Steve Palumbo: Another one bites the dust

Gibson has been stellar. This season is the real breakthrough. If they tighten up in front of him he could do .925 or better

Bummer that Gibby wasn’t even an option for the all star fan vote. All of the Ducks choices will have been injured for pretty significant amounts of time when voting ends. He would have been my pick for the Ducks, no question. He’s been their best player.

I expect a much better game from 15 tonight.. even though he had his moments against Canes - def rusty in moments which is to be expected..

Kase was his usual demon out there and depth scoring can never be a bad thing...

I'm thinking NR moves up with 15/67 /37 -- or Kase then 7/14/33
3rd and 4th lines will be a mix and match of Shaw / AV / wags and others

Is there no end to our D depth???? awesome to see - everyone we plug in back there just works... Sweet... with another 3 or 4 guys ready to go ...


And JG what can you say He has simply saved the season to this point.

Going to be a difficult road trip but hopefully the boys can close out some games with the captain back. Also read yesterday that Kesler is joining them on the road and could possibly play towards the end of it.

The Ducks fly into St. Louis to take on the even strength power house St. Louis Blues. Head Coach of the Blues, Mike Yeo, has always, always, always pushed sound transitions, and they're gonna try to burn this team with those little passes in their Dzone in an attempt to get the jump on their opponents defense and make the neutral zone a non factor. Then, even worse - once they're in their offensive zone - they know how to keep the pressure on.

Anaheim is going to have their hands full tonight. Make no mistake about that. If they aren't getting sustained offensive zone pressure, and if the neutral zone isn't clogged, then they will find themselves flat footed in their defensive zone.

This game boils down to gap control, winning puck battles and getting the puck past Jake Allen. The story with Allen is the same it's been; he's been good enough, but not great.

Personally, I'll be keeping an extra close eye on Henrique. His style of game should really help Anaheim control play.

No excuses. Get it done dammit!

Sure glad the Captain is back !

Done and done.

Gibby was spectacular, as was Roy.

Good start to the road trip. Off to Washington!

Yeah. It was a good game. First time this year I saw them have that F.U. attitude. The defensive play really stood out. To stand St. Louis up in there own building really says something. Here's to good things comes too those who wait.

Tonight the Anaheim Ducks take on the Washington Capitals. Historically, these teams have fought valiant battles, and I expect that to be the case here tonight. Last year at the Verizon Center Anaheim was out of the game from the get-go. And despite overcoming two three goal deficits to eventually tie the game, it wasn't enough. #StannisBaratheon

When the Capitals took the ice at the Honda Center; it was a different story. The Ducks were prepared and mutilated the Capitals Bolton style in a mean 5-2 stomping.

What changed? What was the factor that turned the tables after the horrendous first period at the Verizon Center last February? Was it the Knights of the Vale? No. What it was, was this team started playing as a team! In that first period of last year's game against the Caps, Anaheim's wingers got beat time and time again at the top of the zone. And then what happened? The defense got puck focused, and it was as easy as tic-tac-toe back of the net deja vu, deja vu. Good luck winning a game when you get fooled twice.

When this team is playing defense tonight it is vital that Anaheim's wingers have total comprehension of the what's expected of them. They must be prepared to play defense, and even more importantly, they can't be taking hooking penalties when the Capitals are lining up picks. That - and getting open for breakout passes - will make success significantly more advantageous. Kind of like Valyrian steel.

Well that game in Washington was poop. Ovechkin killed us again. Couldn't even watch the first period because channel 13 messed up.

Yeah, what was up with that production quality? The idiot sound engineer left a phaser going on the master controller of the mixer the entire game! What a blithering idiot. I guess that's why he works at KCOP-13. Anyways, I hope he gets fired. Dude can't do his job, so why should we have to put up with his idiocy? Its not like it's difficult. Hell, I bet I could of fixed it. Yes, to the dismay of no one, I also know my way around a DAW.

Enough of that! The game! I'm here to talk about the game! There were a lot of positives, but it was the same third period we've seen from this team. Under normal circumstances, holding a third period lead is Kesler time. It is Kesler every third shift, maybe more, and this is one of the hardships of not having him around.

Hampus Lindholm talked about how the team stopped attacking in the third period, and he's right. Without Kesler, they're still trying to hold leads by just defending, and look at the results. This is hockey, you got to dig deep and get those legs moving to establish a forecheck in the third period with a lead. If you're too tired to get it done, tell Carlyle so he can make the right adjustments. I know there's more to give from this group when they have a lead in the third, so just keep your foot on the pedal, and play your system so you have an opportunity to create some offense.

Tomorrow the Ducks will be in New Jersey! They're gonna be taking on the New Jersey Devils! You know it's going to be an emotional game for Vats, Rico and Blandisi. Hopefully KCOP-13 gets the kinks worked out by then!