The Sabres kick off a West Coast Trip tonight against the Cup Champs, Anaheim, last year this game would have been something, and put on Versus or whatever. Now, its a battle of teams trying to battle for a playoff spot. How things have changed in a year. The Sabres are looking to keep hot after winning 6 of 7 and the Ducks are just looking to get on track after going 2-4-1 during the same period.
So whats going on in Anaheim?
This team is definitely struggling after winning the cup last year and losing 3 key players have really hurt this team. No Neidermayer, Selanne and Penner really were a big part of the Ducks. With those 3 players lost they lost a combined 208 points. And you thought losing Drury and Briere was bad. There is a reason the Ducks are 12-12-4 this year and have given up 80 goals on the year. Check out the game notes for way to many stats to digest in one sitting.
So whats going on in Anaheim?
This team is definitely struggling after winning the cup last year and losing 3 key players have really hurt this team. No Neidermayer, Selanne and Penner really were a big part of the Ducks. With those 3 players lost they lost a combined 208 points. And you thought losing Drury and Briere was bad. There is a reason the Ducks are 12-12-4 this year and have given up 80 goals on the year. Check out the game notes for way to many stats to digest in one sitting.
Who does what for the Ducks?
The Ducks have one scoring line and Chris Pronger, thats about it. Ryan Getzlaf is leading the team with 28 points (11g 17 assts), Pronger 20 points (3 g 17 assts), Corey Perry with 20 points (13 g 7 assts) and then Chris Kunitz 18 points (9 g 9 assts) Todd Bertuzzi has only 6 points on the season for the Ducks, so you can call him a big bust this year. Sammy Pahlson has only 4 points on the year. Looking through the lineup of the Ducks and you determine this team has some major power outage issues.
And Giguere isn't having some stellar season in net on top of that. With a 2.63 GAA and a .903 Sv%. Pretty average numbers for an elite goaltender like Jiggy. Pronger is obviously on the ice a lot and is currently a -3 and has 67 minutes in penalties so he's off the ice a lot in the box too. Penalty minutes is a stat the Ducks don't lack. This team pounds on you and gets into fights. So the Sabres have to keep to themselves and should be fine.
Fun Tidbits
Well tonights game is a matchup of the Miller Brothers, Drew and Ryan. The story has been written to death already, its cute, and makes this game between a 10th place and 11th place team interesting. Todd Marchant from Amherst also plays for the Ducks and former Sabre Brad May is also still on the Ducks.
Mmm apparently the Ducks have a goal song. Bro Hymn by Pennywise. Nice.
1 comment:
I kind of can't wait to see this game! The big, bad, scary Ducks against the speedy, soft Sabres. Should be fun.
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