Anaheim Ducks: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Week 1 and 2
The Good: Anaheim Ducks Locker-room Leaders are Speaking Up
The Anaheim Ducks have had a strong leadership group for quite some time. Ryan Getzlaf is a great captain who leads by example and is diplomatic, for the most part, which helps in discussions with referees.
Ryan Kesler is an alternate captain who not only leads by example. He is not a “do as I say” kind of player, but more of a “do as I do.” He is constantly shutting down the best players on the other team. Corey Perry who is consistently targeted, (his play style most certainly contributes to that) rarely ever loses his cool and does a good job of showing the other guys not to let their emotion get the best of them.
This season, however, two of those three were not on the roster to start the season due to injury, and Ryan Getzlaf has been absent for the last few games. This has made the leadership group far less experienced and the Ducks desperately needed others to step up to the plate. Thankfully, we’ve had players who have been willing to do that.
Adam Henrique, who was acquired last season in a trade for Sami Vatanen, has been great at leading by example and has not been shy about calling out his team’s short-comings. Andrew Cogliano has done much of the same, not afraid to speak his mind about the team.
John Gibson has shown emotion you expect from a goaltender who has been hung out to dry one too many times. Gibson has carried this team, kicking and screaming, to a solid start to the season in the standings. He’s consistently been on the wrong side of lopsided shot totals and the game against the Dallas Stars was the first time Gibson actually wasn’t able to overcome the lack of effort from the team.
Gibson showed emotion after allowing the fourth goal during a period in which he faced 30 shots. He was being bumped by his own players and the Stars players left and right. It was evident that Randy Carlyle wanted to pull him. However, after skating to the bench and having words with the lineman and Carlyle, he returned to the crease and finished out the period.
Not giving up and refusing to quit in the midst of difficult circumstances is a character trait you want in your leadership core. John Gibson has displayed time and time again that regardless of how poorly the team in front of him plays, he will not concede. It’s refreshing to see that, even in the absence of the Ducks leadership group, the Ducks were not devoid of leaders.
John Gibson
John Gibson is playing at an elite level. The craziest part about that statement is it honestly doing a disservice to Gibson’s performance. Gibson has been the best player on the Anaheim Ducks and is one of, if not the best, goaltender in the entire league to start the season.
Throughout the first five games, the netminder has a remarkable .934% save percentage. This is even more impressive if you take out his most recent start where he faced 44 shots through 2 periods. Entering that game he had a .955% save percentage.
If you pair this with the fact that among goaltenders with at least 100 starts in their career Gibson has the highest save percentage ever, this isn’t a fluke. Gibson is the real deal and has been a massive bright spot for the Ducks so far. If he can continue to play at the level he has thus far, the sky is the limit.