Well, That Was Just F****** Embarassing!

Seems like about the entire team lost their cool.  This game was Scrum Central with 12 Ducks penalties, Ryan, Getzlaf, Parros and Perry accumulated a pair each.  Perry was especially aggressive, seemingly attempting to beat the snot out of any redshirt he could get his mitts on.

Are we seeing a return to the dreaded Ducks of yore?  When they attempted to emulate the perceived version of the Broad Street Bullies?  Was I actually right when I said that the preseason melee round with the San Jose Sharks was merely a precursor of things to come?

Oh lord, I surly hope not.

The only Ducks who managed to maintain their dignity were Selanne, Koivu and Darth Hiller.

In reaction to the debacle, Hiller was heard muttering “Looks like we weren’t ready to play.  Probably starts with me and goes all the way through.”

Harsh words to apply to oneself, but hopefully helpful ones as well.

The Red Wings scored early and busted apart any confidence the Ducks may have built up in the locker room prior to the game.  From then on it was utter chaos.

During a scrum in front of Detroit’s bench, Pavel Datsyuk casually skated over to help break it up and I swear he was laughing at the Ducks.

Can’t blame him.  Our play was terrible.

The final dust up during the Third produced the clearest and most telling memory of the game: George Parros pounding on someone with a look on his face that clearly said “what is the point of me hitting this guy?”

Hiller faced 43 shots while we only managed to get off 21 – five off Bobby Ryan’s stick alone.  So where was the leadership of Ryan Getzlaf in all of this mess?  Oh yeah, sitting in the penalty box.

Detroit’s defense managed to stifle Selanne time and time again and the underworked Jimmy Howard collected his fourth career shutout.

By the middle of the Second Period, you could tell it was over.  The frustration was just baking off the players.  The Ducks looked like overmatched kids at a pond pickup game vs their parents.  At one point I fully expected Getzlaf to pick up the puck, hurl it into the crowd and yell “WE DON’T WANT TO PLAY ANYMORE!”

Injury Report:

Defenseman Brett Festerling has been recalled from the AHL Syracuse Crunch (where he had been relegated about 15 minutes ago) because Andy Sutton somehow managed to bust his thumb while sparring with Ruslan Salei.

**shaking head miserably** Andy, Andy, Andy.  Thumb outside the fingers when throwing haymakers, not inside!

Ducks vs Predators tonight:

Well, it’s JUST the Preds, but they’re gonna be pumped after the Ducks loss yesterday, so we’ll be in for a bit of fierceness.  Everyone needs to calm down and play smart hockey, not knock hockey.  The full preview can be found here.