Anaheim Ducks: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Week 1 and 2
The first two weeks of the Anaheim Ducks season have passed, and they are currently 4-1-1. However, as it is with every hockey team, there is always the good, the bad, and the ugly that need to be addressed.
One of the best parts of having an 82 game regular season, as the NHL does, is that you get to see teams grow. Teams address their weaknesses and build around strengths. Players emerge and become stars, and former stars regress into obscurity. It’s a vicious cycle but it is one that is engrossing and makes each NHL season entirely different than the last. This is especially relevant when it comes to the Anaheim Ducks.
They have, like every team, made mistakes over the past few years. The Ducks haven’t utilized players in a way that’s beneficial for the team. They have also used their injuries as an excuse when they weren’t playing their best (and although reasonable, you can’t chalk it all up to injury.)
We’ve also seen them take great strides in utilizing their strengths. They have the second longest playoff appearance record. The Duck’s have also brought in some players who have been difference makers out on the ice.
The one constant, however, is that the teams who acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, and address them accordingly, are the teams who succeed year in and year out. So with that said, let’s take a look at the Anaheim Ducks and acknowledge the good, the bad, and the ugly.
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.
The Good: Anaheim Ducks Rookies are Proving Their Worth
The Anaheim Ducks entered this season with six rookies on their roster. Each bringing a unique quality to the team. You have the incredible hockey IQ of Sam Steel, the tenacious two-way play of Troy Terry, the physicality of Maxime Comtois, the determination and confidence of Kiefer Sherwood, the poise and responsible play of Isac Lundestrom, and the consistency and reliability of Marcus Pettersson.
It seemed unlikely that all of the rookies would remain on the roster long term and seemed even more unlikely that all would contribute their strengths at the NHL level to start the season. However, thus far, the majority of the rookies have done just that. They have added some energy and depth to a team that was lacking during the Anaheim Ducks previous season, and most evidently, during their playoff sweep at the hands of the San Jose Sharks.
The rookies, for better or worse, are constantly in the play. Rarely will a minute go by where you don’t hear one of the rookie’s names mentioned by the play by play. It has been a nice change of pace from the Anaheim Ducks teams we’ve seen the past few seasons and points to a very promising future for the team.
As the season progresses the chances of all six of these rookies remaining on the roster is slim. Nevertheless, I do not think it’s a stretch to say that all six will be full-time NHLers by next season. Anything they add this season is just an added bonus.
The Bad: All These Injuries
Unfortunately, that ends the sunshine and rainbows of this article. So, while it may not be fun, let’s talk about the things that have transpired for the Ducks this season that are not good, but aren’t entirely in the Ducks control, and should be fixable as the season goes on.
Much like last season for the Ducks, injuries are becoming a problem. Outside of the carryover injuries from last season like Patrick Eaves and Ryan Kesler, the Ducks have yet again been bitten by the injury bug.
Before the season even started the Ducks had already suffered from a host of injuries. Corey Perry is on injured reserve due to a severe leg injury This will keep him out until roughly around the same time as the trade deadline.
Ondrej Kase suffered a concussion during the pre-season in a game against the Kings, and the timetable for his return is currently up in the air. Brian Gibbons suffered a minor hand injury that he has since returned from. Ryan Getzlaf suffered a groin injury during the second game of the season and he’s been out of the lineup ever since.
Carter Rowney suffered an injury during the game against the Dallas Stars, and at this moment in time, the extent of that injury is unknown. However, he did miss the game against the St. Louis Blues.
Finally, Jakob Silfverberg, the Ducks leading scorer entering Sunday’s game against the Blues, left the game following what appeared to be a hand injury. Like Rowney, to this point the extent of the injury is unknown. The Anaheim Ducks continue to find themselves on the wrong side of injury luck and that is always a bad thing.
The Bad: Underwhelming Performances
Entering this season, if you were asked who the Ducks key player was, Rickard Rakell would be pretty high on the list. If you were asked which rookie would be the most likely to break out, Troy Terry would be pretty high up there. If you were asked where the Ducks strength lies, it would probably be a toss-up between the defense and the goaltending. Outside of goaltending, all of the above have not delivered as expected.
Entering the season after having three straight seasons of 20 or more goals, it’s safe to say the Ducks have considered Rickard Rakell the successor to “Scorey” Perry. It was assumed that he was going to be the Ducks go to goal scorer and premier offensive threat. So far this season, however, RR67 has been relatively quiet.
It’s not to say he has played exceptionally poorly. Nevertheless, when you’re expecting Rakell to continue to progress and be a 30 goal scorer, it’s a bit underwhelming to see him only bury one shot to this point of the season. It’s even more disappointing when you consider that of his 3 points so far, 2 of them have been on the power play.
Don’t get me wrong, the power play has been a point of weakness for the Ducks in recent times, and seeing someone consistently put up points on the power play is great! However, when that’s the only way your premier goal scorer is putting up points, it’s not great. In Rakell’s defense, he is shooting at significantly lower shooting percentage than his career average. The Ducks offense hasn’t exactly been top-notch either. Rakell needs to get out of this funk and become the smooth shooting goal scorer we have grown accustomed to.
Troy Terry, on the other hand, was touted as the Anaheim Ducks most NHL ready rookie in their system. Terry was even slotted into the top 6 to start the season. Yet, at this point, Terry still has zero points and has even been a healthy scratch. It’s certainly not fair to push the panic button on young Terry quite yet. He has, after all, shown flashes of brilliance and even buried a beauty of a goal during the shoot-out. Nevertheless, Terry has not lived up to the hype yet and the Ducks need him to.
The Anaheim Ducks defense hasn’t been a bright spot for the team so far this season either. However, with all of the issues that reside there, we thought they deserved a slide all their own.
The Bad: The Defense
Now for the hardest one negatives to comprehend, the defense. The Anaheim Ducks have consistently been considered to have one of the best defenses in the league. They have a shockingly young core.
Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm are the cornerstones and they have Josh Manson and Brandon Montour to compliment them. There are also young players like Jacob Larsson, Marcus Pettersson, and Josh Mahura chomping at the bit to be NHL players.
So why are the Ducks defenders struggling so mightily? Jacob Larsson, who is widely considered the Ducks biggest blue-chip prospects, has yet to break into the NHL. He was demoted in favor of Marcus Pettersson, who is not thought to have nearly the game-changing ability that Larsson is projected to have. Larsson is still young. Even if he didn’t break into the NHL until next season, he would still be about the same age that Brandon Montour and Josh Manson were when they made the jump into the NHL.
However, the Ducks expected much more from him to this point, as have the fans. He is young and has faced injury issues which is enough to give him a bit of a pass. The rest of the Ducks defense? They have no real excuse. They are fully healthy. Yet, the Ducks look like they’re playing their B team most nights.
Brandon Montour has been noticeably shaky, making quite a few questionable plays and not exactly firing on all cylinders. Cam Fowler has been okay but not okay enough to be the highest paid defenseman on the team.
Josh Manson does not look like himself either, which is strange given that Manson is usually one of the two most consistent guys on the blue line. The Ducks also appear to be rotating Luke Schenn and Andrej Sustr which we will discuss a little more in depth when we take a deep dive in the ugly section of this article.
Hampus Lindholm has been the only real impressive player night in and night out on the blue line. He’s the best defenseman the Ducks have and he’s certainly playing like it. The rest of the defense needs to follow suit or it’s going to be a really long season.
The Ugly: The Man Behind the Bench
Finally, it’s time to talk about the ugly. This is the worst of the worst, and the one thing that really has no logical explanation. More than anything, this is one the thing I’m skeptical can be fixed without major shake-ups.
Bob Murray was quoted as saying that players needed to be more accountable this season. In a roundabout way, he said they needed to look in the mirror or else they’d find themselves next to him in the press box. However, the players can only do so much.
The team has to play the system their coach puts in front of them. Despite comments from Murray saying the Ducks would play faster this season and Randy Carlyle had adopted a new system, we have yet to see it at this point in the season.
More from Ducks News
- Who could the Anaheim Ducks consider presenting offer sheets to?
- Is Pierre-Luc Dubois on the cards for the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks?
- Making the case for the Anaheim Ducks to trade with the Edmonton Oilers
- Anaheim Ducks might benefit tremendously by trading John Gibson
- How close are the Anaheim Ducks to becoming contenders again?
We’re seeing faster zone exits but not in a way that leads to sustained offensive pressure. This is where the Ducks fall apart. Yes, the Ducks are finding beautiful passing lanes, which is springing break-aways left and right. However, if the shooter does not score on that break-away, there’s rarely a follow-up shot.
The Ducks still are failing to play a transition game that involves multiple forwards exiting the zone and leading a rush, and as the season is moving along, the Ducks are regressing a bit into the old system that sparked those comments from Murray in the first place.
The old adage is, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” I respect Randy Carlyle and all he has done for the Anaheim Ducks franchise. Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to say that, not only can’t you teach Carlyle new tricks, it’s most likely impossible for a coach, who has coached for over a decade, to play the complete opposite of the system that he has preached from day one.
Carlyle is a great coach in the NHL of yesteryear, but nowadays, he’s part of the problem. Murray needs to realize this and rectify the situation while the Ducks are still in a good spot to compete. It’s not just the system that is a problem, Carlyle has many frustrating traits and habits. The biggest of which is line juggling. He does not do it in a way that promotes guys who are playing exceptionally well to better slots in the lineup. Instead, he tries to force square pegs into round holes.
He did it all last season by trying to make Kevin Bieksa a viable option in the top 4, and he’s done it again by trying to force defensive pairings that are simply not working. Thankfully, during the last game, we saw the tried and true pairings pieced back together. However, it has yet to be seen if that was because Carlyle learned it wasn’t working, or if he was just trying something new.
Sticking with the defense, Carlyle is shifting Andrej Sustr and Luke Schenn in and out of the lineup every game. It’s incredibly difficult for a player to get into a rhythm at game speed when they’re only playing every other game. At this point, Sustr has been vastly superior to Schenn in just about every regard. Why not at the very least give Sustr two games in a row to try and see if he can be successful instead of disrupting that rhythm?
Carlyle is not the only problem on this team but he is a big one, and Murray seriously needs to hold Carlyle to the same standard he has outlined for his players.
dark. Next. Early Season Rookie Report Cards
Do you want to write for Pucks of a Feather? Fill out the application above! We are always looking for die-hard Anaheim Ducks fans who want to represent their team here at FanSided. For any questions, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter!