Sayonara two-game losing streak!
The Anaheim Ducks picked up their first win of a season-long eight game road trip by beating Bobby Ryan and the Ottawa Senators 2-1 on Friday night.
Ryan Getzlaf notched a goal and an assist, Patrick Maroon scored his second goal of the season and Frederick Andersen did the rest. The 24-year-old rookie made 26 stops to improve to 2-0 on the season. After the game the Ducks announced they had signed Andersen to a two-year contract. I'll get back to that later.
This was the second and final meeting between the cross-conference rivals. I say 'rivals' because of the Bobby Ryan connection. The Ducks won both meetings, but this one was a little bit more competitive. In the the first meeting Anaheim beat the snot out of the Sens. Ottawa gave up a team-record 56 shots in the 4-1 loss back on October 13. This time the Ducks managed half their shot total from the prior game with the same results, a 'W' and two valuable points.
It was clear from the start the Sens were not going to be embarrassed again. They played a very physical game and gave the Ducks, especially Emerson Etem, a few good shots when the opportunity presented itself.
Had it not been for a really awful Erik Karlsson turnover on Getzlaf's eventual game-winning goal and the solid play of Andersen, the game could have ended very differently.
- Anaheim still stinks with the man advantage, going zero for five on the power play. The Ducks are now 0 for 12 in the first three games of this read trip.
I'm pretty sure Bruce Boudreau would suit up and play the point if he thought it would help his team because nobody else he puts out there can do diddly-squat. Trust me when I say,
this will come back to haunt this team at some point this season.
Now that the mini-losing streak is over Duck fans can breath a little bit. The sky was never falling, you can relax now. People were starting to act like the Ducks had suddenly turned into the New Jersey Devils.
(It pains me to type that btw)
Anaheim will be back in action on Sunday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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Back to the Andersen signing.
What does this mean for Jonas Hiller? The Ducks have both Andersen and Viktor Fasth Signed beyond this season. Hiller is in the final year of his current deal. There have already been rumbles about the Ducks moving Hiller. Who knows how true they are but it does bring up n interesting point.
With all this money tied up in Getzlaf, Cam Fowler and Cory Perry, is it worth re-signing Jonas? The 31-year-old has had his ups and downs with the whole vertigo episode etc. Although he does finally seems to be back on track this season.
If Fasth can come back from his 'lower-body' injury without any further setbacks, I can see Hiller becoming the odd-man out in Anaheim. I was pushing for this a couple for this a while back, but after what I have seen from Hiller this season I'm having second thoughts.
Would you trade Hiller or hold onto him like that special childhood teddy bear?
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