Sleeksays

Anaheim Ducks (10-8-2, 7th in west) at St. Louis Blues (6-8-2, 15th in west) Ducks had better have a better start or somebody's going to the dentist! So for Part IV of this series, I thought I'd take a look at some of the ways that Burke was a very good general manager -- things that worked for the Ducks not only on their Cup run but also looking forward. Think of these as a bit of a primer for good ol' Bob Murray, or more accurately, Part IV: What I like about Burke the roster-builder . Lesson One: If you want depth, don't acquire depth players; instead insert talent at the top of your roster. While I've stated before that I�m not overly impressed that Burke had the "wisdom" to acquire Niedermayer, Selanne, or Pronger, I don�t want to take away from the fact that Burke knew what he was going after � a superstar. His focus wasn�t on filling in his roster with supplementary depth players, though he certainly put those pieces in place as well; he was loo...

I've been an independent observer of this whole Dustin Penner fiasco , and like M*A*S*H* or a penis, it just gets better the longer it goes. To recap: The Oilers sign Dustin Penner to a 5-year, $21.25 million dollar deal after his astounding 43-point season playing alongside 2 scrubs named Ryan Getzly and Chris Perry or something like that. Who cares, they've never done anything anyway. There was much gnashing of the teeth from bloviating jackass Brian Burke, who criticized Lowe for ruining both teams; this was followed by a lot of back-and-forth between the outmatched Anaheim blogging contingent and the Edmonton juggernaut. But, in the end, Brian Burke was right: the Dustin Penner offer sheet not only left Edmonton with an overpaid, unmotivated baby, but also screwed the Ducks over when they had an opportunity to win a 2nd cup. To that I say, "Huzzah!" The problem with the Edmonton offer sheet from their perspective was that they were not in the position to of...

Well here's something I thought I'd never live long enough to see: an Anaheim Duck atop the league leaderboard?! Congratulations to Getzlaf, Perry, and Selanne for continuing their offensive surge, including a combined 4 goals and 2 assists against the injury-depleted Blues last night. The Sharks should probably beat up the Blues again tonight, especially with Paul Kariya leaving last night's game in the second period with an ever-vague lower-body injury. The Ducks' 8-0-1 record within their last nine games has pulled the team briefly, at least, within three points of the league-leading Sharks. While the Ducks have played at least two more games than 28 NHL teams, it's still brought them up to the third-highest point total in the league, which is the subject of today's PuckToon . It's still difficult to tell you how good these Anaheim Ducks are or can be, but one thing is true: they are winning games in a lot of different ways, and are becoming awfully diffi...

Anaheim Ducks (7-5-1, t-3rd in west) at Los Angeles Kings (3-6-1, 15th in west) Let's try this again, shall we? Lots to talk about on the Anaheim end of things, plus I'm sure Rudy's got plenty of Kings stuff to add, so let's get moving. First off is the Six Games of Jekyll / Seven Games of Hyde that's started off the Ducks' year. 1-5-0 in the first six, then 6-0-1 in the last seven, and the primary difference appears to be offense: the Ducks jumped from 2.17 goals scored per game to 4.14, and the power play jumped from a 1-for-24 success ratio to a 10-for-30 over the last seven games. Meanwhile, defense and penalty killing for the Ducks have stayed remarkably consistent (goals-against per game went from 3.33 to 3.29; penalty killing went from 80.6% to 80.5%) . As noted, the primary driver for this improved offense has been the awakening of the three-headed first star of the week : Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and Teemu Selanne. The table below shows the improve...

Now I don't want to over-emphasize the point of this post, as really, I don't care very much at all about the NHL's Three Stars of the Week. It's an announcement that pretty much every week escapes my notice, as generally it's a collection of east-coast players named Sidney or Alexander or something, with an occasional west-coaster tossed in for "parity". But what is the poor NHL to do when the top three scorers of the week all come from the easy-to-neglect Anaheim Ducks? It certainly couldn't have a weekly ceremony without any mention of its favorite conference, could it? Nah, of course not. After meeting late into the night, the NHL brass came up with a brilliant compromise: why not just combine all three Duck players as one three-headed "First Star of the Week" , conveniently leaving two spots available to throw a nod to Boston's Tim Thomas and Philadelphia's Simon Gagne? Certainly it was a brave maneuver that had never been done b...

Detroit Red Wings (7-1-1, 2nd in west) at Anaheim Ducks (5-5-0, t-5th in west) Ah, it's never felt so good to be back at .500 Well, I don't know if it was a lucky mix of positivity and poetry (Poetrivity!) , but somehow the Ducks pulled off a nice 4-game sweep on their road trip, to nicely recover from their 0-4 season start. There's still plenty of things to improve on for the Ducks, but I'm still at the point that I care more that they are getting points than worrying too much about how they're getting them. Suffice to say that it was a fortunate road trip (really? only the third time ever a team has swept eastern Canada ?) , and it was extremely helpful to score the first two goals in each of the first three games. But probably the one event on the road trip that probably shouldn't be overlooked was Ryan Getzlaf's trip to the dentist . Getzlaf had a virus removed from his gum that kept him out of the game in Toronto, but apparently the virus was ad...

Anaheim Ducks (1-5-0, 15th in west) at Toronto Maple Leafs (1-2-2, t-11th in east) When's the last time you looked longingly at Toronto's record? (I wasn't asking you, Kings fans.) Yeah, sometimes I'm lazy enough for a good google image search, so sue me (note to Disney: please don't sue me) . Not too much from me today, as I didn't even get to watch the Carolina outing, but I did want to revisit a post I wrote way back in June that explored the notion of Brian Burke taking a Maple Leafs GM job next summer . I really made two points: (1) Brian Burke has gotten lucky at times, in particular with his acquisitions of Niedermayer, Pronger, and Selanne, and (2) I was fine with Burke leaving, as there is a fairly open roster next year for a replacement GM to work with. Of course, that latter point isn't looking so strong these days, as the three biggest contracts Burke has locked the Ducks into are: R. Getzlaf, 6 gp, 0-1-1, -5 � 5 years, $26.625 million C. Perr...

Absolutely nothing is working for the top lines of the Ducks, but the bottom two lines are thriving. Rob N., Pahlsson, Moen, Marchant, Carter, May, Parros, and Sutherby -- those eight players have combined for 6 goals and 8 assists, and Carter, May, and Parros are each +3 -0 at even strength. Getzlaf, Kunitz, Perry, Selanne, and Morrison? That fivesome has but 1 goal and 1 assist between them (not even on the same goal) , a collective +3 -17 at even strength, plus they're taking a whackload of stupid frustration penalties. So why not mix it up? I know that the Ducks looked pretty good for most of tonight, but what's the downside in trying this? Kunitz - Getzlaf - Selanne Marchant - Morrison - Perry Moen - Pahlsson - Niedermayer May - Carter - Sutherby - Parros There's obviously a lot of room for shuffling, but should Carlyle just stop forcing Getzlaf-Perry and Morrison-Selanne? Can changing primary partners help ignite what's been so far an awfully stale offense? I don...

Opening night is always a fun time. It was a little subdued, no laser light show or other pre-game theatrics. Can anyone tell me where the Sharks head was? The players skating out without it was kinda weird. It was nice to see an unveiling of another division banner but that is not the banner that we want. The "new" style of play was pretty evident. Centers were driving toward the net and players seemed to be moving all the time. Somebody must of put a picture of Ron Wilson's face outside the crease as Patrick Marleau was actually seen in front of the net screening Giguere. The power play was generating scoring chance after scoring chance. Noticably absent from the half wall, Joe Thornton played more like a power forward. Last year it seems the power play was "let's get Joe the puck and let him create." Sure it is only one game but there was a decided effort to get the puck to the point and let Rob Blake fire away. Opposing defenses will have to s...