The most perplexing story in hockey so far this season is the Anaheim Ducks. And dangerous too. A guy could file this notebook, go for a beer, and before his second sip the boss could be calling asking for a piece on the Bruce Boudreau firing.
As of this writing however, the Ducks were sticking with Boudreau as their head coach, and for that we give Anaheim GM Bob Murray much credit. Firing Boudreau is the easy way out. By keeping Boudreau in charge, the GM is telling his players that this is their problem to fix — which it is.
Murray, one GM who seldom speaks to the media, had this to say on Friday in Anaheim:
“I really don’t like commenting on rumors, but I will say this,” he began. “We were one game away from the Final just five months ago. So while this has been a terrible start (1-7-2 with a league-low 10 goals), I’m not inclined to make rash changes. I’m going to be patient. That said, we are severely underperforming as a group. I can’t recall a time where a vast majority of our players have underachieved simultaneously, and I fully expect a turnaround.”
Good for him. But you wonder if he’ll be singing the same tune if the Ducks are still in the basement of the Pacific Division a week from now. On one hand, he’s got far better players than this record shows. On the other, it is the coach’s job to diagnose the problem and get it fixed.
“We need to start having a sense of urgency,” said Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen. “That’s the bottom line. We’ve almost got to treat this as playoffs time. We can’t think this way but we’ve got to start winning games.
“We’ve got to start thinking of one game as a do-or-die game every night. We got to realize that.”
PACIFIC DEPTHS
The saving grace for the Ducks? Take a look at the Pacific Division standings — it’s become the NHL’s weakest division early in the 2015-16 season.
As of Friday morning, here were the point totals of the NHL’s four divisions, adding up points accrued by every team in the division: Central – 91 points; Metropolitan – 85; Atlantic – 79; Pacific – 62.
Of course, there are only seven teams in the two Western Conference Divisions, and eight in each Eastern Division. But the math on the average points totals for each division isn’t dissimilar: Central – 13.0 points; Metropolitan – 10.6; Atlantic – 9.9; Pacific – 8.9.
Now, if the Ducks regain form and Montreal cools a tad, the end-of-season math should support our theory that the Atlantic is the NHL’s weakest division, while the Central is the strongest by far. But right now, it seems a lock that the Central will place five teams in the Western Conference playoffs, and the Pacific only three.
FREQUENT FLYER MILES
An advantage is emerging — especially out West — over roster movement between teams and their AHL affiliates.
When players are called up — even if it is just a paper move for cap purposes — that player has to physically travel to that NHL city. Even if it means a round-trip day from Bakersfield to Edmonton, and back to Bakersfield, as it did for a pair of Oilers farmhands this past week.
You’ve seen the move before — Toronto made it last week — but here is why it happens, using the Oilers as an example:
Edmonton wanted to call up Leon Draisaitl, but in order to do so they needed cap space. The answer was to move Jordan Eberle on to Long Term Injured Reserve. But the closer a team is to the cap ceiling at the time of the LTIR move, the more relief the move buys them.
So Edmonton identified the salaries of farmhands Joey Laleggia and Tyler Pitlick as the combination that brought them closest to the $71.4 million cap, and recalled them. Then they put Eberle’s $6 million on LTIR, and that effectively raises Edmonton’s functioning cap to $77.4 million, as long as Eberle remains on LTIR. Moments after that, they assign Pitlick and Laleggia back to the minors, and call up Draisaitl, fitting his AAV into the newly created cap space.
Pitlick and Laleggia spent the day and early evening flying to Edmonton, then back to Bakersfield. But for San Jose, which has called up farmhand Bryan Lerg numerous times already this season, there is no travel involved.
The San Jose Barracuda of the AHL play out the same rink as the Sharks, same as the Winnipeg Jets and the Manitoba Moose. Others, like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Anaheim Ducks, Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings, it’s less than a two-hour drive from the minor league dressing room to the NHL team.
Meanwhile, Vancouver’s farm team is in Utica, New York, the furthest distance between an NHL club and its AHL affiliate. Thus, the belief is that the Canucks will re-establish an AHL team in Abbotsford, where the Flames once had their top farm club.
HALL OF A TALK
Speaking of that Canadiens-Oilers game, when Draisaitl awoke at 3:45 a.m., flew all day, then scored two goals in a 4-3 win, this post-game quote from head coach Todd McLellan caught my ear:
“(Draisaitl) started slow. Hallsy pulled him aside and said, ‘Let’s go. Relax. You are a good player.’ Then I felt he was more involved.”
One of my favorite moments in recent hockey history along these lines came back in 2013, in Game 4 of the Chicago-Detroit series, when Jonathan Toews took three consecutive minor penalties. Remember defenceman Brent Seabrook’s visit to Toews in the box, settling the Hawks captain down with some wise words?
Hall doesn’t turn 24 until Nov. 14, but has quietly matured into a leader among those younger Oilers who have been embroiled in their everlasting rebuild. I suspect he’s on the radar of GM Peter Chiarelli as a possible trading chip with enough value to bring in the quality defenceman the Oilers desperately need. But when it’s all said and done, I predict Hall — who has 10 points in 11 games this season — will be deemed too valuable to part with.
UP IN FLAMES
Joni Ortio started in goal Friday night against Montreal, his first home start since March of 2014. All six of his appearances in 2014-15, and his first three games this season, all came on the road.
Maybe it’s just because he’s a Finnish goalie from Turku who plays for the Flames, but what I’ve seen of Ortio I’ve always quite liked. Of course, I’ve always said Miikka Kiprusoff was the underrated goalie of his generation.
It’s quite clear that the Flames — which had 11 points through 10 games last season, and just four this year — messed up by signing Karri Ramo and carrying three goalies into the season. Now Hiller is out at least a week with a lower-body injury, and Ramo has been called back up. The result is a group of goalies that likely don’t have much confidence combined, as it requires to be a successful NHL No. 1.
PRUST FOR BUST
Many Canucks fans lamented the trade of 24-year-old Zack Kassian and a 2016 fifth-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Brandon Prust, who is 31. But it was viewed in the Canucks front office as addition by subtraction, and perhaps people got some insight after Kassian ended up leaving the Habs to enter into Stage 2 of the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program.
But now Prust is out 4-6 weeks with an ankle injury, and this becomes the deal that both teams may have lost.
