There is no way to softpeddle or sugarcoat last night's loss to the Panthers. The Ducks flat out stunk up the joint last night.
Before the game, it appeared that the stars were aligning for the Ducks. Among them were:
Corey Perry returned from his bout with the mumps. Kyle Palmieri made his season debut after rehabilitating his high ankle sprain. Of all the Ducks that could have missed the game, Tim Jackman was the one with stomach flu. He is replaceable. Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen's last regulation loss was on October 28. Anaheim had gotten points in their previous seven games. The Panthers were on a three game losing streak. It was the first game on Florida's west coast swing, so they were dealing with a time change. Panther goalie Roberto Luongo was sitting out and his replacement, Al Montoya, let up five goals in his previous start.
None of that was enough to swing the pendulum in Anaheim's favor.
The Panthers came out of the chute on fire and never slowed down. They outhustled a lethargic looking Ducks squad all night. Florida got ahead early and dictated the play after. The low cycle that had been a Duck staple this season was non existent. Goalie Frederik Andersen told Ducks.com that his team's effort was lacking from the start. He said, "No one in this room was ready, starting from the net on out. That’s unacceptable in this league, and we paid for it today. We have to be better."
Andersen was far from his best on the night. After the Panther's third goal of the game, Duck's coach Bruce Boudreau pulled Andersen for the second time in three outings. Unlike the first time, Anaheim failed to rally and Andersen's replacement Jason LaBarbera was also pulled after he relinquished the next three goals.
Takeaways From a Disaster
Takeaway 1 – Josh Manson has been a pleasant surprise and Bryan Allen is an experienced veteran. Unfortunately, they can't replace Francois Beauchemin and Ben Lovejoy. It was a matter of time before the holes in the Ducks defense would show.
Takeaway 2 – Frederik Andersen is human after all. Even he can't overcome a leaky defense.
Takeaway 3 – Corey Perry at 70 or 80% is still better than most of the forwards in the league. Boudreau said Perry didn't need much practice to get back in the lineup and he was right. It was clear that Perry didn't have his A game and was slower than usual, but so was everyone else. Still, you could see that Perry was trying to make something happen, but he wasn't physically able to do it.
Takeaway 4 – Arron Ekblad will be a star in this league sooner rather than later. For someone so young, he seemed quite composed. In his rookie year he is as skilled as any defenseman on Florida's roster. By next season he will take over games.
Takeaway 5 – The constant lineup fluctuations are finally catching up to the Ducks. It started showing up on Friday, but was more prominent yesterday. Florida didn't do anything special, but the Ducks didn't show much cohesiveness.