GDT 02/15/09 Atlanta @ Anaheim

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Watch online (http://atdhe.net/live-tv-2.php?i=839)

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From NHL.com:

Coming off a pair of 100-point seasons and with their core in place just two years removed from a Stanley Cup title, the Anaheim Ducks have nonetheless struggled to find consistency.

They're hoping back-to-back victories over one of the Western Conference's top teams will send them on their way.

Anaheim will look to win a third straight game for the first time since November and bolster its position in the crowded Western playoff race Sunday when it hosts the woeful Atlanta Thrashers.

With veterans Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne shunning retirement to return for the full season, the Ducks (28-24-5) were again hoping to be major players in their conference in 2008-09.

But since closing November with four straight victories, they've merely been mediocre, going 14-16-2, with Selanne missing 17 games due to injury and goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere enduring a tumultuous campaign.

Anaheim remains on tenuous footing in the West's playoff picture, near the top of a tight nine-team cluster battling for four spots.

"They're all big points for us because of where we are right now," Niedermayer said. "We need every point we can get."

Niedermayer earned his team an extra point on Wednesday night, scoring his second goal of the game in overtime to defeat Calgary 3-2. Four days earlier, the Ducks beat the Northwest Division-leading Flames 2-1 on the road.

Giguere won both games, stopping a combined 47 of 50 shots to bounce back from a four-start losing streak.

The veteran has dealt with the death of his father this season, and his 2.98 goals-against average is a career worst when he's made at least 20 starts. Backup Jonas Hiller has drawn considerable playing time in his place.

But Anaheim is hoping Giguere, 4-2-0 with a 1.92 GAA against Atlanta, is rounding into form for the stretch run.

"It's nice to get two big wins against a good team," Giguere told his team's official Web site. "Hopefully, we can use this as a springboard for us. We're doing a lot of good things out there. If we keep playing that same way, we're going to win more than we lose."

The Thrashers (19-32-5) certainly can't make that claim, having entrenched themselves in 14th place in the East after dropping seven of their last nine.

Their struggling offense has 12 goals in eight games since the All-Star break, including one on 37 shots in Wednesday night's 3-1 home loss to Chicago.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored for the third straight game, matching his longest streak of the season, but he and Slava Kozlov have scored five of Atlanta's six goals in the last three games.

The surprising bright spot for the Thrashers lately has been goaltending, even though the team still ranks 29th in the league with a 3.46 GAA.

Kari Lehtonen stopped 25 of 27 shots against the Blackhawks after making 40 saves in Tuesday night's 3-1 win at Tampa Bay, improving his GAA to 3.14.

"He has played two unbelievable games," Kovalchuk said. "When our goalie plays well, we always have a chance to win the game."

Sunday's game opens a four-game trip against Pacific Division opponents for Atlanta, which has been better on the road than at home this season. The Thrashers are 10-15-3 on the road, including wins in their last two.

They haven't visited Honda Center since Dec. 3, 2005, when they lost 2-1. They were defeated by the same score in the teams' most recent meeting, Dec. 13, 2006, in Atlanta.

http://cdn.nhl.com/images/minibanner/ANA.gifvs. http://cdn.nhl.com/images/minibanner/ATL.gif


Ducks 28-24-5 vs Thrashers 19-32-5
TV: Fox Sports something or other (Prime?)
Radio: 830
Webcast: Yahoo available for non-So Cal people. Or those who know proxies. http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/hockeynight/2009021525

Preview (http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/preview?gid=2009021525).

Ducks are trying to win 3 in a row. They haven't done so since Thanksgiving.

Thrashers are cold, going 3-7 in the last 10.

The Ducks have won 2 in a row, and 6 of 8 against Atlanta. They've also won 2 of 3 in the Honda Center against Atlanta.

IMO, all markings of a loss.

Wooo first game I've watched in a long time. Here's to a win!

Who wins? You got it off first. And have pretty pictures.

Who wins? You got it off first. And have pretty pictures.

Can we get a moderator to merge?

Ps. PP!

Ha. That's a dumb penalty. Not icing the lineup you put on the lineup card?

Bad pass by Perry.

PP looked good, but no finish.

Oh yeah, Schneider. I forgot to mention how this would be the matchup of the trade. Schneider for Atlanta and Klee.. er... Larse... er... cap space for Anaheim.

**** not again.

Wow, terrible defense.

Yeah that shift was full of fail. Schneider gets an assist against his former team.

0-1.

Selanneeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Havelid: will he be more or less expensive than Beauchemin. Someone to look at for next season? We know he's a horse who can play the minutes.

Selanne scores. Wicked shot. Does this mean the flu's gone?

QP was in position for the screen and the rebound too, just in case. Good.

Havelid: will he be more or less expensive than Beauchemin. Someone to look at for next season? We know he's a horse who can play the minutes.

Selanne scores. Wicked shot. Does this mean the flu's gone?

QP was in position for the screen and the rebound too, just in case. Good.

Havelid is someone I mentioned that we may interested in at the deadline. Thoughts?

Great PK.

I am not really that interested in Havelid. I really don't think he is the answer to our problems.

QP taking a shift with the big boys. He wasn't ready for Getzlaf's pass. When you play with Getz, be ready for the puck at ANY time.

Was that a trip by Giguere?

Havelid is someone I mentioned that we may interested in at the deadline. Thoughts?
I don't think the Ducks will make the playoffs, or if they do that they'll do anything. I don't think it's worth it to spend much to get a rental.

Unless we can get him for like a 2nd and a fading prospect, I'm not behind a deadline deal.


Hey. Good job by Hedican to eliminate White before he could get the rebound. We haven't had enough of that this season.

Our defensive game is so bad...

Nice shot by Little.

What did the thing say? His ___ goal in how many games? Typical.

Another penalty....another goal?

FFS!!! Stop taking stupid penalties!

Thrashers didn't seem very happy with that goal. Another penalty to the Ducks. And another one. Great...

Please. Let's take another penalty. Let's.

Wow that wasn't much of a penalty. Sigh.

17 shots for Atlanta in the 1st; that's just plain sad.

That was Little's 1st goal in 11 games (10 game goal-less streak). Another one for the list. His 3rd goal in 17 games. Fantastic.

17 shots for Atlanta in the 1st; that's just plain sad.
Yahoo says it's 19 shots (17 saves). Even more sad.

Now that was a smart period.

Hey, they put tiny Tim in a tiny suit-jacket. Awww.

Silly question, who was that one guy interviewed? Ryan, Festerling, Selanne and..

Silly question, who was that one guy interviewed? Ryan, Festerling, Selanne and..
I was thinking the same thing. The guy with the tattoo. Brown? Brookbank? Other?

Wasn't that Montador?

Yet another game where we give up the first goal and are trailing after one. I see this ending well...

Kovalchuk shot deflected by Montador; 3-1

Yay. Russians stars > Ducks. Ovechkin, Kovalchuk.

Does this mean Cheechoo is Russian?

I'm tired of losing these types of games.

Great, crap goal; 4-1. Unreal...

This team sucks. Its hard to be a fan of this team now.

Randy: time out? Goalie change? Anything?

geez, I'm embarassed to be a fan of this team right now.

Get Giguere out of there. Jesus.

And another one...; 5-1 Kovalchuk again.

bahahahahah WOW, what a game. I'm all aboard the sell boat now.

Wow. Embarrassing.

Hiller comes in. Can't blame Giguere too much though. Our D sucks balls big time.

Management needs to do something to get this team going. No effort at all, where is the sense of urgency?

Who was that nonchalant backchecker who was supposed to cover Kovalchuk? QP? Rob (It was _4)? FAIL.

edit: Hee hee. Hat trick.

Lolololol

You gotta be kidding me. Everything is going in, everything.

And the party continues. Kovy with a hattie. 6-1

I dont get how could team with Scott N and pronger sucks soo bad on defense...

lol what a joke.

no big deal just have to keep winning 2 out of 3

2 wins vs Calgary 1 loss vs ATL

:)

This teams a ****ing disgrace.

Lazy plays, bad breaks, terrible defense and no finish.

The story of this team.

make it 7!

bahahahahah WOW, what a game. I'm all aboard the sell boat now.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/funny_pages_20/images/2008/02/29/failboat.jpg

And to change the momentum we decide to take a bad penalty :sarcasm:

The people in attendance should be like Oilers fans. "We want 10! We want 10!"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/funny_pages_20/images/2008/02/29/failboat.jpg

I'm glad we are losing this badly, I'd rather they lose in a fashion that makes management decide to make some changes rather than float around. Hopefully, we continue to lose, or somehow go on a crazy win streak. Just please don't play mediocore.

no big deal just have to keep winning 2 out of 3

2 wins vs Calgary 1 loss vs ATL

:)

Yeahhh that is it.

lets win 2 out of 3 by 1 goal. :)

and when loosing, lets give 7 goals difference.

recepie to become champion while having a very negative goal in/out stat !
(copied somehow on tennismen ... Nadal vs Federer or Federer agains Rodick )

Ducks for the Cup !

Great. Hiller makes Hazy nervous too.

Teemu scores #2. All of a sudden he's scoring at ES? Whoa.

**** it.

Ducks score! Selanne with his 2nd. Under review...

No goal prob.

gooo Teemu!

Bet it will get called back though, just the way things are going.

Goal, hooray for Teemu.

It's good! Two more and this will be a real game :laugh:

Positives: Festerling has 2 assists. His first ever multipoint night.

Morrison gets an ES point. 2 game-point streak. Although I can't help but think about when Morrison had 2 straight 2-goal games and they lost both.

I see Carlyle's strategy here! Spot em 6 goals to open up their D, genius.

Nice ES shift there by Kunitz-Morrison-Perry. Lots of cycling. A little too much on the outsides though. But they even did it with Morrison on the ice! Heck, he even won a board battle!

Yeahhh that is it.

lets win 2 out of 3 by 1 goal. :)

and when loosing, lets give 7 goals difference.

recepie to become champion while having a very negative goal in/out stat !
(copied somehow on tennismen ... Nadal vs Federer or Federer agains Rodick )

Ducks for the Cup !

This team rarely blows teams out or been blown out dating back to the Stanley Cup team

The fan favorite line with all three goals tonight.

Ryan with the last one.

Ebbet with another assist as well.

Ryan makes it 6-3, scoring has clearly not been the Ducks main problem this year.

I walk out and the Ducks score. Maybe I should try that four more times :)

Why on earth do people propose trades for our goalies? They suck, simple as that.

Broken sticks play better defense than the Ducks.

Whos this Andrew Ebbett guy?

Why do we carry essentially 4 fighters if they don't even try to provide any spark whatsoever in a blowout loss?

Jesus, #27 sucks tonight.

Why do we carry essentially 4 fighters if they don't even try to provide any spark whatsoever in a blowout loss?
Warning from Bettman probably sad its been a while

Whos this Andrew Ebbett guy?

He's a 26 year old rookie who played a year for the Binghamton Senators before the Ducks signed him. He spent the majority of last year in Portland and started this year in Iowa until Selanne was injured.

Whos this Andrew Ebbett guy?

A pleasent suprise.

where was the penalty call on the delay of game?
he clearly threw it out without tossing the glass

And Vancouver is winning. Blah.

This team sucks. We need something to get this team going. Anything.

This team sucks. We need something to get this team going. Anything.

I think it's too late at this point.

Second line playing well = blowout loss, I think it's obvious Carlyle needs more Morrison on that line!

If Edmonton defeats Phoenix tomorrow, which seems likely, the Ducks will be out of a playoff-spot. Probably for good.

Whos this Andrew Ebbett guy?
I think he was a college undrafted UFA signed by Ottawa. They let him go for some reason even though he was one of Binghamton's highest scorers (50 contracts?), and we signed him before last season.

We were kind of wondering if he'd ever get a shot in the NHL, as he was Portland's highest scorer pretty much the entire time last season. If he was a tweener, too small to make it in the NHL (we also had another guy like that in Geoff Platt, but he bolted for Europe). Now he got called up and is doing decent with Ryan (who he played with earlier in Portland and Iowa).


edit: somehow amidst all this fail, Montador managed to be a +3. He was actually on ice for all 4 of our goals.

This team is fired.

Positives: Selanne, Ebbett and Ryan combined for 4 goals, 4 assists and a +3 rating, Festerling had his first multi point night, and somehow Montador ended up a +3.

Negatives: Getzlaf & Perry were invisible, Pronger & Niedermayer were terrible, combining for a -6 rating, and Giguere let in 5 goals on 25 shots although I thought the defense was probably more to blame for that than Jiggy.

You know we can lose 8-4 without Pronger and Niedermayer too

You know we can lose 8-4 without Pronger and Niedermayer too

Probably with Mikkelson and McIver instead we wouldn't have let in 8 goals.

how have you guys liked brookbank so far?

how have you guys liked brookbank so far?

He's been our 4th best D-man, that says it all

(Would be an ideal #6-#7 imo)

This team's mental strength is about as big as my sixth toe. They arent going anywhere.

I'm glad I decided to nap rather than watch this game. Sounds like the team had the same thing in mind.
I am really disappointed we can't string together more than two wins in a row. I think this right here is where the season and the team is made or broken. This can either be where we pack it in, sell off our assets and look to next season, or we can finally wake up and make some noise on this road trip. If we don't come out of this in a good spot I will even change my tune about trading pronger, even if he's my favorite player.

I think it's too late at this point.

See you guys on the golf course in April.

See you guys on the golf course in April.
Atleast we got a cup and some playoff appearances out of this run

Atleast we got a cup and some playoff appearances out of this run

We've been extremely spoiled in recent years. The past four seasons...1 Cup, 1 Cup Finals Appearance, 1 Western Conference Finals Appearance, 1 First Round exit.

We can hope that this season is just a blip. After last night, I've given up trying to predict what this team will do. I still think this group has it in them to make the playoffs. They do not have it in them to be an "elite" team. That doesn't mean they couldn't go on a run in the playoffs. The 03-04 Ducks, Flames, and Oilers Cup Finalists were all pretty mediocre teams that simply got hot. None of them showed any real signs of being able to pull of what they did.

But, that is a long shot. Unless they go on a run of three or four straight wins here, I see Murray pulling the chute. With the relative lack of sellers, I see him seeing this as his chance to put his mark on the team by both acquiring young players to help right away, and stocking up the system. I think Pronger is a great player and a great leader for a great team, but my gut tells me he isn't a good leader for a young team coming into it's own (which we'll be next season).

The problems run much deeper than the coach, and most of the arguments for firing Carlyle that I've seen on here have been terribly flimsy. But, after getting blown out by a team with almost nothing to play for when every game is supposed to be a "playoff game", I have a tough time putting up an argument. I think he's the right coach for a retooled Ducks team heading into next season, but what the hell. Coaches are hired to be fired, after all.

Good to see the second line producing, and Teemu get some EV goals. It'll help keep the HF vultures ("Selanne's DONE! He's soooooo old!") at bay for another off-season.

I have no expectations, just going to watch the games, enjoy the performances, and be entertained by whatever happens. The future (starting next season) is bright. It's still good to be a Ducks fan.

Wow, 4-8 against Atlanta...this really got me disapointed
This team aint winning no cups, SELL

Here's a random thought.

Ebbett had a goal and 2 assists last night. 3rd star. 2 of those points involved Selanne. So Selanne works well with Ebbett.

Maybe Selanne likes college guys? Think about it. Rucchin was drafted out of Candian college. Kariya, a Hobey winner. Kunitz and McDonald were both college UFAs. And now Ebbett.

The only outlier is Morrison, who was also a Hobey Baker winner. But he just sucks with everybody.

Maybe it's time to bring Miller up to Selanne's LW! :sarcasm:

We've been extremely spoiled in recent years. The past four seasons...1 Cup, 1 Cup Finals Appearance, 1 Western Conference Finals Appearance, 1 First Round exit.

We can hope that this season is just a blip. After last night, I've given up trying to predict what this team will do. I still think this group has it in them to make the playoffs. They do not have it in them to be an "elite" team. That doesn't mean they couldn't go on a run in the playoffs. The 03-04 Ducks, Flames, and Oilers Cup Finalists were all pretty mediocre teams that simply got hot. None of them showed any real signs of being able to pull of what they did.

But, that is a long shot. Unless they go on a run of three or four straight wins here, I see Murray pulling the chute. With the relative lack of sellers, I see him seeing this as his chance to put his mark on the team by both acquiring young players to help right away, and stocking up the system. I think Pronger is a great player and a great leader for a great team, but my gut tells me he isn't a good leader for a young team coming into it's own (which we'll be next season).

The problems run much deeper than the coach, and most of the arguments for firing Carlyle that I've seen on here have been terribly flimsy. But, after getting blown out by a team with almost nothing to play for when every game is supposed to be a "playoff game", I have a tough time putting up an argument. I think he's the right coach for a retooled Ducks team heading into next season, but what the hell. Coaches are hired to be fired, after all.

Good to see the second line producing, and Teemu get some EV goals. It'll help keep the HF vultures ("Selanne's DONE! He's soooooo old!") at bay for another off-season.

I have no expectations, just going to watch the games, enjoy the performances, and be entertained by whatever happens. The future (starting next season) is bright. It's still good to be a Ducks fan.

Totally agree, and much to my chagrin, as I hate Carlyle's approach to the game (line matching) he certainly has a history of developing young players the right way. Which doesn't just mean they come up and start producing, they learn to play an all around great game. He's never satisfied with anything other than peak potential with young players, and I think slow development is the key to getting that out of players. So, I think he's the man for the job the next couple of seasons.

I must say, I was impressed with Getzlaf's ability to be absolutely invisible in this game.

Ducks got into Penalty trouble which is what really killed them in this game. Although, I am really sad that crosscheck on Pronger was called. I would've been perfectly happy if Pronger had just Perezhogin White after that penalty was called, as diving like that is disgusting.

greatest ducks game Evarrrr!!!!

If Edmonton defeats Phoenix tomorrow, which seems likely, the Ducks will be out of a playoff-spot. Probably for good.


They've been out for a while. You gotta weigh games played into the equation if you want to see an accurate snap shot of the playoff race. I like this web site. The ducks slipped below the "bar" about 5 weeks ago:

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/NHL/Western/Pacific/Ducks.html

Lots of hockey left to play and its very tight in the west, so anything can happen.