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Anaheim Ducks Week 3 Edition Of Monday Mornin’ On The Pond

By Griffin Foster

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Anaheim Ducks fans, welcome back to Monday mornin’ on the pond. Here is your week three edition!

Week 3 Around The NHL

The Montreal Canadiens are off to a historic start, 9-0 has them looking like the early favorites. To make things even more incredible, their goal differential thus far is +23. The next best goal differential is +11, let that sink in.

The New York Rangers are clicking on all cylinders as well. Former Chicago Blackhawk goaltender Antti Raanta is now the man backing up king Henrik in New York. Raanta has been incredible in his first few games, helping the Rangers get off to a great start.

As you probably saw first hand Thursday night when they destroyed the Ducks, the Nashville Predators have been the western conference’s best team so far.

As if a first defensive pairing of Shea Weber and Roman Josi weren’t enough, the Preds are now witnessing the emergence of a young super star, Seth Jones. The deepest and arguably most talented blue-line in the west has gotten off to a great start.

The Washington Capitals have a russian born player on their team that has gotten off to a great start, what if I told you his name is not Alex Ovechkin?

It’s Evgeny Kuznetzov and you better remember that name, he is the future of this Washington team. He was named the NHL’s first star of the week.

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The St. Louis Blues have gotten off to a good start as well but some injuries have hit them early, it will be interesting to see how they respond. The Ducks meet the banged up Blues for this first time this season in St. Louis on Thursday night.

There was a serious injury scare that occurred this week. Flyer’s forward Michael Raffl collapsed on the bench during a game after taking a seemingly innocent elbow to the face on one of his previous shifts.

Raffl is reported to be fine after the scare. Teammates thought that he was joking when he collapsed but it quickly turned serious. Glad to hear Raffl is okay.

The Florida Panthers have had their ups and downs but after a nice start they have hit another low point. Forward Aleksander Barkov will be injured for a while, continuing the early injury news that is hitting nearly every club.

The Kings are starting to heat up. Milan Lucic scored his first goal as a King and Tyler Toffoli is on an absolute tear as well with five goals to this point.

The biggest news of the week came from Columbus where the Blue Jackets fired their head coach Todd Richards after a bad 0-7 start.

John Tortorella is back in the NHL and will be the new guy behind the Columbus bench, get ready for some interesting post game press conferences. Tortorella apparently already told star center Ryan Johansen that he was ‘out of shape’.

Anaheim Ducks Week 2

Week three started as a promising one for the Ducks. After getting their first win Sunday night against the Minnesota Wild, the Ducks had three days to prepare for a central division road trip.

Unfortunately for the Ducks, they left their offense and defense back in Anaheim and they were blown out of the water by the Predators on Thursday night, losing 5-1.

Before the game even started there was doubt. Anton Khudobin was the first goalie off the ice for the Ducks in the morning skate and many questioned Boudreau’s decision yet again.

Obviously you can’t pin the 5-1 loss entirely on Khudobin as no other players performed well, but you certainly have to question the decision made by Boudreau after you look at the goalie stats heading into that game.

Goalie A: 1.57 GAA .947% Save Percentage

Goalie B: 3.29 GAA .907% Save Percentage

Goalie A had about six days rest while goalie B had about three days rest. Boudreau went with goalie B, Anton Khudobin and it didn’t work.

Anaheim Ducks
Anaheim Ducks /

Anaheim Ducks

Aside from the goalie drama, there was no real effort from the Ducks at either end of the ice. They again seemed confused on what the game plan was.

Corey Perry had some really nice opportunities and just missed a few of them, but overall the Ducks failed to generate good scoring chances for 60 minutes.

This poor performance carried over to Saturday’s game in Minnesota. The Ducks were shutout once again after beating the Wild 4-1 just six days earlier.

The Ducks stars did not show up in this one, Getzlaf, Perry and Kesler were nowhere to be found.

Freddie Andersen once again did just about everything he could have done to keep the game close. He made a number of ridiculous saves and without him, the score would have likely been 5-0 or 6-0.

The week started with three steps forward and ended with 10 steps backwards, the Ducks have a lot of soul searching to do with three tough road games coming up this week.

Whose Hot For The Anaheim Ducks

Well, I could stick it to the Ducks and leave this section of the article blank this week but I won’t do that, not yet at least. Let’s find a bright spot in a dark dark week.

Hampus Lindholm.

Lindholm is leading the Ducks in ice time and is showing that he is now the Ducks clear number one blue-liner. He’s been good at both ends of the ice and the statistics show that he is turning into a really sound defensive minded defensemen.

He played over 23 minutes in the 5-1 loss to Nashville, leading the Ducks in ice time again, and yet he finished with a -1 rating. In a game where the Ducks were completely embarrassed, their number one defensemen finished with a -1 rating, he needs even more minutes than he is already getting.

His defensive partner Kevin Bieksa finished with a -4 rating, just let that sink in.

Another interesting stat is that Hampus Lindholm’s plus minus differential per 60 minutes thus far is -0.46. That ranks him 4th on the Ducks and he sits behind only Mike Santorelli, Korbinian Holzer and Josh Manson, three guys who have not played regularly this season.

Whose Not Hot For The Anaheim Ducks 

Getzlaf, Perry and Kesler.

The Ducks big three have gone a-wall. They are nowhere to be found and they are not leading this team out of the rut.

Without strong performances from the leaders, the rest of the Ducks team will continue to struggle. The effort must change and it starts with the big three who need to get angry and play with a lot more passion and aggression.

It’s time for Getlzaf and Perry to start taking the criticism personally.

San Diego Gulls Prospect Update

The Gulls had another good week. They started out with a win on Wednesday night in San Jose, beating the Barracuda 3-2 in a shootout.

Nic Kerdiles scored his first goal of the season while Brandon Montour and Shea Theodore continue their strong offensive play on the blue-line, each picked up and assist in the game.

The Gulls again beat the Barracuda on Friday night by a score of 3-0. The Gulls outshot the Barracuda 34-23.

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John Gibson posted another shutout while Chris Wagner and Nick Ritchie supplied the scoring. Brandon Montour added another assist in this one and he is looking like a really promising prospect.

The Gulls ended the week just as the Ducks did, by getting shutout. Matt Hackett was in net in Bakersfield Saturday night and only stopped 18 of the 21 shots he faced. This game was full of bad blood and penalties as a number of players on both teams received game misconducts.

Overall it was a good week for the Gulls and the top prospects continue to shine. Nick Ritchie now has 4 goals through five games and the Gulls sit at 4-1.

NHL Player Of The Week

Tyler Toffoli.

Toffoli now has six goals on the season and has picked up right where he left off last season. He has been a big spark for the Kings and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The Kings started slow and Toffoli has helped them climb back up and the Kings are playing really good hockey right now.

Anaheim Ducks 3 Stars Of The Week

None. Here is where I’ll stick it to the Ducks. No reason for me to try and find three guys who might have played somewhat decent.

Anaheim Ducks Stat Of The Week.

The Ducks have scored six goals this season. There are now three players with more than six goals and four players with the same amount of goals as the Ducks. One of those players with six goals is 43 year old Jaromir Jagr.

Anaheim Ducks Play Of The Week

Freddie Andersen robbed Wild defensemen Matt Dumba with a ridiculous paddle save. Early save of the year candidate to say the least.

Anaheim Ducks Preview Of The Week Ahead

Bruce Boudreau is about to embark on the biggest three game stretch of his coaching career. If his team continues to play poorly you can expect him to be gone by weeks end.

The road trip continues tonight in Chicago where the Ducks will get their first shot at revenge against the reigning champs. Duncan Keith is out for a while after undergoing knee surgery and there are a lot of new faces in the Hawks lineup. Corey Crawford will be in net as will Freddie Andersen, it should be a heated battle.

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The Ducks will have their first back to back on Tuesday night when the play the Dallas Stars who have gotten off to a really good start. It will be interesting to see what Boudreau does with his goaltenders in this one, could Andersen play two in a row?

The road trip comes to a close on Thursday night when the Ducks take on the ailing St. Louis Blues. Injuries have hit the Blues hard but they have a lot of young talented guys who have stepped up and played well to begin the season.

The Ducks will get another shot at the Nashville Predators on Sunday, only this time the game will occur at Honda Center. This is going to be a big measuring stick as the Ducks will look to prove that the 5-1 loss in Nashville was a fluke.

Power Rankings

1. Montreal Canadiens

2. Nashville Predators

3. Washington Capitals

4. Dallas Stars

5. Chicago Blackhawks

6. Minnesota Wild

7. New York Rangers

8. St. Louis Blues

9. New York Islanders

10. Winnipeg Jets

Final Thoughts

Bruce Boudreau has two, possibly three games to turn this thing around. If the Ducks play poorly tonight in Chicago and Tuesday in Dallas, then I think he gets canned Wednesday morning. If they play a little better, then I think general manager Bob Murray reevaluates after the road trip ends Thursday night.

A lot of talk has been made over potential coaching candidates to replace Boudreau. The fact of the matter is that nobody noteworthy is available. If a change does occur it will likely be an in house change. Right now I think that Ducks assistant coach Trent Yawney is the frontrunner if former Ducks coach Randy Carlyle is not a candidate. Assistant coach Paul Maclean is another option, but Yawney seems to be a guy that is making noise as the potential replacement if a change is made.

A lot of young defensemen are getting contract extensions done with their clubs. Mattias Ekholm of the Predators is the latest young blue-liner to get a new deal. He signed a six year $22.5 million dollar deal, giving him a cap hit of $3.75 million. You have to wonder how long Murray is going to wait until he signs Lindholm to an extension. Clearly Murray has more pressing issues at hand, but the longer he waits, the more he may have to pay Lindholm. A four to six year deal paying Hampus $5 or $5.5 million annually is in order.

Ducks director of player personnel Rick Paterson was spotted at a few Buffalo Sabres games in the past week while Bob Murray was doing some scouting for team Canada. Paterson’s presence at those games could be tied to Murray’s scouting trip, but it could also be a sign that the Ducks are weighing out potential trade options.

Hampus Lindholm needs to be given more responsibility. As I pointed out earlier he played over 23 minutes against Nashville and finished with a -1 rating in a 5-1 loss. He is ready for a bigger role that should have him playing 25 or 26 minutes a night. You have to wonder if he is in need of a different defensive partner. I don’t think Kevin Bieksa will be able to maintain 25 minutes a night through the entire season. Bieksa was also a -4 in the Nashville game.

That does it for your week three edition of Monday mornin’ on the pond, see you next week.

Next: Anaheim Ducks Fate Now Lies In The Hands Of Bob Murray

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