Anaheim Ducks: Three Musts At Training Camp
NHL Training Camp 2018 is fast approaching. With it comes the positive feel and promise that a clean slate provides. Here is where we get our first look at what the team can look like. It’s a time when fans get to play head coach for a few weeks.
It’s fun and happy, but this camp for our Anaheim Ducks will be different. It must be different. This will be the first of many articles regarding camp as we wait with high anticipation for the Ducks to take the ice.
As mentioned above, training camp always provides a fair amount of optimism. It’s a new season, a chance to turn in the page. While Ducks fans should have high levels of optimism when the Ducks begin camp a month from now, they should also need to see more.
More than just blind good feelings and blind faith that this team can do real damage. Somehow straddling that line between getting wrapped up in the negativity that some fans do, and the head in the clouds optimist that some fans also get grouped in.
Ducks Nation needs to see things are changing, and changing in the right areas. So, in Ducks Camp 2018, don’t look at line combos, and don’t look for who they bring in for potential PTO’s. Look for these three things to feel good about the 2018-19 Anaheim Ducks.
I Feel The Need
It has been written on at nauseum. The Anaheim Ducks need to play and be faster. We all know how they looked in last years playoffs. (I promise this is the last time I will bring up post-season 2018, I hope). If there is a silver lining to that post-season it showed the Ducks their most glaring weakness.
Following the early exit, General Manager Bob Murray lamented on the team needing to get and play faster. In virtually all his media sessions this summer he has addressed the speed factor in some way. Whether it was calling out specific player’s off-season preparation like Corey Perry or the team as a whole.
At the Ducks beach party last month, Murray went as far as saying anyone who didn’t want to play fast has a seat with their name on it next to him. He also stated that the coaching staff had a “mandate” to play fast this season. So if that’s the case, next month’s camp should have one theme, speed.
Training camp is where the team comes together as a unit. Where players become a family to attack an 82 game gauntlet with and the hope of playing for sports greatest prize. So the Ducks need to be fast from the jump; whether its the drills, off-ice conditioning, or intra-squad scrimmages. I am going to want all the reports out of training camp to mention tempo, fast-paced and emphasis on quick puck movement. If it’s not Murray will know that Randy Carlyle hasn’t and won’t change.
The Kids Are Alright
The Anaheim Ducks are a somewhat of a crossroads. Albeit not your typical cross-roads. They are in a rare position where if played correctly it won’t be a re-build. It will be a re-load.
The Ducks still have a leadership/veteran core that any team would be jealous of. Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, Corey Perry, Patrick Eaves, and Adam Henrique up-front. Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm on the back-end. These guys have won Stanley Cups, been to Cup Finals and gone on many deep playoff runs. They know what it takes to win and how the game needs to be played that time of year. While they will be the driving force to a Ducks second Cup they would all tell you the same thing.
The team needs young skill guys and the right mix of depth to get it done in the post-season. As evidence of that, think of then young skill guys Getzlaf and Perry with the Hall of Fame veteran core that led the Ducks to the Cup in 07′.
History may be repeating itself finally as Sam Steel, Troy Terry, Kevin Roy, and Marcus Pettersson are looking to make the full-time NHL jump. Sprinkle in Jakob Silfverberg, Ondrej Kase and Brandon Montour and the Anaheim Ducks have all the tools to do some real damage.
But the Ducks need to use these kids. In the past they could make the case they weren’t ready, they didn’t want to throw them to fire, or whatever other spin stories they wanted to sell. Now, these kids are ready and it begs the question if not now when?
Short of being a season-ticket holder for the San Diego Gulls no one in Ducks Nation should want to see these kids playing south of Anaheim. They need to come up, make their rookie mistakes, and start the steps to great NHL careers. There is no mistake these kids will make that Derek Grant, Chris Kelly, or insert over the hill veteran here wouldn’t make. The kids will learn and be better for it.
Training camp needs to have these kids around and playing in meaningful roles. If the intra-squad scrimmage has them on lines with fringe guys or if they get cut from the roster with Carter Rowney and Brain Gibbons still here, then management needs a good long look in the mirror. Because they aren’t putting a team out there capable of bringing a Cup home.
Walking Wounded
Though listed last it may be the most important. The Ducks have three key players coming back from an injury that must be100% during training camp. Its often forgotten, but Cam Fowler is coming back from a major shoulder injury. An injury that kept him out of the playoffs last year when the Ducks could’ve used everything he would’ve brought. This isn’t to say the series magically would’ve turned around had the Ducks had Fowler available, but it could’ve helped.
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All reports say he will be 100% by the time camp rolls around but I need to see that the shoulder is okay. It shouldn’t affect his skating stride but his ability to play physically as well as passing and shooting could be impacted. It needs to be seen if his shoulder is fully rehabbed and that he looks like the Fowler of old. This is not a knock on Hampus Lindholm, Fowler is the Ducks number one. Without him, I’m not sure where Anaheim will be this season.
Patrick Eaves is coming back from what people can not agree on. First reported as Guillan-Barre Syndrome then corrected to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and now it has been reported as Post Viral Syndrome. Whichever syndrome it was, it put Eaves down for the count last season. It’s not surprising, all three of these syndromes are no joke. They require at times medical attention and months and months of medical interventions plus aggressive physical therapy.
Videos have surfaced of Eaves working out as well as Murray reporting that he is 100% good to go. Although it remains to be seen what Eaves looks like on the ice and see if the Eaves we’re getting back is the same Eaves pre-syndrome. If he is back, it’s a great story and I truly hope its the case. No one should have to go through what he did, however, I need to see him on the ice before I know he is 100%.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly is Ryan Kesler. The way he plays the game is how you want everyone on your team to play. A hard-nosed, 200-foot game with the perfect blend of scoring and lockdown defense. Kesler has been worth every penny since coming to SoCal and has given the Ducks a dynamic one-two punch as he slots in behind Ryan Getzlaf. The issue, he may only have one hip. Reports surfaced back in May that Kesler could miss the entirety of this season.
Details since have been scarce. Kesler has said he will be fine and is looking to re-ignite his rivalry with Ryan Johansen though Twitter serving as the bits of positive news. As we push through the dog days of summer it seems we won’t know until camp opens. All of Ducks Nation wants Kesler back, but want a100% Kesler, not whatever percent he was at when he came back last season.
Next. Early look at the Ducks chances of winning individual awards next season. dark
With him, the Ducks have three of the best centers in the league. Without him, things could get dicey. I’ll be looking closely at all three of them to see what they can bring during camp.