By Pat Pickens
If Wednesday night taught us anything, it’s that the Anaheim Ducks are built to win this year.
Anaheim’s 4-2 statement win over the Chicago Blackhawks at the Honda Center lifted it to within three points of first-place Chicago.
The Ducks’ recent transactions — eight-year deals for both Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, plus a two-year contract for goaltender Viktor Fasth — signal Anaheim’s willingness to stay relevant for the foreseeable future.
And if you believe rumours, there’s the possibility that these deals won’t even cost the Ducks Bobby Ryan.
Yes, yes. It’s all looking quite bright and sunshiny, as usual, in Southern California.
But before we start planning multiple parade routes through the Magic Kingdom, there is the possibility that this all blows up in Anaheim’s face.
Fasth is 30 — and Jonas Hiller is 31 — so Anaheim’s goaltending is not young. Plus, goaltending is a year-to-year thing — just ask Ray Emery. The hot item this week, Fasth, may not be the superstar next week.
Couple that with a diminishing salary cap one year hence, a notoriously fickle attendance record — the Ducks presently rank 25th in attendance and have not climbed higher than 15th since the late-1990s — and the possibility for financial hardship and on-ice struggle could cripple the Ducks.
I’m not saying it’s likely. But these are fickle days in the NHL.
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The Pittsburgh Penguins are proving that they can win without offence.
Which makes them the NHL’s scariest team.
We discussed last week the Pens’ ability to win without Evgeni Malkin. What’s scarier is Pittsburgh lost the league’s top-scoring defenceman, Kris Letang, and have not missed a beat. Pittsburgh enters its game Friday on Long Island on a 10-game win streak.
Mark-Andre Fleury pitched a shutout Saturday against the New York Rangers, and Tomas Vokoun has rediscovered the game that made him a top-flight goaltender.
Pittsburgh won four games in the last seven days, surrendering just three goals in that stretch. Pittsburgh’s’ plus-29 goal differential suddenly ranks tops in the Eastern Conference.
Plus, Letang and Malkin are nearing returns. The rest of the East is cringing.
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One team trying to catch Pittsburgh is the New Jersey Devils.
The odds of that happening is bleak, New Jersey trails Pittsburgh by 14 points in the Atlantic Division standings.
But things will look much better now that No. 30 is returning between the pipes.
Martin Brodeur returns from a 14-game absence to face the Carolina Hurricanes tonight at 7 p.m.ET in Newark, N.J.
Brodeur mysteriously was scratched on Feb. 24 before the Devils’ game with Winnipeg and has missed the last three-plus week with the ailment. It came out this week that Brodeur had a pinched nerve in his back.
The Devils were 3-9-2 with Brodeur on the shelf as Johan Hedberg seemingly forgot he was a goaltender and not a third defenceman.
With Brodeur, the Devils were among the East’s best teams. The 40-year old goaltender is 8-2-3 with a 2.27 goals-against average and .911 save percentage.
