Anaheim Ducks: What We’ve Learned- San Jose 10/3/18
The Anaheim Ducks opened their season on Wednesday at the SAP Center with the highly anticipated matchup against the San Jose Sharks. This may have only been their first game, but there is a lot we have learned.
The Anaheim Ducks regular season is underway! They opened the season Wednesday, October 3rd, against their cross-state rivals, the San Jose Sharks. This matchup has been anticipated ever since the Ducks released their regular season schedule. Opening their season against the Sharks gave them an opportunity to redeem themselves from the embarrassment of being swept in round one of the playoffs.
I think it is safe to say that Ducks Nation was torn as to whether or not the Ducks could actually redeem themselves. Half of us were hopeful starry-eyed fans, even though we knew a loss was possible. The other half were terrified of Erik Karlsson and skeptical as to whether or not we would make it out of the Shark Tank alive. Nevertheless, the Ducks came back in the third period and gave us a show.
The final score of Wednesday nights game still has me feeling awe-inspired. The Anaheim Ducks defeated the Sharks, 5-2. The fact that the Ducks won their home opener against the San Jose Sharks is much to celebrate. However, this is only the first game and we can’t really predict the outcome of the season with such a small sample size. Nevertheless, there is a lot that we, and the Anaheim Ducks, were able to learn during those 60 minutes.
Honorable Mentions
There was a fountain of knowledge that flowed freely after the season opener against the San Jose Sharks. To put it simply, there are both positives and negatives we can take from their performance. Although we will only focus on three today, there are a few that deserve an honorable mention.
The 4th line and Kiefer Sherwood: For the first time in a very long time, the Anaheim Ducks actually rolled out a decent fourth line. Ben Street, Carter Rowney, and Kiefer Sherwood all made their debut in a Ducks sweater and surprised a lot of people. The three of them were responsible for Anaheim’s fifth and final goal of the evening, sending a wrist shot into the back of the open net.
23-year-old Kiefer Sherwood, who made his NHL debut, had the most impact on the fourth line. He has an offensive flair and adds much-needed depth to the bottom six. He opened the door for Adam Henrique to score the Anaheim Ducks fourth goal on the power play. All in all, he may not be top six material, but his presence was felt on the ice, and definitely in a positive way.
D-pairings: If I can offer any advice to Randy Carlyle for Saturday’s game in Arizona, it would be this: the Lindholm-Manson and Fowler-Montour pairings of last season need to make a comeback! For some reason, and I am not quite sure as to why, but the Lindholm-Montour and Manson-Fowler pairings just didn’t click.
Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Montour pairing had slightly more success than Fowler and Manson. However, Cam Fowler and Josh Manson just didn’t work well together. Josh Manson had a rough night overall. He was responsible for two of the Ducks three penalties and made a few poorly thought out plays.
In my opinion, the reason last season’s pairings work so well is due to the fact that they balance each other out so well. Both Fowler and Montour have an offensive bend to their game. Although I believe Lindholm has an adequate blend of both offensive and defensive skills, he becomes a little more defensively-minded when he’s on the ice with Manson.
Fowler and Montour know how to drive the puck up the ice, whereas Lindholm and Manson know how to drive the pace of the game. Manson and Lindholm are both a little more predictable, but Fowler and Montour aren’t afraid to change things up a little bit. Randy Carlyle had good intentions with the new pairings but came up short. Why break up something that wasn’t broken in the first place?
Luke Schenn: The Ducks should put Andrej Sustr on the third d-pairing on Saturday. Sustr over Schenn. End of story. I mean no disrespect and I understand it was his first game with the Ducks. However, I’m not impressed.
John Gibson Doing John Gibson Things
One of my favorite movies growing up was the Sandlot and my favorite scene was when Babe Ruth appeared to Benny in a dream and said, “heroes get remembered but legends never die.” You may be wondering why I’m talking about a baseball movie in an article about hockey. Allow me to explain.
John Gibson will someday be, in my opinion, an Anaheim Ducks legend. Yes, I get it, he’s been through the wringer as far as injuries go. However, last season, the concern about his susceptibility to injuring himself was basically abolished. If you take a deep dive into all of Gibson’s injuries last season, all of them, aside from maybe two, were all caused when he was hit by a player of the opposing team.
He had his best season last year, starting in 60 games. This is more games than most of the other elite NHL goaltenders played during the 2017-18 season. Nevertheless, last season is behind us, and that brings us to John Gibson’s performance in Wednesday nights game.
Most people assume the Anaheim Ducks organization is crazy for committing to a goaltender for nine seasons. There is never any guarantee as far as a goaltenders go. However, the NHL world shouldn’t be so quick to judge. Especially when the Anaheim Ducks have a rare talent such as John Gibson in the net.
Gibson’s game against the San Jose Sharks was proof of how lethal he is. Playing against a bloodthirsty San Jose team, John Gibson, yet again, kept the Ducks in the game. He faced 33 shots, saving 31 of them. The two goals he allowed were both a result of fancy puck work from their dominant rivals.
One of the most impressive save he made was on a breakaway from Evander Kane. The puck should have gone in, giving the Sharks the lead. However, in true JG36 fashion, John Gibson did John Gibson things and stepped up when his team needed him.
If he keeps playing the way he has the past few seasons, he could easily become the best goaltender in Anaheim Ducks history. He has been the hero for so long, and he’s well on his way to becoming a legend.
The Ducks are Losing Control
This season, the days of the cliche Anaheim Ducks dump and chase are being done away with. The team is focusing on their speed rather than being physical. One thing was clear on Wednesday night when the Ducks made their season debut in the Shark Tank. They were certainly faster, but faster doesn’t necessarily mean better.
The Ducks looked great at the beginning of the first period, netting the first goal of the game just 49 seconds into the opening period. However, things just went downhill from there. The San Jose Sharks looked like a well-oiled machine. They were in synch with one another and they should have won that game. However, the Ducks have something the Sharks don’t. They have John Gibson (see the previous slide!) Martin Jones is a great goaltender, but John Gibson is a rarity.
I will admit, the Ducks power play unit looked better than it has in a long time, and their penalty kill unit was fantastic. However, the Ducks were extremely outplayed by San Jose. The Sharks outshot the Ducks 33 to 15. This may have been because the Sharks controlled the puck for the majority of the game.
As I mentioned, the Ducks looked faster. Nevertheless, there was a critical lack of communication between the team and this often led them to completely losing control of the play and the puck. In all honesty, they looked sloppy. I think they spent so much time focusing on being faster, that they never learned how to properly control the puck with the added element of speed.
This is definitely something the Anaheim Ducks need to work on over the season. If they can figure out how to regain control when they are on the ice, we could see a completely different team.
Max Comtois Wants a Permanent Roster Spot
Max Comtois played his first NHL game on Wednesday. The 19-year-old was the youngest Duck on the ice and he may have made one of the biggest impacts. When it was announced that Comtois was on the roster for opening night, the assumption was that he would only play nine games with the Ducks this season.was
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If he plays more than nine games, he will burn a year of his ELC (entry level contract.) Essentially, this means he can negotiate a new contract a full season earlier. However, Comtois is making a pretty convincing argument as to why the Ducks should keep him well past the nine-game threshold.
On Wednesday night, just 49 seconds into the opening period, the 19-year-old rookie scored the Anaheim Ducks first goal of the regular season. Adam Henrique made a smart play in the neutral zone, sliding the puck to Comtois who was approaching the Sharks net. The ice in front of him was clear of traffic, giving him the opportunity to beat goaltender Martain Jones five-hole.
He wasn’t afraid to get involved and take a few chances. A beautiful pass to Silfverberg, that almost resulted in another goal, gave him an opportunity to earn his second point of the night. Unfortunately, the puck didn’t make it into the net. However, he was able to create a few scoring chances for his team.
His performance from the rookie tournament and preseason is carrying into the regular season. If he keeps playing the way he has been, he’s making a strong case for himself. It’s going to be hard for the Ducks to send him back to the juniors if it is evident that he is ready to be an impact player at an NHL level.
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I for one hope that this is the season that Max breaks into the NHL. He definitely deserves it and he’s proving that he is a great asset for the Ducks.