On a night the Kings, Sharks and Flames all lost, the Anaheim Ducks had one job and they failed - miserably. The Detroit Red Wings took advantage of another sloppy Ducks outing en route to a 2-1 regulation win.
Anaheim (27-20-11 65 pts. ) fell to 2-3-2 in February and missed a great opportunity to gain ground in the race for third place in the Pacific Division. Calgary currently holds that coveted spot, leading ANA and LA by one point in the standings.
Thoughts and opinions from another rough night:
- The Ducks out shot the Wings 33-16, that stat is a bit misleading. Anaheim did very little to generate anything dangerous offensively. It was kind of a ho-hum performance and more of the same from this team. Anaheim skated slowly out of their zone and either forced a pass, where there was none, or dumped the puck hoping a white sweater could get there first.
- What on Earth was Kevin Bieksa thinking with that horrific pass to a lurking Dylan Larkin for the games first goal? Bieksa is an NHL vet that consistently makes beer league mistakes. That was an unforgivable turnover and one that should have him sitting in the booth for the next game. Bring back Andy Welisnki - he couldn't possibly be any worse.
- Right now the power play resembles a passing drill more than an NHL level power play. Pass, pass, pass, pass, lose puck on the line, skate to center ice, regain the zone, pass, pass, pass, pass - times up. The Ducks failed to score on four chances last night and it was the difference in the game. They were hot for a bit but have cooled off considerably. They haven't scored a PPG in the last three games. Stop being cute and just shoot the darn puck.
- Ondrej Kase got caught watching on the game winning goal. He didn't even react to the puck as it slid past him to a wide open Frans Nielsen. The Wings forward beat John Gibson with a rocket for the eventual GWG. If Kase even moves a little bit to his left, he may have disrupted Nielsen enough to prevent a scoring chance.
- According to hockey-reference.com's playoff probabilities - with last nights loss, the Ducks chances of making the playoffs dropped to 30.1%. Their projected point total is only 91.8. Calgary, which is currently tied with ANA, has a 51.6% probability with a projected point total of 93.8. We are not the only ones losing faith in this Ducks team. I'm going to refer back to this often for fun.
The sluggish Ducks can regroup today before visiting the slumping Blackhawks tomorrow.
Thanks for reading, Steve