Ducks in New Jersey Tonight
By Omar Zaman
The Ducks will begin their four-game, East coast road trip tonight in New Jersey. The Devils are off to a strong start with an 11-4-0 record, and they figure to be helped by the return of Captain Patrick Elias. Elias played for New Jersey two games ago before being scratched the next game as the Devils are being cautious with him. Plenty of time has passed since that time and he should be back and ready to play against the Ducks
Rob Niedermayer, brother of the Ducks’ Scott Niedermayer, will not play as he is injured. Ducks and Devils fans will find this as a bit of a role reversal as not too long ago the brothers wore opposite jerseys. But we will not see the brother battle tonight. All we can hope for is that it will resume in the playoffs, where the two teams can only meet in the Stanley Cup Finals as champions of their respective conferences.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Ducks are still at the bottom of the Western Conference as every team seems to be competitive this year. The Ducks have played well on the road this season and have played extremely well in recent games, so look for them to continue their solid play tonight.
J.S. Giguere will be back in uniform for the Ducks after making some interesting comments and only Coach Randy Carlyle knows who will start. My guess is Jonas Hiller will be the starting goalie tonight and Giguere will take one of the back-to-back games upcoming this weekend. Line combinations will remain the same as the Ducks don’t want to mess up the groove they’re currently in.
Other news of interest includes Drew Miller being placed on waivers by the Tampa Bay Lightning. If you ask me, Miller would be a great pickup for the Ducks. Not only would we have received Evgeny Artyukhin for free, but we’d also re-acquire Miller who is defensively responsible and can handle the duties of a checking line. The Ducks have been struggling to put a checking line together and while Miller is slightly under-sized with his weight, he is a solid skater and terrific penalty killer. Add to that that he’s only owed $525,000 for this year and would be a restricted free agent this summer and you have a perfect situation to bring him back.
So to Ducks’ GM Bob Murray: PLEASE bring back Drew Miller! It can’t hurt and will definitely help the struggling penalty kill. It’s a no-brainer!
Line combinations for tonight:
FORWARDS
Bobby Ryan – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Joffrey Lupul – Saku Koivu – Teemu Selanne
Evgeny Artyukhin – Todd Marchant – Petteri Nokelainen
Mike Brown – Ryan Carter – George Parros
DEFENSE
Scott Niedermayer – Nick Boynton
Ryan Whitney – James Wisniewski
Steve Eminger – Brendan Mikkelson
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From Mike G. Morreale at NHL.com:
DUCKS (6-7-2) at DEVILS (11-4-0)
Last 10 — Ducks (4-5-1); Devils (8-2-0)
Season series — The Devils haven’t beaten Anaheim in a regular-season game since 2002-03, when they won both meetings before beating the Ducks again in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final. Following a 3-3 tie in 2003-04, the Devils have dropped three in a row, including a 4-3 loss at Anaheim on Jan. 11 in the teams’ only meeting in 2008-09.
Big story — New Jersey’s Patrik Elias was a healthy scratch in Saturday’s 3-2 victory at Ottawa on Saturday after returning to the lineup in Friday’s 2-1 home win over the Islanders. Elias, who was held out from playing consecutive games for precautionary reasons after missing the team’s first 13 games of the season following groin surgery, should be good to go against Anaheim. He earned 16:01 of ice time on 24 shifts and finished with two shots in the win over the Isles.
Team Scope
Ducks — Anaheim re-assigned goalie Justin Pogge to the minors on Monday to make way for Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who missed six games with a strained groin muscle suffered Oct. 24. He returned to practice Nov. 2 and is slated to back up Jonas Hiller against the Devils on Wednesday. Anaheim’s visit to New Jersey is the first of a four-game road swing, including back-to-back contests on Friday (Columbus) and Saturday (Detroit). Giguere is 0-2-1 with a 3.65 goals-against average this season.
“I’m sure we’re going to have to use Giguere here very shortly,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle told The Orange County Register. “We’ll see how things go on Wednesday in New Jersey.”
Giguere told the Los Angeles Daily News that he would “rather retire than be a backup,” and added that “something needs to happen.”
Devils — Devils president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builder’s category on Monday, was the big story this week. Lamoriello, 67, who has spent 23 years with the club, also served as general manager of Team USA and was coach and athletic director at his alma mater, ProvidenceCollege. Several Devils’ players were in attendance at the ceremony in Toronto on Monday, including Martin Brodeur, Jamie Langenbrunner, Zach Parise, Colin White and Jay Pandolfo. Devils assistant coach Scott Stevens was also in attendance.
“There’s no question it’s touching,” Lamoriello said of his Hall induction. “It just really reflects of how fortunate I have been to be associated with two organizations for the period of time in both, and then be surrounded by such quality people, whether it’s coaches or players, because any recognition to someone like this in this position is really the sort of result of what everybody has done with and around you.”
Who’s hot — Anaheim’s top line of Ryan Getzlaf centering for Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan is white hot. Perry and Getzlaf each own eight-game scoring streaks and Ryan has a three-game scoring streak as well as 5 goals and 8 points in his last six games. Devils defenseman Andy Greene stretched his point streak to three games (1 goal) when he connected for the game-winner in a 3-2 victory over Ottawa on Saturday.
Injury report— The Devils are without defensemen Johnny Oduya (lower body, indefinite) and Paul Martin (forearm fracture, four weeks) and forwards Rob Niedermayer (upper body, indefinite) and Jay Pandolfo (shoulder, four weeks).
Stat pack — The Ducks have killed 13-of-14 opposition power plays (92.9 percent) dating to Oct. 31 at Phoenix. In his last two games, Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller has stopped 67 of 70 shots with a 1.50 goals-against average and .957 save percentage.
Puck drop— The Devils will honor the 2003 Stanley Cup team that defeated the Ducks in the Final; before the game. Only five players (Elias, Pandolfo, Martin Brodeur, Jamie Langenbrunner and Colin White) remain from that team.
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