BY PETER HOUSTON – FAN FUEL BLOGGER
Aside from the Montreal Canadiens, the Anaheim Ducks have been the biggest surprise so far this year. They are second in the NHL in points with 35 and second in goal differential at plus-17 (the Blackhawks are just in a league of their own).
It certainly helps that Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry have returned to form. Anaheim finished 13th in the Western Conference last year due in large part to their struggles. After averaging more than a point per game from 2007-2010, Getzlaf only mustered 57 points in 82 games last year. And after scoring 50 goals and winning the Hart trophy the year before, Perry only put up 60 points in 80 games.
So the fact that they are back to their old selves has been huge for the Ducks’ turnaround this year. It also doesn’t hurt that Victor Fasth has put up a 0.922 save percentage and a 2.08 GAA out of nowhere.
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But maybe the biggest reason for the Ducks hot start has been their ability to shut down other teams top lines. Their top defensive pairing of Francois Beauchemin and Sheldon Souray has been excellent this year and may be the most underrated pairing in the NHL. Even though they’re given the toughest defensive assignments every night, they’re both plus-13 and have chipped in offensively too with 13 and eight points respectively.
Not only that, they’ve controlled possession too. Souray’s Relative Corsi is 7.1 and Beauchemin’s is 5.0.
But they haven’t done it alone. Bruce Boudreau likes to use his third line of Saku Koivu, Andrew Cogliano and Daniel Winnik against other teams’ top lines (they are one, two and three amongst Anaheim forwards in Relative Corsi Quality of Competition). And just like Beauchemin and Souray, a look at the advanced stats would suggest this may be the most underrated checking line in the NHL. Again, they are one, two and three on the team in Relative Corsi. Combined with the fact that none of them are worse than a plus-10, you can see that they haven’t just been stopping other teams’ top lines, they’ve been controlling the play and even scoring against them. Koivu in on pace for his best offensive season since joining the Ducks (on a point-per-game basis) with 20 points in 22 games.
So while the re-emergence of Getzlaf and Perry has been huge for Anaheim, the biggest difference this year is the emergence of their shut down defensive unit. It’s a formula they used to win the Cup in 2006-07, although Beauchemin is no Chris Pronger and Koivu is no Sammy Pahlsson. And even though Anaheim has been relatively lucky so far this year – something I detailed in a post last week – this team is much better than the 13th place team they were last year. Thanks to some advanced stats, we can see that some guys who don’t get a lot of ink have been a big reason why.