Here we are, about a month and a half through the season, and the Ducks are off to a rough start. With a losing record, Anaheim is falling behind in the Western Conference standings. No one would’ve questioned any team’s success that came off of such a huge playoff run, and such great additions in the offseason (Joffrey Lupul, Saku Koivu, Nick Boynton, Steve Eminger). And, that’s not to mention one of the hottest young goaltenders in the league. However, Ducks fans are finding themselves at the point as the Ducks continue to lose.

Well, before I get started into the rest of the content, I’ll begin with a small introduction. I’m Alex. I reside in Wylie, TX (Yes, I know, Texas…), and have been a Ducks fan since I started watching hockey in about 2002. I helped with the designing portion of the website. The only official experience I have in sports writing is a Journalism course in high school, so I’m not going to be writing the Features or News stories as often. Anyway, enough with the introduction, let’s get to the content.

So what is it that the Ducks are struggling with thus far? Well, after seeing countless games of being out shot, questions start to arise about the offensive skill. Is it a lack of skill? The answer to that is simply, no. Koivu’s pairing with the new addition Lupul and Selanne adds a dimension of secondary scoring we haven’t had since Andy Mac. The Ducks haven’t yet seen what they would’ve liked from the Finn Twins Koivu and Selanne; but the line juggling that went on throughout the first few weeks of the season has finally stopped and we should see a pickup in production. Hopefully it will be the Selanne-Koivu chemistry from Finland’s national team from the past years. Overall, the Ducks are in dire need of the entire team to start playing better offensively. Disregarding the blowouts of Vancouver and Boston, offensive success has been a bit hard to come by. Getzlaf, in particular, hasn’t been able to net more than one goal so far. That’s not to say his fifteen assists haven’t been happily accepted by our goal scorer, Corey Perry, who is only two away from the league leading Anze Kopitar. Despite this bit of success, the Ducks’ offense has also been turning the puck over. Much to many times to the dislike of the defense.

With that makeshift segue, I’ll move on to my interpretation of the defense. I’m not faulting a single player here, but as a whole the defense has been terrible. Once again, skill isn’t really an issue here. Niedermayer is still one of the most talented players in the league, and Boynton and Eminger have added depth that wasn’t even present when Pronger was here. It boils down to Niedermayer not having an All-Star defenseman alongside him. Pronger’s departure left us with a great wing in Joffrey Lupul, and an outstanding prospect in Luca Sbisa, but we are hurting on defense because of that trade. Tryouts continued much too long for Pronger’s spot beside Niedermayer, but it looks like Boynton may have finally settled in there. Whitney and Wisniewski have carried over their linemanship into this year, and are the best defensive duo for the Ducks statistically. Wisniewski is nearly averaging a point per game while together they post team leading +-’s of +4 and +3. Meanwhile, Niedermayer’s -3 is nothing to brag about. With the defense finally settling down into what looks to be their final pairings, maybe their play will pick up a bit more.

Goaltending. Recently, Giguere made some comments about his role in Anaheim…

From NHL.com’s official report:

Something needs to happen. You get a guy like (Hiller) that’s going to be a free agent at the end of the year and myself, making the money I’m making, either I’m leaving or he’s leaving.

Jonas Hiller won the starting job last season after Giguere had been struggling. Since then, he’s posting one of the best GAA, and SV%’s in the league. He worked this offseason on his rebounds and general puck handling, but he’s still had some problems with that. Inconsistency has been another problem for the young goalie out of Switzerland. Which brings me to Giguere. I’m positive every Ducks fan remembers Giggy’s stellar Stanley Cup Final performances. The stats from the last couple of years don’t do him justice, and don’t compare to his 2003 and 2007 seasons; but, as a Giggy fan, I just can’t just place the blame on him. His stats from the beginning of last year weren’t helped by the team’s poor performance during his period of starting. I agree with Coach Carlyle about a healthy competition between goalies…

From NHL.com, Mike G. Morreale’s article:

We’ve always made the statement that we want people competing for the positions and it’s no different today than it was yesterday or the day before,” said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle. “We feel we have a 1A and a 1B tandem and it’s just competition for the position and I think it’s healthy.

I think, however, it boils down to the fact that Giguere is a full time starter. As much as I love Hiller, he’s just not consistent enough to be a full time goalie. He reminds me of Martin Biron of the New York Islanders in that sense (makes amazing saves, then gives up a simple shot). The dogging of Giguere has no place when you take into consideration what happened the past three years though. Does anyone remember that the poor guy’s father died last year? Or that his son has had eye problems since birth? He hasn’t gotten to play enough consecutive games since losing the starting job last year to show his full abilities again. Even now he’s just getting off an injury. I’m looking for him to get some game time now. If it got to the point where a choice needed to be made, I would most definitely take the Conn Smythe winner, two time Stanley Cup appearing goalie. Not only does he have the experience, not to discredit Hiller, but the Ducks organization would then put together a better deal . We could get a prospect or draft pick that could potentially be a full-time player for Anaheim in the future. I’d much rather have it not come to that. I’d love to see Hiller sit a few years and take some more knowledge from Giguere. That may not be realistic, but it would mean Giguere leaving and Hiller reclaiming his spot, both on a high note. It’d be a nice transition to the future Ducks team.

The remainder of the year is still to go, and the great Ducks team that won the cup in 2007 won’t be around much longer. Niedermayer, Selanne, and possibly even Giguere could retire within the next few years, and the new guys like Getzlaf, Whitney, and Hiller (hopefully) will be here to continue on their legacy. Where the Ducks stand at the moment is still no place to determine where they’ll be at the end of the season. This isn’t the team that won the cup in 2007, in fact, it’s not even the team that finished off last year. That being said, maybe getting away from the pond for a while will help the Ducks out on and off the ice. It was a disappointing loss to the Devils last night, but we’ll see how the rest of the trip goes.

The true beauty of blogging is not found in garnering the recognition and rewards that conventional journalism offers, but in being easily forgotten.  It sounds contradictory to the mandate of good business (and website) ownership to wish your project an inconsequential existence, but in this case I think it’s entirely appropriate.

As of this posting, it has been slightly over five weeks since the last post on Quacked — but no need to fret, the season hasn’t kicked off yet and the games are not for keeps.  Though it is true that the off-season brings with it very little of the excitement of the regular season and playoffs, to suggest that the last month has been uneventful would be patently absurd.  The upshot for Ducks fans is that their team has been relatively unaffected by the maelstrom of recent activity.  For better or for worse, Bob Murray took care of business early and things have remained relatively status quo ever since.

What is news for Anaheim fans, aside from that which concerns the Ducks, is that the San Jose Sharks organization has added the “missing piece” to its Stanley Cup puzzle… again.  Dany Heatley is the newest Shark, and should subsequently become a new target of derision at the Honda Center.  It remains to be seen how long it will take him to develop chemistry on one of the most offensively gifted top lines in hockey alongside Joe Thornton and Devin Setoguchi, but it is safe to say that goal scoring should not be a problem in San Jose this season.

I’m going to fire off the rest of this post in point form due in part to the fact that none of it is new news, and has been covered ad nauseam by the mainstream media already:

• The results of the Ducks nascent preseason have been mixed thus far, churning out a 3-2 shootout win over the Coyotes, followed by a listless 3-0 shutout loss at the hands of the Canucks, and last night another overtime win against Phoenix, this time being outshot 46-21 and  coming from 3-0 down to take it 4-3.  The past week has seen the Ducks debut of Justin Pogge, Saku Koivu and Mark Bell (here on a tryout basis).
• Quick props to Bobby Ryan for his two goal (plus shootout) effort in the inaugural preseason tilt with Phoenix, and to Joffrey Lupul for potting two last night against the same Phoenix squad.
• Captain Hook, aka Rob Niedermayer, is on the verge of signing with a KHL if he doesn’t get a knockout offer from an NHL team this week.  Another victim of the league-wide  salary cap crunch?
• Speaking of financial debacles, how about the ongoing saga concerning the struggle for ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes?  The case has much intrigue, but has gone on for so long now that many people must just be praying for it to be over.  With RIM (via Jim Balsillie) potentially laying claim to an NHL franchise, how long will it take for Steve Jobs to want in on the action?  The Seattle Snow Leopards has a certain ring to it…
• Continuing in the vein of the new NHL economics, the Phil Kessel circus came to an end today with Boston shipping the unsigned forward to Toronto, where Brian Burke promptly signed him to a new, long-term contract.  Once again, Burke saw a piece he wanted on his team and paid the price to get it.  It remains to be seen whether his rebuild in Toronto turns out the same success as the one in Anaheim.
• Theo Fleury is on the comeback trail, and wouldn’t you know it, he scored a shootout winner in his first game back.  Talk about a blast from the past: the last time Fleury suited up for an NHL team was before the shootout had been implemented.  Now that Theo is back, he’ll have to take the “other Fleury” billing as Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre is unquestionably the more celebrated of the two, having just backstopped the Pens to a Stanley Cup.
• Finally, no synopsis of the past month’s goings on in the NHL would be complete without a major thumbs down to the NHLPA for another executive director disaster.  Following the Ted Saskin debacle, you would think both sides had learned a valuable lesson in choosing the right person for the job.  Guess not.

Cheers for now.  Hopefully the next update won’t be five weeks in the making.  With the start of real hockey just around the corner, that shouldn’t be too much of a concern.