Readers beware: soul-crushing pessimism coming at you. Read at your own risk!
People: I want to believe.
When I wrote my Five Reasons Why The Anaheim Ducks Will Win It All piece late last night/early this morning, that was the side of me that caused me to join FanSided and cover the NHL and the Ducks from the cozy confines of my den.
I don’t want to come across as a homer, but damn it, I am a fan.
So yeah – I believe the Anaheim Ducks can – no, will – win it all this season.
But . . .
A part of me (probably the annoying English teacher side) always strives to consider ever side of the story. It’s part of my boyish appeal.
It’s also annoying as hell . . . but since I can’t change who I am, here we are: examining five reasons why the Ducks could wind up being not-so-Mighty, again.
Note: since this is nowhere near as much fun to write as the earlier one, I’m not going to use slides. Let’s just get it the hell over with!
1. Lack of a number one goalie
When I say the Anaheim Ducks lack a number one goalie, I am not implying that neither Frederik Andersen nor John Gibson are talented enough to be considered “the guy.”
Instead, the Ducks are once again one of those teams that are taking the “goalie by committee” approach. Personally, I hate this approach. Having seen teams ride transcendent goalies such as Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur, Jonathan Quick, and Henrik Lundqvist all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals and beyond (yes, I’m aware Lundqvist has not lifted Lord Stanley’s Cup -yet), the thought of a coach over-thinking who his starting goaltender will be bothers me. Forget match-ups – hot goalies become the match-up problem, not vice versa.
Maybe Bruce Bodreau will get lucky, start the right goaltender, and then just leave him be . . . but since I brought him up:
2. The Ducks still have Bruce Boudreau on the bench
By all now, everyone who follows the Ducks knows the story. Bruce Boudreau leads the team to an impressive regular season. The playoffs begin with everyone expecting great things . . . and everyone is left wondering what happened after another early exit by the Ducks.
The Ducks are 135-56-21 during the last three regular seasons; their last 20 playoff games, 10-10.
Fair or not, with the amount of talent at his disposal, the knock on Boudreau will continue to be that he is great regular season coach . . . only . . . until he finally gets the Ducks to the Stanley Cup Finals. Some would even argue that nothing less than winning the Cup will save Boudreau’s job.
3. They are too reliant on Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.
Oil On Whyte
As nice as it is to have nine players score 10+ goals during the regular season, everyone understands that as Getzlaf and Perry go, so go the Anaheim Ducks. When Getzlaf or Perry scored a goal this season? The Ducks went 30-8-2. When both of those guys got blanked? Try 21-16-5.
That’s .500 hockey, folks, when the two-headed monster earns a donut on the evening. Every team that Anaheim faces will be doing everything in its power to slow down, if not shutout, these two guys. God help the Ducks if some team succeeds in this endeavor.
4. Anaheim has not played well against the Eastern Conference playoff teams.
If the regular season means anything, the Ducks are the odds-on favorite to emerge from the Western Conference in these playoffs. As I wrote earlier, Anaheim went 18-5-2 against the seven other Western Conference playoff teams this season – incredibly impressive. In fact, the only team in the conference that was able to win its season series against the Ducks was Chicago – better hope the Ducks don’t run into these guys.
It’s a totally different story, though, when we look at how Anaheim did against the Eastern Conference playoff teams. The Ducks went 2-0 against both Montreal and Detroit, and 1-0-1 against the Islanders. However, the Rangers (0-2), Lightning (0-2), Senators (0-2), Capitals (0-1-1) and even the Penguins (0-2) absolutely owned the Ducks during the regular season.
Having a losing record against five of the eight teams you might meet in the Stanley Cup Finals? Uhhh . . . .
Let’s just move on to . . .
5. EA Sports’ NHL 15 Simulation predicted the Anaheim Ducks would win it all.
Damn you, EA Sports!!!!!!!
This is the freaking kiss of death!
As always: I love to discuss! Share thoughts, opinions, whatever in the comments below!