Regular Season Almost Upon Us

So, the Ducks have finished all of their preseason games, right?……………Wrong. They technically have one more preseason game before the NHL Premiere game in Helsinki against Buffalo. They face Helsinki Jokerit  of SM-liiga in Helsinki on October 4th. I tend to look at that game as a showcase for all of the Finnish player’s on the team, Koivu, Lydman and Selanne, but mainly Selanne. However, it will be more interesting than some people may expect. There are a few former NHLers on Jokerit. Former Duck Jarkko Ruutu now plays for Jokerit, along with former NHLers Ossi Vananen, Jani Rita and Sami Helenius. This team also has two Teemu’s. However, both of them combined cannot match half of the talent of Anaheim’s Teemu. But, until then, there are some things to discuss.

There are still some questions out there for the Ducks as Finland awaits them. The roster is only down to 26 right now and there are some tough decisions to be made soon. When it comes to goaltending, I’m pretty sure that Ellis will be the back up, and I don’t think many people would disagree with me. With the recent news of the Smaby injury and along with Foster being out, the defense won’t change much on the roster. Up front, the reason why Smith-Pelly is still on the team is unclear to me and probably many of you. Even though I’m a huge fan of getting young guys playing time, I disagree with this move because he has not played well at all and there are other young guys who have played better and probably are more NHL-ready. Like Etem for example, I’m a huge fan of Etem and was saddened to see him get cut. Once again, Maxime Macenauer is one of the last players before the last cuts. This training camp has probably been a deja vu for him as he awaits the decision to see if he will make the team this time around.

The first two lines are locked up. They’ll be the same as last year, Perry-Getzlaf-Ryan and Selanne-Koivu-Blake. The third line will most likely be centered by Andrew Cogliano barring some late injury or late dramatic mood swing in management. I would personally like to see Cogliano at center with Brandon McMillan to his left and Andrew Gordon to his right, however either one of those wingers could be Smith-Pelly instead. The fourth line could be centered by Macenauer, he is the only other center after Cogliano, Getzlaf and Koivu. George Moustache, I mean George Parros, will probably fourth-line right winger and then Matt Beleskey will probably be the fourth-line left winger.

On defense, I would like to see the following pairings: Fowler-Beauchemin, Lydman-Visnovsky, and Brookbank-Sbisa. However, I think Brookbank could be swapped out with Nate Guenin. These wouldn’t last long with Foster back maybe within the first week of the regular season. But, all these lines and pairings are just my thoughts on how this team will look when they take the ice in Helsinki to face Buffalo. To get ready for opening night, I’ve been watching a lot of videos on NHL.com and Youtube. Quite possibly my favorite video right now is called “The Best of Hockey – Clutchness.” That entire video just gives me goosebumps and just reminds me of how great this game can be. Now it’s only five days away!!!