GDT: #31 ⋅ COL @ ANA ⋅ 7:00 PM PST

[MMC]

I was told by my coworkers that now that I have a hockey spot I could expect some Christmas presents from a season ticket holder or two.

I did not receive any presents

 

[Deuce22]

He’s not scratched, he’s in SD where the Gulls ALSO got waxed by Colorado tonight.

My bad

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Colangelo scratched for Johnston and Harkins.

Colangelo's been in San Diego since the 14th. He's played four games down there already.

 

[duckaroosky]

I'm still riding the high of the Chargers win yesterday so this is whatever. You suck Denver!!!

I was told by my coworkers that now that I have a hockey spot I could expect some Christmas presents from a season ticket holder or two.

I did not receive any presents

Make them eat a Popeyes biscuit!!!

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Why the f*** is strome even in the pp? They gotta put colangelo in his spot...

I assume faceoffs

 

[Ducks DVM]

3 Stars

1 - Makar
2 - Leo
3 - MacKinnon

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

Not to mention, Dostal is better.

True.

 

[Ducks DVM]

If the opponent scores 5 goals we should make anyone wearing their jersey eat a Popeyes biscuit before they’re let out

I will actively root for the opposing team to score 5 goals.

Firstly, because it is exponentially more likely than the Ducks scoring 5. More importantly, because those biscuits are like crack cocaine in a baked form.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

If Verbeek isn’t going to trade Gibby, we need to go back to giving Dostal the majority of starts. This is still a development year and he needs to play 50+ games to see how he handles it. Giving Gibby the majority of starts accomplishes nothing for this team’s future.

At this point the org needs to realize
A) Gibson is what he is, and a potential hot streak isn’t going to help his value much, if he wants out you facilitate a trade and take what you can get.

B) dostal is our #1, if gibson is cool being back up keep him here, but make dostal have the net majority of the time.

 

[2faded]

We have like 2 good forwards. Tough to score even if your power play knows what it’s doing.

Which two?

 

[JonathnTaylorTavares]

Which two?

Terry and Vatrarlsstrome

 

[Hockey Duckie]

This Colorado game concluded the latest 5-game set. We faced one sub-.500 team (Ott), a .500 team (Columbus), and three above-.500 teams (Toronto, Winnipeg, and Colorado). We are usually good against .500 teams and below because we are the best of the worst.

Projected record: 2-3-0 (4pts)
Actual record: 2-3-0 (4 pts)

We lost to a sub-.500 team and beat an above-.500 team in Winnipeg. I think the four game rest before facing Winnipeg helped us out a lot!

---

The next 5-game set looks daunting. Projected record: 1-4-0 (2 pts). I do hope we eek out a extra point or two against the above-.500 teams.

Ducks​	2024-25​	as of Dec 19, 2024​	​	​
SoS​	Game #​	Date​	Location​	Opponent​
0.565​	32​	22-Dec​	at​	Utah​
0.703​	33​	23-Dec​	at​	VGK​
0.485​	34​	28-Dec​	-​	Phi​
0.625​	35​	29-Dec​	-​	Edm​
0.643​	36​	31-Dec​	-​	NJD​

 

[JAHV]

I know the focus is understandably on the terrible power play, but that's two straight games the Ducks have outplayed a good opponent.

The concerns from this one (outside of special teams) are that McTavish continues to be lost, Johnston continues to exist, and that the team passes up way too many good shooting opportunities. But I'm encouraged by two straight solid games.

 

[Hey234]

It sucks they lost and couldn't capitalize on their dominant play early on. This is a young team though and I expect them to lose to teams like Colorado. These last few games have been encouraging. Trouba has been solid. Great add.

Cronin is playing the 4th line way too much. Johnston, in particular, needs to go. The Harkins experiment can end too. Ducks need a goal scorer in the worst way.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Overall I thought the team played pretty well….

But you can’t go 0-5 on powerplay and give up a short handed goal and expect to win.

Special teams was the big difference.

I feel like we’re starting to generate chances more often but our goal scoring still lacking.
Our leading goal getter has 9…. Even a team like San Jose has 4 guys above that.

 

[LuGBuG]

If we can hang with in a couple games of .500 until Z gets back, add a pure scorer and keep playing this way then we could get to .500 or better. Bit of a pipe dream but at least we’ve played well recently even though both were B2B for the opponent.

 

[FlyingV09]

The teams that are going to be at the top of the standings by the end of the year will have scored (my prediction) over 100 more goals than the Ducks. The lack of high danger opportunities and the lack of finish is a serious problem.

I think the team defense is good enough to be a playoff team. It’s still leaky at times but our goaltending is good enough to keep the goals against reasonable.

But if this team doesn’t figure out how to score more goals we will continue to be bottom feeders. It’s been a problem for years and they still haven’t found a fix.

 

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

You can’t beat the avs with that kind of powerplay. Just awful.

5 on 5 wasn’t too bad outside of some silly penalties. Gibson looked fine but I have to wonder if Dostal would’ve looked better. I’ll never understand why he was immediately given the backup role after Gibson got back despite having some of the best numbers in the league.

I’d really like to see Ross Johnston out of the lineup. His fight was very meh and for the second straight game he took a very dumb penalty. He’s also not really hitting much, in fact I’m pretty sure McGinn has had more impactful hits than him this year despite playing much less.

Trouba started to hit tonight which is nice to see.

 

[70sSanO]

It was a good but shaky game at times. There are some positives, along with hopefully going through a learning process.

The biggest positives are skating the puck into tue zone and taking more shots. And we are moving the puck much better.

But a downside of more shots is just throwing the puck to the net and hoping for the best.

The better teams, especially on the PP, move the puck to get the defense and goalie moving and getting a legitimate scoring chance.

I don’t want to go back to the endless cycling and no shots, but hitting the goalie in the logo just to take a shot isn’t productive either.

I’m hoping this improves as the season goes along.

John

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

You can’t beat the avs with that kind of powerplay. Just awful.

5 on 5 wasn’t too bad outside of some silly penalties. Gibson looked fine but I have to wonder if Dostal would’ve looked better. I’ll never understand why he was immediately given the backup role after Gibson got back despite having some of the best numbers in the league.

I’d really like to see Ross Johnston out of the lineup. His fight was very meh and for the second straight game he took a very dumb penalty. He’s also not really hitting much, in fact I’m pretty sure McGinn has had more impactful hits than him this year despite playing much less.

Trouba started to hit tonight which is nice to see.

That's just criminal. The only borderline excuse could be a team wanting to see Gibson play more before making a deal. But now that the trade embargo is here (with no deal made) we need to go back to playing Dostal as the #1.

 

[ScarTroy]

Feels like Cutter is on the verge of breaking out, he’s looked great as of late. Getting the timing down where he can probably try those extra moves that weren’t working for him to start the season.

 

[DavidBL]

Overall I thought the team played pretty well….

But you can’t go 0-5 on powerplay and give up a short handed goal and expect to win.

Special teams was the big difference.

I feel like we’re starting to generate chances more often but our goal scoring still lacking.
Our leading goal getter has 9…. Even a team like San Jose has 4 guys above that.

This is really the story if the game. You score 1 pp goal for 20% efficacy, you don't allow the SHG because, really! And you're up 1 goal instead of down 1 and you're not pulling your goalie for the empty net against.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

The teams that are going to be at the top of the standings by the end of the year will have scored (my prediction) over 100 more goals than the Ducks. The lack of high danger opportunities and the lack of finish is a serious problem.

I think the team defense is good enough to be a playoff team. It’s still leaky at times but our goaltending is good enough to keep the goals against reasonable.

But if this team doesn’t figure out how to score more goals we will continue to be bottom feeders. It’s been a problem for years and they still haven’t found a fix.

This good defense and inept offense has been Cronin's M.O. since last season. Cronin's offensive scheme is the problem because he is doubling down that the Dump & Chase method is best, but it requires the team to play faster, stronger, and crash the net. Scoring is dependent on chaos and individual effort.

What is funny is that I looked at Vatrano's 37 goals last year and a majority of them on ES were in transition. There were some Dump & Chase scoring, but there was a lot of individual effort to keep possession alive, an amazing pass, or both to score. We don't see more transition scoring this year because Cronin wants more Dump & Chase. The one system change that is identifiable is that our d-men are told to pinch more aggressively, which our youth D has increased their scoring. A problem with that aggressiveness is the rotation must be in sync or we will have an odd-man rush that could lead to a goal, which did occur last night.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Overall I thought the team played pretty well….

But you can’t go 0-5 on powerplay and give up a short handed goal and expect to win.

Special teams was the big difference.

I feel like we’re starting to generate chances more often but our goal scoring still lacking.
Our leading goal getter has 9…. Even a team like San Jose has 4 guys above that.

imo, Cronin doesn't know how to generate more team points and that's due to his offensive scheme. I pointed this out last season when I compared teams coached Cronin to Eakins, with Cronin having a vastly superior roster, especially on defense. We had a greatly improved Goal Differential due to our defense, scored similarly to Eakins' last season, but could only generate one more point than the Eakins led team. Our PP was inept for both seasons because Newell Brown was in charge of the PP for both seasons.

That is why I'm not surprised with our outcomes today and numb with a development year.

San Jose's offense is better than ours, but their defense has allowed the second most GA in the league (31st in GA). Anaheim is ranked 15th best in GA in the league, with 96 goals allowed. They have played four more games than us, but the records are still close by. The Sharks are finding ways to generate more team points despite being horrible defensively, which is what we were under Eakins' last season with us.

GD comp
Ducks: GF = 76, GA = 96, GD = -20
.............. Record: 12-15-4 (28 pts)
Sharks: GF = 96, GA = 126, GD = -30
.............. Record: 11-19-5 (27 pts)

 

[duckpuck]

I was at the game. Didn't read the entire thread but here are my thoughts:

Not sure why there's hate on Gibson for this game. The one goal snuck through, but it was Makar teeing off from a key scoring area on a cross ice pass. He made several other good saves. And after a good start, Dostal has cooled off, so I think their play of late has been pretty equal.

LaCombe looked great with the puck and I didn't notice any major defensive flaws (hard to tell in person). I was not a huge believer in him, but if he plays this well he's a part of the core. Zell was good too and I like the pairing with Trouba. Trouba makes a mistake but he adds a nice presence on the back end, particularly on penalty kill.

Terry is interesting. He looks great on some shifts and dominates play. Then he disappears for long periods of time.

The ineptitude on the power play has been covered. Not just the entries, but the lack of movement and the lack of a plan.

It is amazing how many times: (i) the ducks pass up shots from a prime area to make an "extra" pass; and (ii) how poorly they pass. McTavish did this several times but he was far from alone. On the second point often times, the passes are inaccurate or in a place where the player receiving the pass is not in a position to shoot or make a move. They are forcing plays - in part because the entire approach (particularly on PP) is unclear.

Responding to a random point, I think Strome is on the PP because he's actually one of the better puck retrievers. But the short answer to this question is that the current roster doesn't afford better options.