Ducks Road Trip

Mandatory Credit: Marilyn Indahl-USA TODAY Sports

The Ducks opened the season with a three game road trip starting last wednesday with a loss in Colorado. They then went on to right the ship with wins in Minnesota and Winnipeg. They will be returning home for their season opener at the newly revamped Honda Center on wednesday. Before we move on to upcoming games let’s recap the first three.

Ducks vs Avalanche: Loss 6-1
The Ducks lost their season opener 6-1. In what I hope is the worst Ducks game we have to watch all year, it was downright awful. I don’t know what else to say. While the first period wasn’t so bad the rest of the game was downright atrocious. Turnovers, Lack of effort, poor decision making all doomed the Ducks. Obviously the highlight of the night’s game, it’s been playing all over ESPN, was Patrick Roy’s hilarious and unnecessary outburst and caveman actions. I mean I think we all want to win, we all want the best for our team but he was just out of control. The NHL believed so and fined him $10,000. The war of words continued off the ice as well with Coach B calling Roy “bush league and not 25 anymore” while Roy called Coach B “classless and a liar.” The NHL by fining Roy obviously agreed thats Roy’s actions were bush league, classless and have no right in todays game.

Lowlights:
Viktor Fasth was horrible. Sure he had no help in front of him with multiple turnovers from his defensemen but he was pretty bad.
The Ducks as a whole were atrocious. The didn’t put up a fight and looked like they didn’t want to be on the ice
Patrick Maroon was started over Dustin Penner and he didn’t show the coaching staff what they had seen in the preseason
Corey Perry c’mon dude!!!! You won the Hart Trophy when you scored 50 goals in the 2010/11 season. Can the real Corey Perry please stand up?

Highlights:
Jakob Silfverberg scored his first goal for the Ducks. The centerpiece of the trade that center Bobby Ryan to the Senators is paying dividends. This kid is the real deal. I wish Bobby the best of luck but I think this trade was for the best of everybody.

Ducks vs Wild: Win 4-3 OT
The Ducks came into this game with a lot more energy than the previous contest. Even though they played a more spirited game there was still too much loafing around. This game was a see saw game that saw the Ducks jump out to a 2-0 and then a 3-1 lead before ultimately giving up goals that forced this game into overtime. The Ducks need to capitalize and finish off games where they have leads. We again saw nothing out of the top line and while the defense was much improved it was still at times sub par. In overtime Cam Fowler showed why we love him and his potential. The kid absolutely thrives in overtime and assisted on Perreault’s OT winner which was put through Nicholas Backstrom’ss five hole. For all the heat Bob Murray has taken regarding personnel moves it looks like the Silfverberg Trade and Perreault trade have swung in our favor.

Lowlights:
The Top Line was once again barely visible. The Ducks are paying Getzlaf and Perry over 16 million combined. They should and need to dominate games.
The Penalty Kill is bad. Emerson Etem needs to get back right away. They allowed two goals on five penalties and have now allowed four on eight penalties for the season.
Penalties! The Ducks are taking too many bad and unneccesary penalties right now. This is a good team but they must play clean smart hockey going forward.

Highlights:
Jakob Silfverberg looked great once again. He scored his second goal of the season.
Matthew Perreault was fantastic tonight. He has showed major flashes of talent these first two games. He again centered Silfverberg and they seem to have some chemistry together. He ended the night with a goal and an assist including the game winner in OT
Cam Fowler had a decent game and a great OT. He flew around the ice in the extra period breaking up and odd man rush and then assisting on the game winner.

Ducks vs Jets: Win 3-2
This was the Teemu Selanne night and the Ducks made sure they got the win. It was his final homecoming to Winnipeg where he was drafted and played for four seasons to begin his career. Selanne received a standing ovation and had this to say “It was a very special night,” he said after the game. “I knew it was going to be my last one here. It was emotional, but i tried to keep my emotions [under control]. Great memories here. It was good to leave with a victory and keep going.” The Ducks penalty kill is still a work in progress, giving up another goal in three chances, opposing teams are now 5 for 11 on the year. This was another fairly even game and if it wasn’t for a Zach Bogosian turnover/whiff/slip with five minutes to go it most likely would have ended up in overtime. Luckily for us Corey Perry was standing in front of the Jets net when Bogosian sent a slow moving puck through the crease and right onto Perry’s stick who quickly roofed it to give the Ducks the lead and eventually the win. Mathieu Perreault and Jakob Silfverberg continued their magic with Perreault scoring his second of the year on an assist from Silfverberg.

Lowlights:
The Penalty kill is absolutely terrible right now. 5 for 11 is down right awful. I know the season is young but this must be fixed
The Power Play is equally as bad. They were 0 for 4 in this game and now 1 for 11 on the year.
The Top Line was again quiet besides Corey Perry’s gimme goal.

Highlights:
Our Second line is carrying this team right now. They are playing great hockey and really feed off each other. The additions of Silfverberg and Perreault look like genius acquisitions.
Viktor Fasth was solid in net after giving up 6 on opening night but also faced only 17 shots.
The Defense as a whole was much improved tonight and looks to be improving stedily as this season goes on.