Playing The Blame Game

It’s easy for us armchair generals to point fingers and say things like dumb trades were made, the kids aren’t as ready for the Big Show as they think they are, the goaltending is sub-par or Teemu Selanne had been playing through his undisclosed injury for at least a couple of weeks.

However, that being said, losing to the Oilers is absolutely inexcusable.  Even more humiliating than losing to the Devils.  Where were the set ups?  Where was the passing?  Where was the traffic in front of the net?  Where were the rebounds?  Where were the Ducks?

The game started looking hopeful enough during the waning minutes of the second period when Bobby Ryan scored a power-play goal eight seconds after a delay-of-game penalty against Oilers Theo Peckham followed by a Saku Koivu goal 22 seconds later.  But just as the crowd began to perk up, Ales Hemsky scored with less than seven minutes left in the third and the empty netter led to my turning off the telly and going to bed.

The “groans heard round the world” award goes to Bobby Ryan.  A few minutes after the Oilers’ second goal in the second, he takes a sweet cross pass from Ryan Getzlaf, tees up perfectly and … rings it off the top post.  Then, early in the third, the almost exact same thing happens.  As the official Ducks blogger put it “Ryan has seen more plumbing than one of the Mario Bros.”  I bet you could’ve heard that shot in the parking lot.

The “don’t make fun of me” award goes to the recently recalled Danny Sexton who had to wear a full cage while his reconstructed nose is still on the mend, eliciting comments of “aww, he looks just like a Squirt!”

The “who put axle grease on my paddle?” award goes to little Nicky Bonino, who should’ve been able to capitalize on a big, fat Luca Sbisa rebound off Dubnyk that resulted in a big, fat wide open net, but he somehow couldn’t get his stick on it.

Finally, the “I just wanna go home” award goes to Corey Perry who – with mere seconds left – made a desperation feed from behind the net, which hit nobody and slid all the way into the empty net. In terms of stats, at least it’ll show Tom Gilbert getting the goal since he was the last Oiler to touch the puck instead of a Perry own goal.

Owwww.  That hurt just to type.

At least there was one “did that really happen?” funny that went the Ducks way.  About four minutes into the second, Oiler Theo Peckham was sent off for two minutes for delay of game.  The officials claim he sent the puck over the glass.  Peckham argued vehemently that it went through the photographer’s hole (get your head out of the gutter).  Apparently, delay of game isn’t reviewable, so the botched call stood and the broadcasters got a good chuckle out of that.  Peckham was extremely hot under the collar at the time, but after the game he joked with reporters, telling them that during warm-ups he actually asked someone if the puck had ever gone through the camera hole.  If that ain’t irony, I don’t know what is.

The Bungee Cord Effect…

Just when they thought it was safe to go back to the Ponda: As of today, right wing Dan Sexton, center Nick Bonino and left wing Brandon McMillan have been reassigned to the Syracuse Crunch (AHL).  I sure hope those guys have frequent flyer miles with their favourite airlines.  At this rate they’ll be able to fly first class around the planet in about three months.