Anaheim Ducks: There Are Still An Avalanche of Questions

The start of the 2018-2019 season for our Anaheim Ducks has definitely not been one that we the fans are happy with. With even more untimely injuries draining the roster, The Anaheim Ducks struggles have been more apparent than ever. The wheels feel like they’re about to fall off the wagon.

After Sunday’s overtime loss against the Colorado Avalanche, I couldn’t really find anything to nitpick about the game, aside from some of the reoccurring issues they’ve been dealing with all season.  For starters, I went with the intent to focus more on what Colorado was doing more than Anaheim.

For starters, I was at the end of the rink the Ducks attack in twice making it that much easier. I also enjoy watching the Av’s in general so it helped to give me a neutral approach to being a spectator. I have to say, it made being able to focus on some of the finer details that much easier.

Like I mentioned in the last section, there really wasn’t a whole heck of a lot that I think we did inherently wrong that is a cause for concern. The constant dump and chase is still pretty difficult to watch over and over again but it was interesting to see how the Av’s used it very sparingly.

The one time I really noticed it was on a play where their top line was out and I believe Mikko Rantanen dumped it to the corner. Nathan MacKinnon actually got to the puck instead of it just being dumped for the opposition to pick it up. I remember sitting there in my seat and saying “wow, that’s how its supposed to work.” It was almost an Aha! kind of moment.

After that, I mean what else is there really to say? We had our chances, Colorado capitalized on a swing in momentum and we got burned as we tried to protect a lead we should have been able to hold.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Why are you sugarcoating this and making it seem like it’s not that big of a deal? We blew a 3-1 lead. Trust me, I agree 100% that there should be no sugarcoating things. Especially with how the last month has played out for the Anaheim Ducks. It has almost felt like a chore to watch Ducks games lately because you can almost guarantee it’s going to be a carbon copy of the one prior.

It’s tough feeling that way towards a team you care about and want to see succeed, but it’s a product of what we’re forced to work with. I hate to be the Debbie Downer but games like Colorado, Vegas, etc., are exactly the kinds of games we need to happen to really expose our team’s problems. I would say the Vegas game being nationally televised helped put us on blast for a national audience to see, but it’s almost a week later and nothing’s changed.

Remember when you were younger and you’d get the pack of Airheads with the mystery flavor and you were so excited to see what this mystery flavor was. Then, you open it up and find out it was just a cherry flavored one that was colored white. That’s kind of how I’ve felt about this season.

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With the promise of the flashy new kids, a new “fast and modern” system was nice and quite a surprise for the first 10 games or so. However, it was painfully obvious that nothing new really is there aside from a few fresh and younger faces. It’s the same boring old cherry Airhead masqueraded around as being “new and different.”

Will things change? One can hope, but until then all we can do is just sit back and try to enjoy the bumpy, nauseating ride. So what needs to change? What needs to be done? Frankly, I don’t know.

Would a coaching change be nice? Yeah, it would help because frankly, our system doesn’t work. Nevertheless, who’s to say that our volatile style of play is just going stop with a coaching change? I hate saying that because I’m one that thinks a coaching change could make us instantly a hundred times better. Although, not everyone can do what Pittsburgh did in 2016. You know?

All in all, there’s still time to right the ship and put us back on course, especially considering the Pacific is really weak and by some miracle, San Jose or Calgary haven’t entirely run away with the division yet. But the clock is ticking and the room for errors and slip-ups is slowly shrinking. The ball is in your court BM.