The Anaheim Ducks Consistency and Leadership Is Almost Laughable

By Griffin Foster | Dec 22, 2015

The Anaheim Ducks consistency issues traveled with the team on this road trip and another poor effort was on display in Brooklyn.

4 losses, 1 win, 5 losses, 4 wins, 3 losses, 1 win, 1 loss, 1 win, 1 loss, 1 win, 2 losses, 1 win, 1 loss, 2 wins, 2 losses, 1 win, 1 loss. This is the trend of the Anaheim Ducks season thus far. When you ask google to use the word inconsistent in a sentence, this is the example it will give you.

This team is broken and general manager Bob Murray is patiently waiting for the opportunity to fix it. His patience is running thin however and at this point, would it be foolish to think he may throw in the towel and accept his teams fate this season rather than throw away picks and prospects to potentially find a fix via trade?

The ’14-’15 Ducks, the ones that came just one loss short of reaching the cup final, had three winning streaks of more than two games and two losing streaks of more than two games by the 32 game mark. This year, the Ducks have one winning streak of more than two games and three losing streaks of more than two games, they played their 32nd game in Brooklyn Monday night.

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You may say well three winning streaks of more than two games in ’14-’15 is not much better than just one that they have put together this season. Well, those ’14-’15 Ducks had a pair of seven game winning streaks by this point in the season and that team also never lost more than three games in a row. This seasons team has lost more than three games in a row twice already.

Last night in Brooklyn, the Ducks played a pretty poor game and it was one you could have guessed was coming based off of their bumpy up and down season.

Freddie Andersen got the start but unfortunately only lasted one period. A lot of people were quick to throw the blame onto his shoulder because apparently every shot is stoppable and if the score is 3-1 after the first, you can blame a goalie.

Well, unfortunately his defense decided to play care free in the first period.

Kevin Bieksa went for a hip check on the first goal and missed, Clutterbuck walked right in and roofed one over Andersen’s shoulder. This one was on Freddie, he didn’t square his shoulders and he let it get by him, but again, Bieksa went for the home run hip check, missed and basically watched the play unfold after.

Brock Nelson was standing as close to Andersen as he possibly could have without getting a penalty just before the second Islanders goal was scored. Sami Vatanen deemed this to be acceptable and made absolutely no effort to get him out of the way.

Instead, Vatanen decided to stand in front of Nelson, almost serving as a second screen on Andersen. Travis Hamonic threw a puck at the net and Freddie had absolutely no vision to see the puck.

Here’s a link to that goal, watch it.

Nelson sees the puck go in the net and he pats Vatanen on the head as to say “thanks buddy for letting me screen your goalie without even being checked, I appreciate that one.”

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The next goal came off of an Islanders rush into the offensive zone. John Tavares carried the puck in and it was a 4-on-3 in favor of the Ducks, Cogliano back-checks Tavares to make him pass the puck and there is a winger who goes wide but Fowler had him covered. Vatanen simply skates backwards and let’s Nelson get off a shot from a favorable scoring area, no gap control at all.

So if you want to blame Andersen for these goals and last nights loss then go ahead and do that, but Gibson doesn’t stop that second goal and I think he has an extremely difficult time stopping the third goal as well.

Onto the offense and leadership.

At the 28 game mark last season, Ryan Getzlaf had 8 goals and 21 assists. Through 28 games this season the captain has 1 goal (on an empty net) and 18 assists.

This could look as though Getzlaf has just simply not found the back of the net despite staying effective with assists. Well, if you take away his 5 assist game against Columbus from earlier this season, Getzlaf would have 1 empty net goal and 13 assists.

The captain is playing like a fourth line grinder at this point. He’s taking stupid penalties and fighting for absolutely no reason and he thinks he’s giving his team energy by dropping the gloves, but he’s not.

It was almost laughable last night when Getzlaf tried to throw down with Tavares. Both players have been struggling this season but one had two assists last night and the other is Ryan Getzlaf.

Instead of taking himself out of the game with ridiculous attempts to fight, how about Getzlaf changes his game. If he wants to set an example, he should focus on driving the puck to the net and scoring from the dirty area right outside the crease.

Getzlaf is taking the lead by example thing in the wrong direction. You don’t lead a struggling team by trying to fight, you lead by trying to execute in ways that your team cannot.

Getzlaf’s passing is still at top form, nobody makes the backhand pass like he does, but it is time for him to stop playing a “cute” game and start playing a power forward game. He needs to start taking pucks to the net.

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Getzlaf is 6 foot 4, 220 pounds but right now he’s playing like he is 5’11, 180. Dancing around the outside making flashy backhand passes is great if this were the all star game, but it’s not, Getzlaf needs to simplify his game and use his big frame to take pucks to the net.

Of the leagues 29 team captains (Edmonton doesn’t have a captain) Ryan Getzlaf is tied for the least amount of goals so far this season.

Whose he tied with?

Willie Mitchell, the Florida Panthers defensemen also has one goal this season but he actually scored his while there was a goaltender in the crease.

Corey Perry has gone cold lately but still leads the Ducks in points. Ryan Kesler plays like a bat out of hell most nights and is the only Ducks forward you can vouch for when asked about consistent effort.

This team isn’t going to turn things around behind the strong play of Chris Stewart and Carl Hagelin, it has to be Getzlaf.

The way I see it, if Bob Murray makes a move it won’t be a small one, it’ll have to be something bold to wake this team up. The trade deadline is a ways away but Murray could pull the trigger sooner rather than later, potentially once the roster freeze ends soon after Christmas.

Has Murray thought about moving his captain? It wouldn’t surprise me if he has.

The Ducks take on the Rangers tonight which is a matchup of polar opposites. The stats suggest the Ducks to be under performing and the Rangers to be over performing.

It should be a fun one, but when I have said that this season the Ducks often get blown out, so who really knows at this point.

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