What’s new with the Ducks? Last we checked, they were beating some teams they weren’t supposed to beat, making a little noise way out west. John Gibson was holding forth in net, backed up more than capably by Lukas Dostal.
In fact, the team came into a match-up with the Calgary Flames with a week gone in January having gone 6-4 over their past ten games and having won four of their last five. With one more win, they would be at so-called “NHL 500”—they sat 17-18-4 at the start of the Calgary game.
In player news, Frank Vatrano signed an 18-million-dollar contract extension which will keep him in Anaheim for three more years, until the end of the 2027-28 season. His career stats to date look like this: 602 games played. 171-123-294 points. His contract, oddly enough, sees him earning three million bucks over each of the next three seasons, then three-times-three-million dollars starting in 2035. (Did the Ducks learn something by observing the Dodgers and Ohtani?)
An interesting headline in the NY Times online said that the signing “Marks [the Ducks’] latest step toward relevancy.” Maybe a bit of an overstatement? But Vatrano no doubt has skills, and speed.
Vatrano went right out and scored two goals after the contract was reported, but Troy Terry is still king of the hill on the team, leading in assists and points with 14-19-33 points. He was just named the second star of the week in the NHL, so people outside of this narrow market are noticing him, as well. Kind of reminds me of how Mark Scheifele was received early in his career.
Terry was not on the Ducks’ roster with Calgary in town. He is attending to the birth of a child. He should rejoin the team on their upcoming road trip. Coach Cronin commented about him, “You can see that line was sputtering along. When he’s with that group, there’s chemistry there, and you could see that we didn’t have it…. He’s coming off a player of the week thing, and he’s piling up points. It’s a huge miss.”
Alex Killorn added, “He brings so much to that line [with Strome and Vatrano].” He did say that the line played well in Terry’s absence. “They battled. He’s a great player.”
So too, somewhere near the trip’s mid-point, Trevor Zegras, who has been out since October with a torn meniscus that was surgically repaired.
The NHL also announced the first and second all-Ducks teams of the past quarter century. The top six were no surprise at all: Getzlaf, Perry, Selanne, Fowler, Scott Niedermayer, and JS Giguere. I’m just glad that Paul Kariya didn’t displace Perry, for example. He did appear on the second six, however. They were: Kariya, Bobby Ryan, Silfverberg, Beauchemin, Pronger, and John Gibson, the only contemporary figure on the list.
Now that’s a little more controversial.
How about Rob Niedermayer or Sammi Pahlsson? Without that third line (Niedermayer, Pahlsson, and Travis Moen) the Stanley Cup victory of 2007 might well not have happened. Since we’re speculating, why not throw Brad May in there? He was Brian Burke’s fourth-line stalwart in a day when a tough fourth trio was an essential part of winning hockey. Who would one of these guys replace? Kariya, Silfverbert, or Ryan, the latter who was the second pick in the Sidney Crosby draft, a point probably about as obscure as any.
More immediately, it was Angels Night in Honda Center. I got to the game unusually early to beat traffic, and as I cruised in at 5pm (the start was to be at 7pm), there already long lines to get in. Why? The Ducks were giving away a commemorative Ducks/Angels shirt. This was a premium item, and they had only 5,000. A full house is just over 17,000, to put that in perspective. Looking at the stands as the game commenced, I must say the crowd more full than I’ve seen it in a while. The announced number was over 17,300, including standing room tickets.
Angels Night also brought some special guests, including three favorite Angels pitchers: Chuck Finley, Mark Langston, and Jered Weaver. Weaver got the biggest applause. The three then cooperated in a puck drop between the Ducks’ and Flames’ captains, Radko Gudas and Mikael Backlund.
Not to mention that the Flames had their moms in the audience, doing the yearly “Moms Trip” to watch their sons play in the NHL, and, why lie, likely to do some fancy OC shopping. Search for “South Coast Plaza” and see for yourself what their choices are in this region of the country.
The game itself proceeded with one goal in a relatively tame first period which included just one dangerous chance for the Ducks, on a quick wrist shot low off a turnover. It proceeded to be 3-2 in OT for Calgary. The winning goal was pure luck off a weird bounce over the net that Jonathan Huberdeau got a body part on, making the puck bounce into the net.
The Ducks were happy with their point, but disappointed in the results. Cronin said of the upcoming road trip, “The road thing is a different game, because you’re not matching lines. You’re kind of rolling lines and playing, so I don’t really care if we’re on the road or not. I just want to win.”
That’s a reasonable wish most nights, which is something that could not be said a couple of months ago.
