The Sky Is Falling!!!

branmuffin17

Registered User
Sep 10, 2014
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Santa Ana, CA
Okay, so I'm just curious about everyone's state of mind, after the first 5 or so games of the new season. To be fair, the Ducks have played like crap, and against some fairly low teams at that.
There are a whole lot of negatives, and some positives. To summarize some:
  • Injuries: The most glaringly obvious...Getzy, Eaves, Lindholm, Vatanen, Kase, Kesler, Miller...this list is bad enough as it is, but Gibby has already given us a minor scare with that warmups hand/wrist thing. I’m SURE we’ll be a better team once everyone is healthy (will everyone be healthy, ever???), but HOW much better?
  • Stepping up: After game 1, Perry looks like he’s regressed to last-year Perry. Not good. Raks is okay, but not producing all that much. Silf isn’t producing. This is all to be expected, since they’re asked to carry a larger load since others are out, but sometimes when teams need heroes, some key players step up. Not here.
  • Coaching: PP and PK aside, Carlyle is being normal Carlyle. 4th line = 5 min per game. Boll Ras Shaw Grant in the lineup, when Kerdiles, Roy, Kossila, and others are with the Gulls. Megna not working out? Why not get Larsson or Welinski up here for a couple just to see? (I didn’t check waiver status on all of them, so understood of some could be nabbed if we brought them up and tried to send them back down)
  • Penalties: seriously, they’re going to learn sometime not to take stupid penalties, right? Right???
With these types of things in mind, do you see the ship righting as people get healthy? Or are you of a mind that all of the Ducks’ weaknesses are laid bare, and that perhaps our top players were covering up for major issues that our coaching and overall lineup have?
 

Ducks DVM

sowcufucakky
Jun 6, 2010
51,608
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The fact that they're not 0-6 is testament to how bad the team ISN'T. Remove comparable players from ANY other team and they're going to flounder just as much.

They're currently tied for the last playoff position. We have learned that Wagner Grant Shaw is actually functioning pretty well as a 3rd line, when it gets pushed down to the 4th line then we will finally have a 4th line that doesn't completely suck and can play reasonable minutes. The only question is how far back will they be when they get players back, and how badly worn down will the stars be.
 

Goose of Reason

El Zilcho
May 1, 2013
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9,136
To be honest this is where I figured we'd be with these injuries. Getzlaf, Kesler, Lindholm. Vatanen, Eaves, Kase, Ritchie, Miller and Gibson in the Colorado game have all missed time to start. That is an insane amount of players missing time and we're only 6 games in. Things will get dicey if those players come back rusty but we should be good come playoff time. I'm hoping, anyhow.
 
Aug 11, 2011
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Am Yisrael Chai
As long as the team isn't in danger of falling out of playoff contention and the injuries are still a factor, nothing major will change. No personnel changes, no coaching changes, nothing. This is what the team will look like for the next little while.
 

Sojourn

Registered User
Nov 1, 2006
50,523
9,377
Okay, so I'm just curious about everyone's state of mind, after the first 5 or so games of the new season. To be fair, the Ducks have played like crap, and against some fairly low teams at that.
There are a whole lot of negatives, and some positives. To summarize some:
  • Injuries: The most glaringly obvious...Getzy, Eaves, Lindholm, Vatanen, Kase, Kesler, Miller...this list is bad enough as it is, but Gibby has already given us a minor scare with that warmups hand/wrist thing. I’m SURE we’ll be a better team once everyone is healthy (will everyone be healthy, ever???), but HOW much better?
  • Stepping up: After game 1, Perry looks like he’s regressed to last-year Perry. Not good. Raks is okay, but not producing all that much. Silf isn’t producing. This is all to be expected, since they’re asked to carry a larger load since others are out, but sometimes when teams need heroes, some key players step up. Not here.
  • Coaching: PP and PK aside, Carlyle is being normal Carlyle. 4th line = 5 min per game. Boll Ras Shaw Grant in the lineup, when Kerdiles, Roy, Kossila, and others are with the Gulls. Megna not working out? Why not get Larsson or Welinski up here for a couple just to see? (I didn’t check waiver status on all of them, so understood of some could be nabbed if we brought them up and tried to send them back down)
  • Penalties: seriously, they’re going to learn sometime not to take stupid penalties, right? Right???
With these types of things in mind, do you see the ship righting as people get healthy? Or are you of a mind that all of the Ducks’ weaknesses are laid bare, and that perhaps our top players were covering up for major issues that our coaching and overall lineup have?

Anaheim's weaknesses aren't being exposed; they're being magnified.

The difference between a good team and a bad team is thin. Sometimes razor thin. Every team has weaknesses, and every team relies on their best players to compensate for or hide those weaknesses. When you subtract this many key players, and you don't/can't replace them with equivalent talent, any team would be reeling.
 

70sSanO

Registered User
Apr 21, 2015
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Mission Viejo, CA
The bad news is that Carlyle will still overplay the top lines/players. The good news is the longer the top players are out the the less worn out they will be for the playoffs.

But if Carlyle still runs 2-1/2 lines after everyone is back, it really won't make difference, we will run out of gas before we can get the cup.

John
 

Sojourn

Registered User
Nov 1, 2006
50,523
9,377
The bad news is that Carlyle will still overplay the top lines/players. The good news is the longer the top players are out the the less worn out they will be for the playoffs.

But if Carlyle still runs 2-1/2 lines after everyone is back, it really won't make difference, we will run out of gas before we can get the cup.

John

Carlyle doesn't really have a choice. There are certain things he can do to overplay them a little less, but as long as so many key players are out he is going to need to lean on the remaining core players he has that can/should be expected to contribute.

With this roster, even Boudreau would probably be overplaying some of these guys, and he always wanted to roll his lines. This team is just missing too much talent to manage the ice time properly. Carlyle is overdoing it, in my opinion, and part of that is his stubborn desire to keep Boll in the line-up which forces him to keep the minutes down for that entire line, but even a better 4th line isn't going to fix that issue. Not completely.
 

AngelDuck

Rak 'em up
Jun 16, 2012
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The only problems with the roster (when healthy) are 3C, Gibson/Miller always getting hurt, and Carlyle's insistence on playing Boll. Other than that, the team is pretty damn good. Not the favorite to win it all but in the conversation if Kesler, Getzlaf, Eaves, Vatanen, Lindholm come back 100%
 

Paul4587

Registered User
Jan 26, 2006
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My worry isn't how good they are when healthy it's that they might never get healthy and that if they do Carlyle will still insist on his stupid personnel and deployment choices which will lead to our top guys getting worn down again.

The dude is stubborn as hell and an absolute dinosaur.
 

AngelDuck

Rak 'em up
Jun 16, 2012
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Don't think you have to worry about Kesler getting worn down this year. He's probably only playing 35-40 regular season games this year. I'm more worried about him finding his skating stride coming off hip surgery at 33 years old
 

JabbaJabba

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Dec 22, 2010
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Finland
Sucks that Perry's performance in the 1st game was just an exception. I thought that with so many injuries in the lineup and A in his chest Perry would start playing better, but nope. Yeah, season is still young but his play isn't encouraging at all.
 

Elvs

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Jul 3, 2006
12,271
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  • Coaching: PP and PK aside, Carlyle is being normal Carlyle. 4th line = 5 min per game. Boll Ras Shaw Grant in the lineup, when Kerdiles, Roy, Kossila, and others are with the Gulls. Megna not working out? Why not get Larsson or Welinski up here for a couple just to see? (I didn’t check waiver status on all of them, so understood of some could be nabbed if we brought them up and tried to send them back down)

Kerdiles has played with the big club the last couple of games. You just didn't notice him because he hasn't done anything, except turn the puck over in the defensive zone twice during the same shift. The issue is dressing Boll. All those other guys are capable of playing 8-9 minutes as opposed to 4, and are capable of playing on the PK to give our more offensive players some relief.

Just like Paul, I'm not the least worried about the start. I'm worried about our injured players never healing, or getting back to shape once they return. We've had Getzlaf and Eaves come back from injury only to be out of the lineup again a few days later. That's worrysome.
 
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Magnus the Duck

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Nov 7, 2014
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The problem is that we do have some players that should be better and are not performing. I know it is easier to shut down those with our injuries. But we have had many home games this far, where Carlyle can match then at faceoffs, and it hasn't helped. Rakell, Perry, Silfverberg comes to mind of players underperforming.

If the team starts to perform better at away games, I like to belive part of the issue lies with Carlyle and his line matching games. Come to think of it, hasn't the two wins been away games and all other 4 games home games? Just a coincidence I guess.
 
Jul 29, 2003
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I'm honestly not even worried about Boll long term. I know Carlyle plays him more than he should, but once everyone's back in the lineup(not even including Kesler), who sits for him? Maybe there's the odd game they'll throw him in over Shaw or something, but for the most part he'll battle Rasmussen for spot starts.
 
Jul 29, 2003
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The problem is that we do have some players that should be better and are not performing. I know it is easier to shut down those with our injuries. But we have had many home games this far, where Carlyle can match then at faceoffs, and it hasn't helped. Rakell, Perry, Silfverberg comes to mind of players underperforming.

If the team starts to perform better at away games, I like to belive part of the issue lies with Carlyle and his line matching games. Come to think of it, hasn't the two wins been away games and all other 4 games home games? Just a coincidence I guess.

No both wins (and the OT loss) were at home while our only road game was a loss.
 
Jun 2, 2005
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Once everyone's healthy (knock on wood) maybe the 4th line of Wagner - Grant - Shaw will see more responsibility since they're being leaned on more right now. I bet RC can be fairly confident on them, except when he inserts Boll. But Getz and Kesler definitely need to be limited on their ice time to keep them going for the playoffs. I suppose the 3rd line will be built around Rakell and Perry so I don't know if someone from the aforementioned 4th line will draw in LW and Vermette to center the 4th or Vermette on the 3rd either C or LW. So all in all I do like how this team looks, when healthy. Right now it just isn't that and as long as we stay close to .500 I'm happy with the results. An update on that 3rd C and moving Rakell to wing would be pretty neat too.
 

Mallard

Registered User
Apr 19, 2017
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When everyone is healthy and Grant-Wag-Shaw isn't the fourth line, then there is a problem. I really can't comprehend any use of Boll over those guys barring injury.

But RC will think he has to play Boll in a series against LA/Cgy/Edm for some reason.
 

5minsforfighting

Registered User
Sep 20, 2005
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Not only they are loosing, but their games ar sooooo boring to watch. I dont care about the injuries... sadly those things happen. We have no players on the team at the moment who can step up, show some leadership, bring some emotions, determination and intensity on ice. Figure skating team.
 
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mightyquack

eggplant and jade or bust
Apr 28, 2010
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Don't think you have to worry about Kesler getting worn down this year. He's probably only playing 35-40 regular season games this year. I'm more worried about him finding his skating stride coming off hip surgery at 33 years old
35-40 games was about all it took to wear Kesler down last season with the insane minutes he had. He was a shadow of himself in the 2nd half of the season.
 

branmuffin17

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Sep 10, 2014
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Santa Ana, CA
Kerdiles has played with the big club the last couple of games. You just didn't notice him because he hasn't done anything, except turn the puck over in the defensive zone twice during the same shift.

OOPS!!! Hahaha, my bad, I actually didn't watch most of last game (wife wanted me to sit outside with her and drink wine). In the end, that seems like it was the right decision.

Is it just me, or do most of our AHLers seem underwhelming? Is it almost time to give up hope for Kerdiles? At least we have future potential with Larsson, Steel, and Jones, but the rest of them seem like unrealized potential every time we bring them up. I also hoped Megna would be a nice surprise, but have been a bit disappointed so far.
 

bsu

"I have no idea what I am doing" -Pat VerBleak
Sep 27, 2017
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Megna hasn't been bad and he's been paired with a bad partner. Same with Montour he looks a lot worse because Beauchemin is so slow
 

91Fedorov

John (Gibson) 3:16
Dec 30, 2013
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When everyone is healthy and Grant-Wag-Shaw isn't the fourth line, then there is a problem. I really can't comprehend any use of Boll over those guys barring injury.

But RC will think he has to play Boll in a series against LA/Cgy/Edm for some reason.

I really think this will be interesting to see. Last year there was the thought that maybe RC wasn't using his 4th line much, and leaving Boll on it, because he really didn't have any other great options. Now he does. Grant-Wags-Shaw looks like a solid 4th. If that line is not together for more games than Boll is in, it will be a shame.

In response to the OP, I think the reason we aren't trying Larsson is because it would cause us to send Megna down for the spot and we could lose him to waivers.
 

Duck Off

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Oct 25, 2002
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The fact that they're not 0-6 is testament to how bad the team ISN'T. Remove comparable players from ANY other team and they're going to flounder just as much.

They're currently tied for the last playoff position. We have learned that Wagner Grant Shaw is actually functioning pretty well as a 3rd line, when it gets pushed down to the 4th line then we will finally have a 4th line that doesn't completely suck and can play reasonable minutes. The only question is how far back will they be when they get players back, and how badly worn down will the stars be.

I think this is pretty accurate. Although I think the question is will Carlyle actually dress that 4th line, and even if he does, will he play them more than 5 minutes.
 
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Duck Off

HF needs an App
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My worry isn't how good they are when healthy it's that they might never get healthy and that if they do Carlyle will still insist on his stupid personnel and deployment choices which will lead to our top guys getting worn down again.

The dude is stubborn as hell and an absolute dinosaur.

This.

Don't think you have to worry about Kesler getting worn down this year. He's probably only playing 35-40 regular season games this year. I'm more worried about him finding his skating stride coming off hip surgery at 33 years old

If Carlyle wasn't our coach, then I'd agree. However, I can see Carlyle thinking it's fine to give Kesler even more minutes than last year when he gets back because he's "fresh". That's a big f***ing mistake IMO. Like you mentioned, the hip surgery worries me as well, even more so since we have to deal with RC and his stupid ass "do everything necessary to win each game" mentality.
 

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