Steve Palumbo: Anaheim Ducks: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from October

What I've enjoyed the most so far this season is seeing Getzlaf shoot more often. He's always had a heavy shot that was rarely used. With that being said, he'll probably do a bad drop pass tonight that will lead to a 2 on 1 with EP lighting the lamp.

ROW is at 8 which is key on the tiebreaker front which has been an issue in the past.

It would've been nice to get a couple of loser points though..

We've beaten some good teams also..Buf / Canes / Avs and have been in a the losses more than not.

Another huge point is that this team has shown the ability to come back from being down, which was highly unlikely last year.

Only a couple disasters on the loss front.

The kids have looked like they're progressing nicely.. some ups and downs but whatever. DE has them playing well. And he got the skipper to shoot more which is a huge bonus.. 6 goals already from him.

Overall a solid B for the month... Big test tonight with the Canucks.

The biggest thing for me has been the overall energy level of this team. How many games did we see last year where they looked overmatched in the first, and uninterested in the 2nd and 3rd?

While Gudbranson isn't going to win any Norris trophies, he was a nice pickup (so far, anyway) with Manson going down for an extended period of time. Despite the negative reviews of him in Pittsburgh, he has at least looked solid. Good on GM BM. Getting Lindholm back will help, as well.

Yes, the special teams are in dire need of improvement. The Power Play seems to get its chances, but lacks finish. The penalty kill is now missing a big piece with the loss of Manson. Tonight could be ugly if the Ducks take a lot of penalties the way Van's PP has looked lately.

Personally, I would be very tempted to put Miller in net tonight. Gibson has looked just a touch off the last couple of games. Not that the goals scored against him (save the gaffe against the Jets) were really his fault, but he hasn't looked as sharp as he was at the start of the season.

I’ve been happy for the most part with what I’ve seem this year. Granted I had low expectations though. I am somewhat concerned with the upward trend of shots against in recent days. Eakins needs to work on that or goalies will be worn out just like last season.

Hey steve. It's been a good month. With the loss of Perry and Kesler I wasn't sure that the ducks had enough veteran leaders to sustain a winning streak or to be able to bounce back from bad losses. But players like silfverberg, grant, rowney, manson, have really stepped up. It's been really nice to see.
There have been a few spots of concern. Goal scoring by the younger players. If we are going to keep things going more players are going to have to chip in on a nightly basis. I've said it before. But we don't have a 50 goal scorer any more. So the scoring has got to be a group effort. I mean that true for every team but it's real nice to have that player who when he gets hot can carry a team.
Another thing is overly realing on Gibson. Having a elite goaltender makes things easier on defense. But the defense in the start of the season let few too many breakaways go through. And some to really good shooters. I mean gibbys good but he's not superman. Fouling a few more of those good shooters and trusting the penalty killers is the better option.
Also Getzlaf. He just played his 1000th career game as a duck. The franchise as a whole has been around 2000 games. So Getzy has been around for half of the life of the Anaheim Ducks. Really cool. He's probably right under Selanne as the most important player in franchise history. Then Perry, Kariya, and Giguere. Alot of people would Scott Niedimeyer in the top 5. But 3.5 years isn't enough in my opinion. But even so after those top 6 guys things fall off. We've only been around 25 years. So having 6 hall of fame quality players is pretty good.