GDT: Game #30 of the season Ducks visit Jets 3:00 PM ET on 12 - 8 - 19

[Uncle Bill]

Canadian reffing + average goaltending + lack of finishers=another close loss

Referees: Ian Walsh, Pennsylvania and Dean Morton, Ontario

 

[KyleJRM]

Steel and Terry aren't rookies.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

This team reminds me a lot of the early 2000s teams. Couple of really good players, good goalie, they're competitive but just kind of a low-end talent team. Some overhyped rookies and too much bottom 6 talent playing above their depth. Those early teams had better defensemen I think, relative to the rest of the league.

 

[Paul4587]

I know he didn’t have his best game but Eakins needs to find ways to ensure Lindholm is getting more minutes in games like this. We are bleeding points all over the place, our playoff hopes are starting to dwindle and he has our best Dman playing 19 minutes.

I’m all for spreading the minutes up front because our best forward is 34 and needs to be monitored but when you only have two good dmen and both are in their prime years there’s no reason they shouldn’t each be playing 22+ mins in tight games.

 

[Deuce22]

Let me know when there is a Cliff Notes version.

Let me help you. Bob Murray has a plan for everything and makes no mistakes.

 

[quackquackquack]

Management clearly felt like there was a culture problem, including players not working hard enough off the ice. Who stayed and who went had everything to do with that.

And they weren't wrong. Look at Getz vs Perry. Getz is continuing to play like a star/borderline star. Perry is washed up and can barely crack the lineup in Dallas

 

[Stumbledore]

Canadian reffing + average goaltending + lack of finishers=another close loss

Agreed, the referees were atrocious yesterday and the puck was shot cleanly over the boards and a penalty should have been called. Not to defend the officiating, but we only confirmed that with repeated viewing in high definition slow motion.

For the record: Brian Pochmara is from and still based in Detroit, MI, making him an American, not a Canadian referee. And one of the linesmen, Jim Tobias, is from Buffalo, NY, also an American.

 

[MilesNewton]

They are like 15th in GAA, with Lindholm/manson missing significant time and Gibson not playing very well... the defense is passable. The offense struggles but that was a given coming into the season. When the team is healthy we should defend pretty well.... and itll just be a matter of finding someone that wants to score a bit.

I hope when Manson comes back everyones dreams come true that a healthy defense will make all the difference. Not sure if its possible but seems Manson is ready so we will see.

 

[MilesNewton]

Our strengths are in forward potential and netminding (Dostal train is raring louder and louder). Hoping that one of Guhle, Larsson, or both become mainstays at the NHL level was a huge gamble. So much so that the Ducks were in on both Shattenkirk and Faulk.

I actually have no problem with Faulk for Kase, but I have a problem with a long term (which Bob correctly walked away from). Bob found an opportunity when the Canes signed Gardiner before getting rid of any roster defenseman first. We can afford to lose a forward because we're deep with forward prospects. What we are lacking at is an all around RHD b/c we don't have that in our system. I thought Faulk was only a PP specialist, but through some research I discovered he loves to hit and block shots. It was his hitting, block shots, and health that enamored me with him because at least he plays defense. Also with Faulk, he would be the PP1 QB, displacing Fowler from the top unit.

Through a couple of articles, we know that Bob has been in touch with acquiring Gudz from Pitt. I think Bob was trying to wait it out for a better deal from Pitt, but we lost both Manson and Hampus. That facilitated an emergency to acquire Gudz at his price. I'm decently surprised that Gudz is fitting well with our defensive group as well as being the best pair complement to Fowler to date.

We haven't drafted a defenseman in the top two rounds before this year since we drafted Larsson, back in 2015. Guhle was a 2015 draftee as well, but in the second round at 51st overall. LaCombe was drafted this past draft and could stay in the NCAA for four years. Our situation today is reversed from recent years were we used to have a wealth of blue liners in our system.

Defensemen drafted by Ducks
2009: 4th round, Vatanen (we got lucky here)
2010: 1st round, Fowler
2011: 3rd round, Welinski and 6th round, Manson (we got extremely lucky here)
2012: 1st round, Lindholm
2013: 1st round, Theodore
2014: 2nd round, Pettersson and 2nd round, Montour
2015: 1st round, Larsson
2016: (3rd round, Mahura... only defenseman drafted)
2017: = no defensemen drafted =
2018: (6th round, Drew... only defenseman drafted)

As you can see, we didn't spend any draft capital in the first two rounds in 2016 - 2018, a three year span. We got lucky with Vatanen and Manson. I included Welinski only because he did play in the playoffs with the Ducks, but his talent just wasn't enough. The only top two round prospect that hasn't panned out so far is Larsson.

Vats and Pettersson were traded for offense. Theodore was traded to protect Manson. Monty was traded for factors beyond my pay grade to know definitively, but the offer Buffalo gave the Ducks was probably a more significant reason as it was a young D prospect and a first round pick.

We're no longer deep at defense because we stopped spending draft capital on defensemen for the past three drafts in the first two rounds and we're not getting lucky with a Vatanen or a Manson. Vatanen wasn't a regular at the NHL level until age 23 and Manson at age 24. We spent a majority of our draft capital on forwards during 2016 - 18. What makes that three year span worse is we spent more draft capital on goalies than defensemen! In 2017, we drafted G Ek in the fifth round. In 2018, we drafted Dostal in the 3rd round and Durny in the 5th round.

The Ducks wanted to improve their forward situation as well as have depth at netminding. Thus, the defense suffered in reloading within the system. It's very possible that we trade a forward or two for defensive help. That's what I wasn't opposed to a Faulk trade, but on Duck term length. With the addition of Gudz and how he's panning out, we're coming up with roses as we gave away virtually nothing (a forward prospect I didn't know we had and a 2021 seventh round pick). Soon, Manson will return and we'll have a proper top-4 blue line without sacrificing any top forward prospects. I think we're getting lucky here. Unfortunately, that's where the luck ends because our youthful forwards are still ducklings and our PP stinks to holy hell. I'm more worried about lack of PP effectiveness than our struggling youth.

The PP suckage is due to lack of coaching than lack of talent. I don't have patience for that after 29 games.

Eakins, 2019-20 (29 games) : PP % = 10.5%
Murray, 2018-19 (26 games) : PP % = 21.8%

Almost the same roster, but someone can't coach their PP unit well.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Agreed, the referees were atrocious yesterday and the puck was shot cleanly over the boards and a penalty should have been called. Not to defend the officiating, but we only confirmed that with repeated viewing in high definition slow motion.

For the record: Brian Pochmara is from and still based in Detroit, MI, making him an American, not a Canadian referee. And one of the linesmen, Jim Tobias, is from Buffalo, NY, also an American.

I did enjoy your announcers
"that looks like it never hit the gla..."
"...shhhh"
"refs make the right call"

 

[Eyeseeing]

I did enjoy your announcers
"that looks like it never hit the gla..."
"...shhhh"
"refs make the right call"

And we don’t cross check we push lol..
Kudos to Getz for not breaking Ehlers totally class for not clown pounding him

 

[McDonald19]

I hope when Manson comes back everyones dreams come true that a healthy defense will make all the difference. Not sure if its possible but seems Manson is ready so we will see.

On paper, Lindholm-Manson Fowler-Gudbranson, looks like a pretty good D core. I don’t expect that to solve everything. Bigger issue is the lack of productivity of the young forwards.

 

[DigiDuck]

Missed the game, but the way Shore needed a lucky kick from Helle to score on a puck that was just laying in the crease sums up everything about this team. No one is ever in the right spot, and even when they are, no real finishing ability. Just 51 more games of frustration!

And why exactly did Ehlers think it was a good idea to challenge Getzlaf on a nothing cross check? Something happen earlier in the game?

 

[robbieboy3686]

Did Brian Hayward just say the Ducks are like the Jets because they both have to score by committee? Did he get high in the break between the end of the game and the postgame?

Said that about our next opponent the wild.

 

[robbieboy3686]

Missed the game, but the way Shore needed a lucky kick from Helle to score on a puck that was just laying in the crease sums up everything about this team. No one is ever in the right spot, and even when they are, no real finishing ability. Just 51 more games of frustration!

And why exactly did Ehlers think it was a good idea to challenge Getzlaf on a nothing cross check? Something happen earlier in the game?

Ehlers slu foot a couple of ducks in Anaheim last game early in the first period if I recall( and the high stick on Comtois probably reminded our captain that he has been getting out of line )

 

[duckaroosky]

Agreed, the referees were atrocious yesterday and the puck was shot cleanly over the boards and a penalty should have been called. Not to defend the officiating, but we only confirmed that with repeated viewing in high definition slow motion.

For the record: Brian Pochmara is from and still based in Detroit, MI, making him an American, not a Canadian referee. And one of the linesmen, Jim Tobias, is from Buffalo, NY, also an American.

Both those places are practically Canada. Bet they both put maple syrup on everything and celebrate Thanksgiving in October like a sociopath.

 

[Mr Rogers]

Reffing was bad (what's new) but we lost because we have no finishing ability and very little playmaking ability outside of Getzlaf. I don't know how many times over the past couple weeks i've seen a linemate of his fan, shank, whiff etc on one of his passes. Sometimes they don't even expect the passes. If Getzlaf were playing with scoring wingers consistently, there's little doubt in my mind he'd still be a 70-80 point player.

 

[Paul4587]

Reffing was bad (what's new) but we lost because we have no finishing ability and very little playmaking ability outside of Getzlaf. I don't know how many times over the past couple weeks i've seen a linemate of his fan, shank, whiff etc on one of his passes. Sometimes they don't even expect the passes. If Getzlaf were playing with scoring wingers consistently, there's little doubt in my mind he'd still be a 70-80 point player.

Give him back Rakell. He's the only other player who has remotely close to first line talent currently on the team.

 

[robbieboy3686]

Are people still *****ing about Terry? Lmao! He's been one of our best player for weeks. ***** about steel if you're gonna ***** all he does is dump and chase while playing with our best players. He needs a wake up call.

I give him a pass due to center being a lot more difficult position to play( but he also needs to wake the f up)

 

[JabbaJabba]

Steel and Terry aren't rookies.

They are newbies, neither of them have a season worth of games under their belt. Sorry if I messed up with the terminology as I used the word rookie for them even though they had some games last year. They are not experienced veterans and have a lot of room to develop so let's not act as if they have been in the league longer than they have actually have. We shouldn't expect too much out of them just yet because it's a long process.

 

[Ducks DVM]

I give him a pass due to center being a lot more difficult position to play( but he also needs to wake the f up)

Terry is 1G, 3A, 4P, +4 in his last 6 games since being benched. How much more woke does he need to be to not be the problem?

 

[KyleJRM]

They are newbies, neither of them have a season worth of games under their belt. Sorry if I messed up with the terminology as I used the word rookie for them even though they had some games last year. They are not experienced veterans and have a lot of room to develop so let's not act as if they have been in the league longer than they have actually have. We shouldn't expect too much out of them just yet because it's a long process.

For the players who end up good, it’s not *that* long of a process. There are guys their age and younger producing all over the NHL.

 

[ducks8]

Terry is 1G, 3A, 4P, +4 in his last 6 games since being benched. How much more woke does he need to be to not be the problem?

He needs to score everytime he has the puck, never lose a puck battle, never turn the puck over. Come on now, don't you know this

 

[dracom]

For the players who end up good, it’s not *that* long of a process. There are guys their age and younger producing all over the NHL.

while I want them to produce more and I'm definitely concerned they aren't showing major signs of improvement. the players who are younger than them and producing are guys who were drafted very early, like top 10 in the 1st round. Those players should be producing. And when you look at it, there's not that many players younger than Steel or Terry that are out producing them that were also drafted outside the top 10.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

And we don’t cross check we push lol..
Kudos to Getz for not breaking Ehlers totally class for not clown pounding him

Haha i forgot about the "push" lol ... i did enjoy them... that stuff was funny