Anaheim Ducks: Better the Devil You Know Than the Devil You Don’t

The Anaheim Ducks are set to meet the New Jersey Devils in the faceoff circle today. I chatted with Nick Villano, site expert at Pucks and Pitchforks, to get a feel for what we’re up against.

As the age old saying goes, “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.” Those are a few wise words the Anaheim Ducks might want to take to heart this morning.

The puck drops in Newark, New Jersey today at 1 pm, a 10 am game for all of us here on the west coast. For the second time this season, the Anaheim Ducks are faced with the task of defeating the New Jersey Devils. Whether they will succeed is still questionable.

Whenever we are scheduled to play against the Devils, things are always a little bit awkward but also exciting. We get to see old faces that we have come to love over the years in the Anaheim Ducks organization but they’re all wearing red.

In order to get a better idea of where the New Jersey Devils stand as the Ducks head into this morning’s game, I had a quick chat with the very wise Nick Villano, the site expert at Pucks and Pitchforks.

Nick provides excellent daily content for our New Jersey Devils fans here at FanSided, and he represents them well. It was a privilege to pick his brain and shoot the breeze about our favorite sport.

I had the chance to catch up with Sami Vatanen and we also talked trades and goaltenders. I hope you enjoy what he has to say as much as I did.

Could you give us an update on Sami Vatanen? How has the Henrique/Vatanen trade benefited the New Jersey Devils?

Personally, I still think the Devils won that trade. However, Sami is playing much worse than he was last season. I’m not sure why that is.

He’s scoring a little more, but he’s made more mistakes that could be easily avoidable. Maybe being the top guy without any help has finally gotten to him.

Nevertheless, when we got that extra pick after you re-signed Henrique, we definitely still win the trade.

The Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils have made many big trades with one another in the past. Is there anyone currently on the Anaheim Ducks you’d be interested in the Devils trading for?

At this point, this would have to be a blockbuster. The names Hampus Lindholm, Cam Fowler, or Jakob Silfverberg come to mind.

Although, I’m very interested in the skill that Max Jones has. I think in the right situation, he could be great. The issue is, he needs that situation to be right, or he might fail.

That being said, they would probably trade Brian Gibbons for Stefan Noesen or something dumb like that.

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?

I haven’t been following the Devils too closely this season. Who would you say is the player to watch for today’s game?

Well, Taylor Hall is hurt and so is Miles Wood. Things haven’t been so great this week, so I’d say that makes this question very interesting.

That makes the matchup of John Gibson and MacKenzie Blackwood the one to watch. Obviously, they won’t actually play on the same play, but I could see them both making great saves and motivating each other.

Besides our goaltender, I could see Brian Boyle coming out with flames in his skates. He was MAD about the Devils performance during the last two games. He was not happy with his performance. I could see him trying to make good. Especially since the Devils had the dreaded players-only meeting.

It seems like the Devils have been bitten by the injury bug lately. Regardless, what do you think the Devils biggest advantage over the Anaheim Ducks is going to be during today’s game?

We’re playing at home. It doesn’t make much sense, but this team is 13-5-4 at home this season. They have 18 wins total.

Meanwhile, the Ducks are below .500 on the road. Also, the game is being played at 1 pm EST. That means it’s 10 am for the Anaheim Ducks. That’s actually pretty unfair, but we need all the advantages we can get.

Has MacKenzie Blackwood taken the starter job for good or do you believe that Cory Schneider will eventually turn things around?

It all depends on what the Devils want from this season. If they still think they somehow have a shot, they keep playing MacKenzie Blackwood until the wheels fall off. Keith Kinkaid hasn’t been very good as of late.

Cory Schneider is on his way. What makes the most sense to me is that if this isn’t our season, and it probably isn’t, they should split equal time between Schneider and Blackwood.

I want to extend a big thank you to Nick for taking time out of his busy schedule to provide the readers here at Pucks of a Feather with your knowledgable and fantastic content.