Anaheim Calling and Notes on the Premier

Good News Everyone!  Over the weekend I was offered a chance to be the newest contributor to Anaheim Calling, aka the best Ducks blog on the world wide interweb.  A couple weeks ago I submitted a tryout post for their Duck U series and after being properly vetted I was welcomed to the team.  The post, titled Duck U: RIV 101 – Rivalry Theory, posted last night and you can check it out here. 

So, what that means is that I’ll be contributing at least one post weekly over there, and I’ll be much more active in their comment section.  I’ll keep this site going for my mundane takes on the games and Ducks news of the day, but I’ll be working on coming up with bigger concept ideas for my weekly AC pieces. I’ll also be sure to post links to my work over there on this site like I have in the past with Hockeytalk, to which I’ll continue to contribute as well this season.

Speaking of my mundane takes on the games and news of the day, the season started over the weekend with two games in Europe – a 4-1 loss to Buffalo Friday in Helsinki and a 2-1 shootout victory over the Rangers Saturday in Stockholm.

The loss to Buffalo was not pretty.  The Ducks got outplayed pretty much all night.  The defense in front of Hiller couldn’t clear the puck out of his crease, which was unfortunate because he wasn’t particularly sharp with his rebounds. 

It got better though on Saturday, mostly because the Ducks dictated the play a lot more offensively against the Rangers.  Hiller and the defense weren’t tested nearly as much and the only reason that the game in Stockholm was so close was because Henrik Lundqvist was in Beast Mode.  If he plays like that for the rest of the season he’ll have to clear a space on his mantle for a Vezina Trophy.

The Ducks improved their five on five play quite a bit from game one to two but weren’t able to get anything out of their power play in 11 tries.  That will obviously get better as the season goes on as the Ducks finished third in the league on the power play last season and have brought back the same top unit, and an improved second unit thanks to Andrew Cogliano.

Speaking of Cogs, he scored his first goal as a Duck on Saturday to take the lead in the first period and it was exactly the kind of play I would have drawn up for that third line to score.  Devante Smith-Pelly dumped the puck in the corner, dug it out for Andrew Gordon in support who zipped it right onto the tape for Cogliano to tip it over King Henrik’s shoulder.  In the words of the Niedermayer boys “I couldn’t have written a better script.”  Plays like that are what the Ducks will need on a consistent basis from the third line to make up for the expected drop off from Corey Perry and Lubomir Visnovsky’s career years last season, not to mention a probable drop off from Teemu being a year older.

So two out of four points on the trip is not too bad and Friday is the home opener against San Jose, who by the way looked scary good against Phoenix Saturday night.  The Ducks will be wearing number 24 patches on their jerseys to honor the late Ruslan Salei starting on Friday, through Nov. 17.  The Jerseys will be auctioned off at the annual Dux in Tux event and online to benefit the Anaheim Ducks Foundation, by request of the Salei family.

So, in an attempt not to end on such a sad note, NHL hockey is back on in Anaheim in only three days!  Go Ducks!

 

Training Camp & Preseason Game One

Training Camp is now in full swing and today is the next step toward real hockey, the Preseason Opener.

Saturday’s training camp at Honda Center was great, if only to see some guys who could actually skate, as opposed to the Rookie League players I’ve been seeing all summer.  As expected, the cavernous space of the arena took a little bit away from the ambience that has existed in the past at Anaheim Ice.  I’m pretty confident, however that the 1200 people that showed up would not have all fit into the practice rink and it gave everyone an opportunity to see both groups practice, since they were not split onto two ice surfaces at the same time. 

The first group was a little bit less exciting than the second.  It featured Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Dan Sexton, Dan Ellis, Jason Blake, Cam Fowler and 2010 draft pick/touted prospect Devante Smith-Pelly among many others.  Going in I was most excited to take a look at Smith-Pelly and Emerson Etem (Group B) as the two players most hyped coming off of last year’s junior season.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much from DSP, mostly (I think) due to the fact that he is all about the power game.  There were a few contact drills but they didn’t really last long enough for an untrained eye to get a good feel for what it would be like in a game situation.  Hopefully we’ll see him in tonight’s preseason opener and will be able to evaluate further.

What really stood out was speed and shooting ability.  Nicolas Deschamps (Second rounder, 2008 Draft) was the eye catcher in Group A, picking corners with wicked wristers all over the place.  There was also a point when some guy in an orange jersey made a nifty move at the blue line and roofed one only to reveal himself as Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry. 

The most exciting part of Group A’s session (and Group B’s for that matter) was the breakaway race where each player did crossovers in the defensive faceoff circles then one lap around the circle and raced for a puck at center ice and shot on the goalie at the other end.  Perry and Getzlaf went head to head each time and got everyone all riled up.  They seemed to be really competitive until one of them won the race to the puck and then the other would simply let him have his break away.  After the closest race, which Perry won there was some serious smack talk going on.  Seeing the way guys react toward each other outside of a game situation is one of the cool things about attending practice.

That drill also gave a practical perspective on San Jacinto, CA native Jake Newton (whose family happened to be sitting two rows in front of us).  He didn’t win all of his races, as is to be expected from a defenseman his size, but when he lost them he was one of the few players to take an angle and play some real defense against the puck carrier, always good to see.

Also, some breaking news from Group A:  Dan Sexton is super fast. 

Group B came out with a grand entrance.  One by one the big names came out of the dressing room.  First was George Parros who played up to the crowd and got the expected response, then came the moment we were waiting for, Teemu stepped onto the ice to a standing ovation followed by Jonas Hiller.  Some have said the Hiller ovation was even bigger, but I say Teemu got the prize. 

This group was a little bit faster paced and showed a little bit more desire, for lack of a better word, than the first.  Prospect-wise my eyes were focused on Emerson Etem.  The 2010 draft pick from Long Beach, CA is speedy and can get some serious bite on that wrist shot. 

The main thing that stood out about him was his skating style.  He almost looked like he was too fast for his own feet.  It kind of reminded me of Shaggy running away from some ghost or monster in a Scooby-Doo cartoon.  His chest is almost parallel to the ice and his legs are just whipping back and forth desperately flinging his body forward.  Needless to say it isn’t exactly a textbook stride, but it seems effective enough.

There was a scary moment when people started to realize that Teemu had left the ice in the middle of the session, but he came back just in time for the breakaway race drill and ended up winning a couple.  Not as many as one would expect from the “Finnish Flash”, but it is only training camp, we don’t want him using that knee up too soon.

I wasn’t at Sunday’s session or Monday’s scrimmage but Jen and Daniel over at Anaheim Calling covered them very well.  I may have taken a peek at the live video stream of the scrimmage yesterday but I couldn’t tell who anyone really was from the video quality.  I did see someone (who turned out to be Emerson Etem) rock a defenseman (apparently Sheldon Brookbank) at center ice take slash and go in for a goal which was pretty exciting.

Also, Bobby Ryan apparently strained his groin on Sunday and got day of rest yesterday.  It isn’t believed to be serious but it can’t help.  Luckily it’s still only training camp and there’s some more leeway for rest.  We’ll just have to hope it doesn’t turn into a bigger issue during the season that makes him miss time.

Now it’s on to some (slightly) more competitive hockey with the Preseason upon us tonight.  Phoenix is in town and according to Adam Brady Teemu, Saku and Lubo are scheduled to be in the lineup.  One step closer to real hockey.

Return to the Blogosphere, Summer Recap

It’s been over two months since my last post and while there have been some extenuating circumstances, the real reason is that this summer has been extremely boring for a Ducks fan.  Here’s a quick recap:

Jonas Hiller is feeling fine in Switzerland and looking forward to the season

The Ducks traded for and signed Andrew Cogliano, formerly of the Edmonton Oilers

Bob Murray also traded away Andy Sutton to Edmonton for Defenseman and Masterton Award winner Kurtis Foster

… And

Teemu still hasn’t decided…

That’s about it.

Luckily, two Saturdays ago was the Fedorin Cup, the annual charity hockey game held at Anaheim Ice that’s become the unofficial start of the hockey season around these parts. 

Usually a host of current and former Ducks participate and this year was no exception although there were more former Ducks than current ones.  In fact the only player that could be considered a current Duck participating was Teemu; which brings us to the most intriguing news of the event.

Teemu was only scheduled to “appear” at the event.  What that meant we didn’t know.  Would he drop the first puck, referee or just schmooze with the VIP ticketholders?  As it turned out that he decided to play.  Naturally this caused quite a stir among the Ducks’ faithful in the crowd (AKA 99% of the spectators).

There are two ways that this development could be read however.  The first and more commonly held belief is that his knee is feeling up to playing in a charity hockey game, which is only a few (huge) steps away from playing another season.  The second, however is that he isn’t worried about saving his knee for “One More Year” as the chants would suggest. 

“So far, so good. I’ve been skating three weeks now, and I’m really optimistic,” Teemu told the OC Register’s Randy Youngman on the day of the Fedorin Cup, and if he’s optimistic, so am I. 

This season is custom built for a Teemu Selanne Farewell Tour.  From an exhibition game against his Finish team Jokerit, to the NHL Premier in Helsinki, and a return to Winnipeg where his NHL career started with a bang it doesn’t get much more storybook than that.

While we wait for his knee to tell him what the future holds and for him to relay that to us, as SKEleven over at Ducks and Pucks has pointed out, there are only 11/14/31/38 days until training camp/pre-season/Season opener in Helsinki/true home opener in Anaheim.

It’s good to be back in the proverbial saddle and hopefully Teemu feels the same way soon.

Corey Perry for Hart?

 

Corey Perry is absolutely on fire.  His two goals against Chicago on Saturday were all the Ducks needed for a 2-1 win to push them into seventh in the Western Conference and elevate Perry himself to first in league goal scoring with 44.  With that he’s started getting some serious talk for Hart Trophy (league MVP)  consideration. 

He is without a doubt the Ducks’ MVP.  His stats are great, especially circumstantial stats that Jeff Miller of the OC Register brought to light this morning.  Ten game winners, tied for most in Ducks History (Paul Kariya 1996-’97, Teemu Selanne 1998-’99, 2006-’07) League leading 20 third period goals, 22 with overtime the next closest only has 18.  Still a breakout season and an outstanding month of March does not an MVP make.  If all it took to win the Hart was one standout month Sidney Crosby would have already won the thing with his 25 game point streak in November/December. 

Ryan Lambert of Puck Daddy has a story on why Perry won’t win the Hart, that surprisingly mentions nothing about him playing in Anaheim or general unlikability (which Perry has toned down a lot, even since the start of this season).  Lambert’s main points:  1) Perry won’t make the 100 pt mark.  The only two forwards to win the Hart without 100 points have been in seasons where nobody has broken the century mark (Marty St. Louis 2003-’04 and Eric Lindros 1995-96) and 2) the Ducks aren’t a lock to make the playoffs.  Even though the award is supposed to go to the player most valuable to his team, it helps that that team is good as well. 

So basically if Perry wants to take home any, individual, post season hardware, he’ll have to get a death grip on the Rocket Richard, because Daniel Sedin appears destined to get a Hart to match his brother’s from last year.  While he may not have a great chance at the league’s Most Valuable Player award, this is without a doubt the best chance for a Duck to take home the Richard for the first time since Teemu did it in 1999.  With Steven Stamkos slipping, Alex Ovechkin having an off year and Crosby’s injury, this may be the only season in the next decade or so where the goal scoring title is up for grabs for anyone but one of those three. 

Tonight the Ducks host the Avs and as I’ve said before, it seems like the perfect opportunity to get Hiller a full game.  They have built a slight cushion of two points ahead of Calgary, who doesn’t play until they host the Ducks on Wednesday, and Colorado is struggling mightily.  Will Randy Carlyle be willing/able to go away from 4-0 Ray Emery though?  Like always we’ll have to wait to find out come warm-up time.

Worst Case Scenario Thursday

The Ducks did not have a good Thursday night.  They lost ground on Nashville and LA with their first loss in ten days combined with the Kings’ shootout win over San Jose.  The worst bit of news, however was that Jonas Hiller’s first start since Feb. 13 at Edmonton lasted only 11:37, as he was pulled after giving up three early goals.

Hiller’s start was, fortunately/unfortunately, the worst display of goaltending the Anaheim has seen since Dan Ellis gave Minnesota a freebie in his Ducks debut.  I say “fortunately/unfortunately” because they have been very lucky to have had the quality goaltending of Ellis and Ray Emery in the absence of an All-Star who was in the conversation for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie, but obviously it was too early to put Hiller back in. 

The question now becomes, was that just rust on Hiller’s part, or was it a relapse of his symptoms?  Part of what was the problem for Hiller in his game against San Jose, where the symptoms first arose, was that he was behind the play and wasn’t able to see the puck well, and it looked like he may have been plagued by some sluggishness last night as well. 

On the brighter side, if it is just a case of rust, he will have three days to work on his game before what I think is the best opportunity to get him back in the lineup, Colorado on Monday.  It could be a chance for him to work through a full game against a team who is spiraling out of control, in a game that doesn’t have quite as much on the line, even if they are a bit more offensively talented than the Preds. 

I chose not to put this into the blog yesterday, because it had already gotten a bit long and rambley, so Earl Sleek from Battle of California beat me to it, but I think that while losing Hiller to vertigo has been tough, it has been a blessing in disguise as well.  It forced Bob Murray to pick up Ellis to shore up the goaltending depth, and it taught the team to pull together and find ways to win, rather than relying on the safety net of a world class goalie to sweep up after them.  The Ducks’ success without Hiller has been due to some very good interim goaltending from Ellis and Emery, but equally if not more so due to guys like Corey Perry, Lubo Visnovsky and Teemu Selanne taking the team on their backs and willing them to victory.

Back to last night’s game, the Ducks could have won and it was a well played game for the most part, but they were just outplayed in net.  Pekka Rinne was amazing.  He robbed the Ducks of near countless Grade A scoring chances and was given a three goal cushion to work with, plus a shorthanded goal as the Ducks were trying to work their way back.  Still, when you give up five goals to the team with the league’s second best goals against per game it’s pretty tough to pull out a victory.

The most surprising part of the game was the play of Ryan Suter.  One of the best defensemen in the league, top ten at least, Suter was atrocious at times.  Three of the Ducks’ four goals were directly attributable to him, and he was victimized on the other as well.  The RPG line had Suter and his partner Shea Weber’s respective numbers all night, including a tic-tac-toe goal to open the scoring for the Ducks.  Teemu walked right around the American Olympian for his first goal of the night and deflected the puck off of Suter for his second.  Then there was Suter’s bizarre hacky-sack own goal with 27 seconds left that brought the Ducks within one.  Suter showed off moments of, what I think is the best stick work by a defenseman in the game today at times last night, but was clearly not on his game. 

Luckily for the Ducks they are still in eighth through tonight as the only Western Conference team in action is Vancouver.  They will have a chance to hold Dallas and Calgary at bay and leapfrog the Blackhawks with a win tomorrow in the Windy City.

UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE

The Ducks have done it again; four wins in a row, three in overtime and two comebacks within the last two and a half minutes of regulation.  John Ahlers keeps calling the Ducks the “Cardiac Kids” for their late game heroics.  The only problem with that is, the last second game tying goals against Dallas and Calgary, as well as the Feb. 11 game against Calgary and the March 4 game against Dallas were scored by the team’s oldest player, Teemu Selanne.  Although it is understandable how one might not realize that he is the third oldest skater in the league right now, based on the celebration of his goal last night. 

The game last night against Dallas, was by far the most complete hockey game the Ducks have played since beating St. Louis on March 16, but they cannot continue doing this.  Once Dallas scored the go ahead goal, I was utterly dejected because, 1) Dallas usually can lock it down with the best of them and 2) the law of averages has to catch up with these Ducks at some point and they simply have to run out of race track eventually on one of these attempts at a last minute comeback. 

What I should have realized is that Dallas had done this at least twice in the month of March.  The aforementioned blown lead to the Ducks on March 4 where Teemu tied it late and Lubo Visnovsky finished off his hat trick in overtime, and March 13 vs. the Kings when the Stars took the lead with 43 seconds left and still lost in regulation thanks to a Michal Handzus goal 22 seconds later.  I have to chalk those blown leads up to Marc Crawford being a much less defensively minded tactical coach than Dave Tippett or Ken Hitchcock who led the Stars for 13 of the last 14 years.

In the first period Bobby Ryan had a chance going in three on one with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, but didn’t realize how the play was developing and tried to dangle through the Dallas D.  It was the most recent of many times he’s made this mistake, it’s almost become his signature, the way that Dan Sexton’s is flying in on right wing and firing a shot off the high glass, although slightly less frequent.  In fairness Big Sexy has taken to getting the puck toward the net and hoping for Brad Winchester to pick up a rebound of late, but I digress.  After Bobby made a gorgeous pass to Corey Perry to tie the game up at two my theory on Bobby officially became “He is better when he is passing.”

While that thought was bubbling through my head, I also noticed Cam Fowler having trouble handling pucks on the power play.  After one particular fumble that cleared the zone for Dallas I realized that maybe Cam isn’t perfectly suited to playing the point on the power play … YET, if only because he can’t use his best weapon:  his skating.  Don’t get me wrong, he is much better than, say … Ryan Whitney, but he doesn’t have the shot, and it is seems to be the part of his game where he is least poised, of course on Fowler’s scale, a lack of poise is like a beach lacking sand.  Along the same lines as the Bobby Ryan theory, I summed my thoughts up into one sentence:  “Cam Fowler is better when he is skating.”

Whether it was a crazy coincidence or some kind of spooky premonition, Bobby and Cam combined for the overtime game winner by each showcasing the trait that I internally identified as their respective tickets to success. 

Last night’s win sets up another insanely huge game against the Nashville Predators, who sit only one point ahead of the Ducks in seventh place.  With a regulation win and a Kings regulation loss the Ducks could reach as high as sixth by the end of the night, and they would be tied with their next opponent, the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, who’ll hold a game in hand, but I’m getting way ahead of myself. 

Jonas Hiller was activated from IR yesterday to back up Ray Emery, indicating that 1) he didn’t have a Ben Lovejoy-esque reaction on the flight to Dallas and 2) the coaching staff has confidence in him to, at least, come into a game and hold down the fort.  During the broadcast Hazy said that Hiller has looked great in practice and seems ready to go.  Being the second of back to back games, it is well within reason to assume that it won’t be Emery starting tonight.  Hiller was the preferred option to come in if something happened to Emery last night, therefore there is a good chance Hiller could take the net back tonight in Smashville.   

Not knowing the intricacies of the situation, I would hold Hiller back until Monday’s game back home against Colorado for four reasons.  First, that game vs. Colorado has the least riding on it out of the remaining games on the schedule.  Second, a related point, Colorado will be an easier test for Hiller than any of the other remaining teams on the schedule.  Third, it would give him four extra days of rest to make absolutely certain that he is symptom free.  Fourth, and finally nobody wants Hiller to take a Shea Weber slapper off the mask and end up right back where he started.  Of course I was wrong about holding Saku Koivu back an extra game after his groin injury, so maybe they’ve already held Hiller back for a few extra days rest. 

The Ducks are flying from Dallas to Nashville today, so no practice or morning skate means that no one, aside from Randy Carlyle and the goalies themselves, will know who is starting for Anaheim until they take the ice for warm-ups at 4:30 PT.

LET THE BUTTERFLIES BEGIN!

ROW, ROW, ROW Your Boat

 

Since I last posted a blog, the Ducks have fallen out of the playoff picture, by simply not playing and regained the eight seed with two overtime wins, that they did not really deserve, and a little help from the Kings.

The Ducks got extremely lucky to stay in Saturday’s game at LA, as Wayne Simmonds scored a goal that was unjustly taken from him on a ‘goalie interference’ call where Alexi Ponikarovsky was pushed into Ray Emery by Luca Sbisa.  The Kings dominated that game in just about every way imaginable and that goal would likely have stood up as the game winner.  The Ducks were lucky to even get to overtime, much less have Corey Perry win it in the extra session.

The Ducks were also playing with fire, pardon the pun, Sunday against the Flames.  They should have run away with the game after going up 3-0 in the first six minutes, but they relaxed and Calgary came back to take the lead in the third before Teemu sent it to overtime with just over two minutes left and Corey Perry tipped in his second Overtime winner in as many nights.

Last night the Kings held off the Flames by beating them in a shootout.  Now the Ducks, Stars and Flames are all tied at 85 points, with Anaheim holding down the eight seed by way of Regulation and Overtime Wins (ROW).  The Ducks run away with the first tiebreaker in the standings.

Anaheim has 36 ROWs, the only teams in the West that have more are the division leaders, Vancouver, Detroit and San Jose.  The Ducks are on an 8-2-0 hot streak right now, and even better they’ve been able to pull all eight of those wins out in regulation or overtime, four of each to be exact.  If the race stays this tight, that big lead in ROW is an ace up the Ducks’ sleeve. 

Another intriguingly good sign for the Ducks is that they may be on the road to goalie controversy territory.  Jonas Hiller has been participating in full practices, with few symptoms over the past week and is inching toward setting a date for a possible return; Ray Emery was named second star of the week for the NHL with a 2-0-0 record, .86 Goals Against Average and .972 Save Percentage; and Dan Ellis is not too shabby either at 6-2-1 since joining the Ducks. 

Arthur and Daniel over at Anaheim Calling had the goalie debate yesterday, and although the outlook in the crease is muuuuuuuuch better than it was a month ago, I am still skeptical, especially of Emery.  He has solidified his game greatly as he’s racked up the minutes, and his numbers are out of this world, but they come from an extremely small sample size.  Not only is it a small sample size, but had the referee’s called Simmonds’ goal correctly they would shrink to 1-1-0, .95 and his goals against would shoot up to 1.30.  All of those are still very good numbers, especially for a guy who has just come back from a year away from hockey, but they compensate less for his sphincter clenching style of play.  The rebounds themselves aren’t the issue; it’s the frantic searching for them that concerns me.

At this point in the season the Ducks definitely can’t waste a start just to test Hiller out, but if he is good to go, I’m all for going back to the guy who was in the conversation for Vezina and maybe even Hart Trophy nomination before his bout with vertigo. 

The Ducks are safe in eighth, sandwiched between their next two opponents (Dallas and Nashville), until at least tomorrow, when they play the first of a two crucial back to back games.

Loss to Kings Last Straw for McElhinney

There are plenty of moral victories to take from last night’s 3-2 loss at the hands of the Kings.  The Ducks were much better defensively than they had been in the previous three games, although that isn’t saying much, and they competed despite being without their top two centers (Getzlaf took the game off to be with his wife and new born, and Saku Koivu tweaked a groin in practice Tuesday) and starting goalie.  However, none of that matters in the slightest as they have now lost four in a row and sit in 11th place in the West.

The Ducks played a very cautious defensive game, dropping back three or four guys on their own blue line and waiting for the Kings in the neutral zone at times in order to prevent the gross defensive breakdowns of the past three games.  It worked for the most part.  The passing was much cleaner than it has been, and you can’t really blame any  of the goals on McElhinney (two rebounds and one huge screen) but in the end this is a time for actual victories, not moral victories and by the time the Ducks play next it will almost be two whole weeks since their last win.

Speaking of McElhinney, this morning he was traded to Tampa Bay for Dan Ellis.  Ellis had been starting for Tampa before they brought in Dwayne Roloson.  His numbers are not spectacular by any means (2.93 GAA and .889 SV%) but he certainly has more experience than McElhinney.  Of course he was one half of a goaltending group that was so bad for Tampa they had to turn to a 41-year-old from the Islanders.  Now as the Ducks remain without Jonas Hiller, their goaltending tandem is Dan Ellis and Ray Emery.  Emery is still the likely backup as he still hasn’t played an NHL game in over a year, but the pair inspires slightly more confidence than McElhinney and Pielmier. 

According to Bob Murray on NHL Live yesterday, Hiller may be able to return this weekend, and Emery was only called up for practice, but this Dan Ellis move to shore up the goaltending raises a bit of a concern over Hiller’s health.  Hiller now thinks that his lightheadedness and fatigue could be a case of Vertigo which would tend to be a pretty big deal in the crease.

Catching up

So, a lot to cover since I haven’t been able to blog since last Wednesday.  First and foremost, the Ducks swept their trip across Western Canada, and Colorado.  It was only the third time in franchise history that they have swept a four game road trip, and it brought the longest current road winning streak in the NHL to six games. 

On the trip we saw that the Ducks can win all different types of games.  They shut out the struggling Avs and Oilers to bookend the trip and in between jumped out on top of the best team in the League holding on for dear life in Vancouver, and won a wild back and forth overtime thriller in against the surging Calgary Flames. 

Ryan Getzlaf has come back and looks in fine form.  His passing looks great.  Just about where he left off when Shane Doan’s slapper to the face put him out for six weeks, including a beauty of a backhand spin-o-rama assist to Bobby Ryan in his first game back. 

Jonas Hiller returned last night in Edmonton and turned in a 12 save shutout.  In the meantime Curtis Mcelhinney acquitted himself quite well in Hiller’s absence with a shutout and two other wins against some of the hottest teams in the NHL, Maybe it was a statement that we don’t need Ray Emery after all. The biggest personnel news, however, came on Wednesday morning. 

I didn’t think it was possible, but Francois Beauchamin is once again an Anaheim Duck as Joffrey Lupul, College prospect Jake Gardiner and a conditional fourth round pick in 2013 brought a member of the 2007 Cup team back to Orange County.  There’s been a lot of analysis of the trade already, since it happened almost a week ago, but basically it all boils down to the fact that the Ducks probably won this trade in the short term, but the long term impact will all depend on how Gardiner pans out for the Leafs. 

I’m not particularly upset about giving up Lupul in this trade.  There really just wasn’t a spot for him in this lineup.  That could change next year if Teemu retires, but he wasn’t getting the ice time he needs to produce like a $4.25 million player.  Hopefully he’ll have better luck sticking with the Leafs than he has had in any of the other three stops in his career. 

Giving up Gardiner is a more complex situation.  He was the best amateur prospect in the Ducks’ system, at least in the top three, and that’s a pretty big price to pay for a guy that the Ducks could have signed two years ago and given up nothing.  At the same time he is only a prospect, there is no guarantee that he’ll even make the NHL.  I have to admit that having a young defense anchored by Cam Fowler, Jake Gardiner and Luca Sbisa in a few years was an attractive prospect, but in the end, I can’t complain about having Beauch back.

Since the trade the Ducks have been carrying nine defensemen and dressing seven each night, which is a tricky balancing act.  It hasn’t affected them too much, as they’ve been winning, but the lack of real defensive pairs is not ideal.  One thing is for sure though, before the deadline is up the Ducks will have to make some kind of move.  Whether, it’s sending a D-man down to Syracuse or trading for some offensive depth, they simply can’t go on with nine D and only 12 forwards.

Emery, Hiller & Getzlaf

Ray Emery is about to clear waivers and report to Syracuse.  Jonas Hiller is still battling the mysterious fatigue/dizziness that kept him out of Saturday’s 3-0 win over Colorado and Ryan Getzlaf is taking full practices in preparation for his return to the lineup tomorrow night in Vancouver. 

Having not played since February 1 last year, Emery will need some time to get back into game shape.  The good thing about that is that he can’t be poached on re-entry waivers if the Ducks decide to bring him up after the Feb. 28 trade deadline. 

Over the weekend I’ve warmed to the idea of Emery as a Duck a little bit, but mostly in that there is little to no risk.  He is on a two way contract for the rest of the season, so if they bring him up and it doesn’t pay dividends, they can send him down and save four fifths of his minimal salary.  On the other hand, if something happens to Hiller or McElhinney they have the depth of a guy who once went to a Stanley Cup Final. 

I’m still not expecting much, but maybe he’ll get in a game or two, as you’ve got to think that Randy Carlyle will want to go with Hiller as much as possible down the home stretch and hopefully in the playoffs.

According to the OC Register Hiller is likely to be on the trip through Western Canada.  Seeing as Timo Pielmier is now in the ECHL after backing up McElhinney Saturday, I wouldn’t expect anything else.  However, the fact that Randy Carlyle and the doctors are still considering it rather than confirming would lead one to believe that Hiller will be on the bench in Vancouver tomorrow night, which could be a concern. 

I haven’t seen enough Canucks games this season to confirm it personally but apparently, Vancouver is an unstoppable machine destined for the finals.  So far the Ducks are 1-0-1 against the team that’s running away with the west.  So, like I said, I still haven’t really seen it, but there is enough talk about the Juggernaut Canucks that it is a bit scary to go in with a backup instead of your team MVP between the pipes.

The good news is, of course, that Ryan Getzlaf will be back tomorrow night after having missed six weeks with sinus cavity fractures.  The team has fared very well without the captain, having gone 11-4-0 (including the game in which he was injured) and the power play has been on fire, shooting all the way up to third in the league behind only Chicago and Vancouver. 

Getzlaf will resume his natural position between Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry on the first line, but I doubt Carlyle will tinker with the power play as Saku Koivu’s left shot has seemingly sparked the top unit in Getzlaf’s absence.  Of course, knowing Carlyle’s style, at the first sign of trouble Getzy will get rotated onto the first PP group. 

The biggest question surrounding Getzlaf is whether he will be able to pick up where he left off at the time of the injury.  He had a slow start to say the least, and was just rounding into form when he went out.  The Ducks can’t really afford for him to have a slow re-start and potentially bog down Perry and Ryan. 

The number one thing to look for in his game is the crispness of his passing.  Ryan Getzlaf is a playmaker first and foremost if his passing is off, as it was for the first month/month and a half of the season, he isn’t as effective as he should be.  We’ll find out tomorrow.

Finally, the games in hand situation seems to have remedied itself.  As of this morning Calgary and Phoenix have each played one more game than the Ducks and Dallas and Vancouver have zero games in hand.  The Ducks’ schedule going forward is pretty spread out, although they do still have three sets of back to backs.  So far they’ve survived the onrushing tide of teams gaining in games played and still hold down the seventh playoff spot.