The Anaheim Ducks have hit the wall....hard. In fact they are stumbling so bad towards the season's finish line it's starting to dim the glow of a wonderful six week run that made them relevant again.

Losers of three of four, including two in a row the Ducks look more like the team that limped off the starting line, way back in October. Anaheim is just 4-5-1 in their last ten and won a grand total of six games since March 1st.

Jonas Hiller, hasn't been bad, but he's starting to look less and less dominant with each game. He's letting pucks go by him that he had been saving with regularity just a few weeks ago. Is it a sign of fatigue because of the increased workload, or is the team in front of him playing looser than they had been? It's probably a bit of both.

Since a 4-0 shutout of the Detroit Red Wings on March 14, the Ducks have given up 23 goals in their last eight games. In the last ten games the Ducks have given up three or more goals eight times.

Remember in a 28 game stretch form January 1st to March 2nd, Hiller and company surrendered more than two goals a total of six times.

With just three games left it's up to Bruce Boudreau to get his team to play hard. It's easy to tell the media the players are committed to finishing strong and on a positive note but the effort has to be able to translate on the ice. And in the Ducks case the on ice resultss seem to indicate otherwise.
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It was nice to see all the fans attempting to coax Teemu Selanne to come back for one more year. He has repeatedly said he will have a decision finalized by July 1, however I tend to believe he has already made up his mind.

After the roller coaster of a season this team has been through it might be hard for him to come back. But being that Selanne is a warrior and it's obvious he has a desire to win I would tend to lean towards him returning.

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Here is a link to a feature I did for The Hockey Guys on the Ducks very own So Cal kid, Emerson Etem.


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