GDT: #17 ⋅ ANA @ DAL ⋅ 5:00 PM PST

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

Great game by Dostal, as always.

Lacombe and Zel are playing with a ton of confidence, Helleson looked good tonight as well. Cutter is finally getting it going which with his shoot first mentality will only make us tougher to play against.

I'm probably one of the last two people left on this board that still wanted Ross Johnston in the lineup, but its time to go. Whats the point in dressing an enforcer if he does nothing? Benn nails Terry into the boards, Ross does nothing. Harley with a trip that injures McGinn, Ross does nothing. He dosen't even hit and now hes not fighting? just put Colangelo in and send Ross down to SD.

 

[Hey234]

I echo a lot of the same thoughts about the game. On paper, the Ducks should lose this game. They played hard and this makes the team fun to watch.

I'm curious what the Ducks will do with Dumoulin. He's a great player who would fetch something solid in a trade at the deadline. He's also perfect as a mentor and I wouldn't be opposed to re-signing him for another year or two. His spot in the lineup, though, is interesting to consider with players in waiting like Helleson and Luneau.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Just finished watching. Wow! Go, Dostal.

The first two goals we scored were bad goals the Dallas goalie gave up early. Then we just kept giving Dallas lots of high danger chances after high danger chances! Cutter scoring on the PP was the sound of sniping "Sweetness" and great movement. LaCombe has now scored two goals in front of the net this season; it's a very odd thing to acknowledge that our defense crashes the net more than our forwards. Onto Leason, what a great game for him! Guess Cronin benching Leason in favor of Johnston made Leason work even harder when given the chance to play again. Dostal, though, kept holding that Dallas offense at bay.

We would be lambasted without Dostal in net in this game, see Chart below from Natural Stat Trick. We also lost the SOG battle at 27 SOGs to Dallas' 36 SOGs and the FO battle 33.8% to Dallas' 66.2%. But we did win the special teams front at the PP (1/2) and PK (2/2).

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The recent games with conceding lots of SOG's, relying on great goal tending, and timely goal scoring has me flashing back to 2022-23 when Eakins changed the game plan around game 25 of doing just as described - except the 5v5 offense was more entertaining. This season's record is 3-3-2 (8 pts) in games were the Ducks have given up 36 SOGs or more, including tonight's game. That represents half of our points generated on the season.

 

[Kalv]

Why are you up so early after Latvian Independence Day?

I so much appreciate you knowing it's the Independence day for us. It was previous day tho (we're "ahead" by time zones). My kid woke up right before the 3rd period so I was able to watch it.

But if we keep this going, I might start waking up for games again

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Dostal was great. He really needed Gibby back b/c the team didn't trust Reimer when he gave up 6 goals in one game. Dostal was forced to play five games in 11 days. His body couldn't handle the workload, see chart below. Gibby gave the team a bounce back and Dostal much needed rest. With four days rest between each of Dostal's last two starts, he has regained his high end production.

If we don't have great goaltending, then goalies are saying to the team (PG version) ...

 

[MCB]

Just finished watching and I'm glad I did (thanks @dracom )
Great effort tonight, really felt we controlled the play the first two periods. Even if we don't win, if we play like this I'll be happy because it's a sign of things to come.
For the first time this season I'm actually excited for another game tomorrow (as opposed to thinking "here we go again")