Anaheim Ducks: 67 Days Until Home Opener— The Best of Rickard Rakell
By Ciara Durant
Our countdown to the Anaheim Ducks home opener has officially begun! With only 67 days remaining, we’re taking a look back on Rickard Rakell’s best moments of 2018-19 to get us excited for the new season.
This summer has been one of the longest we’ve had to endure since the Anaheim Ducks last missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2012. However, all of our patients is about to pay off because the regular season is less than three months away! In order to get us excited about the impending regular season, our countdown to October 3rd begins today.
Over the next nine and a half weeks, we will take a look at the best moments of our favorite Anaheim Ducks as the day corresponds with their jersey number. What better way to start the countdown than with one of the teams most promising players going into the 2019-20 season? With only 67 days remaining until the Ducks meet the Arizona Coyotes in the faceoff circle, we’re taking a look at Rickard Rakell‘s best moments from last season.
After what transpired last year, Rakell gained a lot of criticism from fans for his underwhelming and disappointing performance. However, one rough season at the age of 25 is not the end-all-be-all of his career. Over the summer, Bob Murray has taken the necessary steps to encourage healthy growth in players like Rickard Rakell by hiring a new coaching staff and bringing in Dr. Jeremy Bettle as the Director of High Performance, which will hopefully reduce the team’s susceptibility to injury.
Despite the struggles he went through last season, however, Rakell still managed to have quite a few brilliant moments out on the ice that deserve to be looked back on with admiration. If he can channel whatever he did in those moments, we could see one our favorite Swedish forwards make one of the best comebacks in Anaheim Ducks recent history.