very dependent on Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaff to generate any kind of production. Perry is having an MVP-caliber season, with 28 goals (2nd in the league) and 27 assists, while Getzlaff isn’t far behind at 25 goals and 33 assists.

Perry and Getzlaff, virtually by themselves, have made this the #3 scoring offense in the NHL. But when you get to the playoffs and things tighten up defensively, they need some help. Teemu Selanne is 43-years-old. Does he have any gas left in the tank? How about Dustin Penner? The Ducks brought him in for Los Angeles, but Penner hasn’t done anything to imitate his heroics from the Kings’ run to the Stanley Cup in 2012.

Anaheim’s defense is sound, ranking 9th in the league in goals against, and slightly better than that in shots allowed. This is in spite of going some through inconstancy at the goalie spot. Viktor Fasth was injured in late November, and has yet to return. Jonas Hiller has stepped in and done a manageable job, with a 91.3% save rate. But that rate ranks 27th in the league—its fine for some fill-in work during the dog days of the NHL season, but it will be woefully inadequate come playoff time.


That’s what makes the potential emergence of 24-year-old Frederik Andersen so interesting. Andersen has gotten three starts in the month of January and played well in all three, including turning back 34 of 36 shots last night in St. Louis.

That’s strong performance against the kinds of teams Anaheim will need to beat in the spring. Yesterday, TheSportsNotebook posted a sports history article about the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes. They were a team that had some goalie issues, and gave a shot to 21-year-old Cam Ward. The team won the Cup and Ward took home the Conn Smythe. I’m not saying that’s what would happen with Andersen, but it’s the kind of dice roll it’s worth taking.

As the tone of this article makes clear, I don’t think Anaheim is a real Stanley Cup contender yet. I need to see better goaltending, and a couple other guys step up on the offensive end. I’m much more ready to buy Perry for the Hart Trophy (given to the MVP) for how high he has lifted this team than I am on the notion that Anaheim would beat Chicago when it counts the most.