Anaheim Ducks: Navigating Through the All-Star Break and Beyond
After that impressive win over the Carolina Hurricanes last Friday, the Anaheim Ducks have been on a nice little vacation. The team won’t meet together for a game until this upcoming Monday, so they have plenty of time to relax and prepare for the last half of the season that awaits them. How have they done, and what is left for the Ducks? Let us take a look.
The Anaheim Ducks have been slowly squeaking through the season towards the bottom of the league and have not shown any signs of improvement as far as this season goes. Their last two wins came at a nice time considering their long break, but the season will only get harder and more hectic from here, so barring a miracle run, the Anaheim Ducks are out of it for good. The league standings reflect that fact.
They are thirtieth in the league for goals scored and fourteenth in the league for goals against. The league average record is 25-19-6 and fifty-five points while the Ducks come in with 19-24-5 and forty-three points. John Gibson is still leading the league in losses, but now Derek Grant is tied for first place for most short-handed goals, so that is a plus.
So far, the Anaheim Ducks have played only forty-eight games and come twenty-eighth in games played, and their strength of schedule number is -0.01, so although they do not have the hardest schedule left, it will still be no easy task. Who could lead the Ducks for the rest of the season to take some pressure off the rest of the team?
The main candidate to help out is captain Ryan Getzlaf. In his fifteenth season, Getzlaf leads the team in points with eleven goals and twenty-two assists for a total of thirty-three points. He is also seventh overall on the team for time on ice, so his leadership is still very prevalent to the rest of the team. An All Might sort of character if you enjoy that kind of thing. Even though he has a lot less hair than All Might, Getzlaf is the perfect candidate to lead the younger prospects to a more successful future in the NHL. Luckily, his contract lasts another year, so hopefully, his tutelage towards prospect Trevor Zegras will provide the next great Duck.
Is Getzlaf enough to carry the rest of the team for the rest of the season though? Well, no. It would take a complete team effort and a lot of luck to make it out of this season and into the postseason, but at this point, the high draft pick the organization would get from losing is a healthier option. The team does not necessarily have to lose every single game left, but just enough to get into the top five of the draft. With the bad luck they have had this season, it might be pretty easy.
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In closing, the rest of the season left in front of the Anaheim Ducks is statistically easy, but it will be a challenge for this young and banged up squad. Ryan Getzlaf will have to put up a good performance for the rest of the team to give them the inspiration they need to stay healthy and happy in Anaheim. But other than that, the team just needs to lose enough games to get into the top five draft picks, so let us hope for the best.
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