Calendar Page Turns Yet Again

Leap Day is over and now we head into March. The last full month of the regular season is here and the Ducks have some ground to make up and are running out of time. As of March 1st, their record stands at 27-27-10 with 64 points and are currently 7 points out of 8th. The teams in their way are the Minnesota Wild, 65 points, Calgary Flames, 67 points, Los Angeles Kings, 70 points, Colorado Avalanche, 70 points, and the Dallas Stars in 8th with 71 points.

The Ducks come into March 6-3-1 in their last 10 games but have lost the last 2 against the Avalanche and Buffalo Sabres. After that impressive performance on the road trip, the Ducks didn’t show up in Denver and couldn’t beat Ryan Miller last night. The Ducks do not have time to have many of these short little stints of bad play. Los Angeles looks to be improving. Calgary sends a lot of games to OT so they have gotten some points lately. Colorado looks like a playoff team the way they are playing right now and so do the Dallas Stars. This up hill climb will not be easy.

Looking at their schedule the rest of the way, they have no more games against the Wild. They play the Flames two more times, including tomorrow. They play the rival Kings two more times as well, both this month. They have one more meeting with the Avalanche in the middle of March. Finally, they have one more game against the Stars. In March, 9 of their 14 games are against teams that are currently in the playoffs. Including match ups against the Red Wings, once, the Blues, twice, the Predators, once, and the Boston Bruins in late March.

The Ducks didn’t play a bad game against the Sabres, they just ran into a brick wall in Ryan Miller. Which is a bit frustrating because that might be the first time that Miller has played like a brick wall all season long. However, the Ducks play in Colorado was very discouraging. It was a chance to make a statement against another hot team fighting for a playoff spot in the West and they completely sh*t the bed. I don’t mean to be a Downer Dan but if the Ducks don’t at least win the next game against Calgary without going to an over time, I’m going to get pretty concerned about the playoffs. But, they got time, not much, but they got time to fight back. This month will decide their playoff fate.

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