Best. Preseason. Game. Ever. & My Opening Night Roster

Last night the Ducks beat Vancouver 3-2 and it was by far the most exciting preseason game in the history of preseason games, at least the ending was.  With 2:35 to go, Ducks up by one, Andrew Gordon took a hooking penalty.  Just over a minute later with Luongo pulled Nate Guenin takes a boarding penalty.  Six on Three for 1:32.  The Ducks withstand an onslaught, thanks to calm cool and collected Darth Hiller making what seemed like 8-10 saves.  Ducks win, crowd goes wild. 

I’ve never seen a preseason atmosphere like the one that emerged during that penalty kill.  If it was the regular season, and the building wasn’t two thirds empty it would have been electric and if it was the playoffs I would have passed out.

As for the rest of the game; Cam Fowler was spectacular, especially while carrying the puck.  Hiller was phenomenal against a pretty good Vancouver lineup that included the Sedins with Alex Burrows and their top four D-men in their first game since Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Final. 

Also I think Maxime Macenauer just played himself onto the team.  Randy Carlyle has made some positive comments about his play, and especially in this game he was doing everything out there.

Devante Smith-Pelly had a good game as well.  The best I’ve seen him play all training camp long.  However, he did have two instances where he took wild swings at Canucks while he was on the forecheck.  Not slashes just swinging his stick around like a dead cat, without contacting the guy. I have never seen anyone swing a dead cat but there is that expression, and I would imagine you’d hold it by the tail and spin around. 

Luca Sbisa seemed to have a rough time handling the puck but laid out a couple of guys.  The RPG line doesn’t have the rhythm down yet, but that isn’t too much of an issue in the preseason.  If they’re still playing like this when they get back to North America I’ll be worried. 

One last thing about the game, the Ducks seem to be embracing the Darth Hiller moniker, a nickname he received due to the fact that he wears an all black mask.  At one point when Hiller made a good save, the DJ played Darth Vader breathing noises followed by the Imperial March.  It was awesome.

Now to tie up a few loose ends from earlier in the week:  I had a post to publish on Tuesday about the most recent round of cuts and who would be next, but I only got through the goalies and forwards, so I saved it for Wednesday, but had to get up to early to blog.  Also Wednesday, the Ducks came out with a video of Randy Carlyle evaluating just about all of the fringe players that required me to rewrite the forwards section.  Now that post is basically obsolete as the final cuts will come down today and tomorrow before the Ducks head to Europe on Saturday with a 24 man active roster.  So I’ll boil it down to what I would have the starting lineup look like.

FORWARDS

Ryan – Getzlaf – Perry

Blake – Koivu – Selanne

McMillan – Cogliano – Gordon

Maroon – Macenauer – Parros

Beleskey (injured, cleared for contact), McGrattan (Scratch)

Notes:  Once Beleskey is ready to play he’ll take Maroon’s place and McGrattan will be sent to Syracuse.  Also if Jacques’ 5 game suspension ends before that, he takes McGrattan’s place in the press box.

DEFENSEMEN

Visnovsky – Guenin

Beauchemin – Fowler

Brookbank – Sbisa

Lydman (injured), Foster (injured), Smaby (Scratch)

Notes:  Lydman will take his normal place with Lubo on the top pair when he gets back, which would bump Guenin to scratch and Smaby to Syracuse, then when Foster is ready to go he’ll take the scratch position.

GOALIES

Hiller

Ellis

Deslaureiers (Scratch)

Notes:  Deslauriers will be sent to Syracuse as soon as they get back from Europe and barring injury — knock on wood — will only dress in the Jokerit game.

The injuries and suspension to Jacques threw me for a loop trying to get 24 guys, but I figure Lydman and Foster don’t count as active players, Beleskey does since he’s cleared for contact, and Jacques is definitely not going to Europe with the team since he’ll be suspended for three more games even after they get back.

Anyway, that’s my list and we’ll see what Randy Carlyle has to say about it on Saturday.