GDT: #80 ⋅ COL @ ANA ⋅ 7:00 PM PDT

[Static]

Freedom of speech. And I know Constitutional law.

You can't say whatever you want wherever you want. There's a reason you can't run into a school and yell fire or scream bomb on an airplane.

 

[MMC]

This is such a boring and unsupported claim at this point.



So the quick sum of that data, since I doubt you'll read it is:

Anaheim was healthier, took fewer penalties, and shot the puck more. Despite that they still barely scored more goals this year compared to last year. Even if they blow out their next two opponents, the difference will be insignificant. The offense 5 on 5 was better this season but that is largely caused by a post Four Nations surge that is marked by a top third PDO rating. For most of the season they were near the bottom in total goals scored.

We have the worst powerplay in the league. One of the worst penalty kills in the league, and arguably the worst defensive performance in the league including being the worst faceoff team in the league. In virtually every defensive metric we were worse than last year.

The most notable improvement was the goals saved above expected aggregate by our goalies where last year out goalies statistically let in 11 more goals than expected while this year they prevented 33 more than expected while seeing a huge improvement in save percentage. And that's with the averages skewed by Dostal flaming out playing more games with Gibson out and the Ducks allowing more shots through to Dostal than the rest of the league.

The Ducks have won 16 one goal games and lost 8 games in OT or shootout. Not considering 2 goal wins that the goalies stood on their heads to balance out the one goal wins the goalies didn't play that well, that's between, being generous, 24-36 points gained in close games that you can credit the goalies for playing well above average, arguably elite against a barrage of shots allowed by the undisputed worst shot suppression team in the league.

The difference in standings points between this year and last year is 19 points with, at most an additional four to bring it to 23.

If you want to blindly look at raw standings improvement without considering the underlying issues, more power to you. I hope Verbeek's pride doesn't give him the same mentality. The reality of the "improvement" is the team was healthier and they got top class goaltending. In all other respects they either got worse, barely improved, or didn't improve at all.

Everything you said is why I personally don’t care if they get rid of him, I’m merely saying why I don’t think PV (and by extension the Samuelis, if he were to bother to pose it to them) will get rid of him

 

[HanSolo]

Goes to show you how terribly shitty the team was last season. This season was still shit, but not as shitty.

They were just as shitty in most respects and worse defensively.

Everything you said is why I personally don’t care if they get rid of him, I’m merely saying why I don’t think PV (and by extension the Samuelis, if he were to bother to pose it to him) will get rid of him

Well if Verbeek uses your logic and uses raw standings improvement to save face and keep Cronin behind the bench then he's a f***ing moron who should be fired too.

 

[HanSolo]

Freedom of speech. And I know Constitutional law.

The First Amendment protects us from governmental infringement against our freedom of speech and even in that context is not absolute. The government can still restrict hate speech or speech likely to incite violence or crime. The Ducks booting that fan out, if true, is pathetic, but it's not illegal.

 

[TheStuntman]

They were just as shitty in most respects and worse defensively.

You're not wrong. The main difference is that goaltending was Vezina caliber this season and the offense was a little better.

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

Yeah I think that was the worst game of the year

I don't think it's particularly close. It had everything: failure to generate quality offense (20 shots on goal?!?!), terrible special teams, nonexistent rush defense, all wrapped up in the package of playing a team rostering about 3 impact players for that game with a bunch of AHL fodder.

 

[TheStuntman]

The First Amendment protects us from governmental infringement against our freedom of speech and even in that context is not absolute. The government can still restrict hate speech or speech likely to incite violence or crime. The Ducks booting that fan out, if true, is pathetic, but it's not illegal.

You are 100% right. Ducks are a private entity and they're free to restrict in their place of business, as long as it's uniform and not for racial, gender, religious, and other discriminatory grounds as a condition of entering and staying in the arena.

 

[Firequacker]

All this earnest discussion of the first amendment and not one "duck bill of rights" joke, smh.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Freedom of speech. And I know Constitutional law.

What are the first five words of the first amendment, mr. constitutional law knower?

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

You are 100% right. Ducks are a private entity and they're free to restrict in their place of business, as long as it's uniform and not for racial, gender, religious, and other discriminatory grounds as a condition of entering and staying in the arena.

In other words.. The paying fans have no right to voice their opinion because it hurts someone feelings? lmaoo F that.. what are they going to do if the whole crowd shouts it? Kick everyone out?

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

What are the first five words of the first amendment, mr. constitutional law knower?

Congress shall make no law...
BTW I never said im a lawyer.. So lets not go there

 

[MMC]

In other words.. The paying fans have no right to voice their opinion because it hurts someone feelings? lmaoo F that.. what are they going to do if the whole crowd shouts it? Kick everyone out?

 

[ADHB]

Maybe they wouldn't have improved the second most among all teams if they weren't so shitty last year, which is also a knock on Cronin. It's not like the team improved from bad to average. They improved from awful to not quite as awful.

 

[TheStuntman]

In other words.. The paying fans have no right to voice their opinion because it hurts someone feelings? lmaoo F that.. what are they going to do if the whole crowd shouts it? Kick everyone out?

They can voice it, doesn't mean they're immune to consequences. Just because you buy a ticket to the game, doesn't mean you can start saying whatever you want. A ticket gives you entry to the game, it doesn't give you a soapbox at the arena. You can say Fire Cronin at the arena, but the Ducks can kick you out for being disruptive. Legally, yes the Ducks can kick everyone out. PR-wise not the best move for the Ducks.

 

[duckpuck]

Not even an “I hope you’re my usher next year” on the way out

Honest question. Not trolling. What types of things do season ticket holders get ushers? Never heard of this before . . .

 

[Rybread86]

Ive started those kinds of chants in the past, during the Murray era. No one batted an eye... well except for my wife.

At worst, you would be talked to. Unless of course you didnt listen and kept it up even after being warned.

Me thinks we got half the story.

 

[HanSolo]

Maybe they wouldn't have improved the second most among all teams if they weren't so shitty last year, which is also a knock on Cronin. It's not like the team improved from bad to average. They improved from awful to not quite as awful.

No they're still just as bad. They got better goaltending. That's what this season comes down to. Some individual improvements from the kids, a few more goals scored. That's it. The team as a whole performed just as poorly in most respects and worse at the area of the game (defense) that was supposed to be the big focus.

 

[MMC]

Honest question. Not trolling. What types of things do season ticket holders get ushers? Never heard of this before . . .

Mostly just gift cards or a nice cash tip, sometimes merch

 

[Mr Rogers]

Honest question. Not trolling. What types of things do season ticket holders get ushers? Never heard of this before . . .

to add on to this, and also genuinely curious, but is there something that ushers do for fans at games besides not letting people go down to their seat during play? are they responsible for cleaning up their sections?

I guess i'm trying to understand what service is provided that what would be gift-worthy

 

[MMC]

Ive started those kinds of chants in the past, during the Murray era. No one batted an eye... well except for my wife.

At worst, you would be talked to. Unless of course you didnt listen and kept it up even after being warned.

Me thinks we got half the story.

I can say from experience that the ushers also don’t care if you do, but if people start complaining to us that you’re annoying them by doing this we’re going to politely ask you to be respectful of your fellow fans. And if you choose not to stop at that point and people continue to complain then yeah we don’t have much choice but to get our supervisor involved and then however you choose to escalate it from there is your problem and I don’t have sympathy for you. People have done this in my section this season and I could tell people found it annoying but no one actually went as far as to ask me to stop someone so I never did anything

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

Cronin won't, the others might. In reality they all should be gone. The Ducks expectations for this season were pretty low and its debatable that Cronin even met those.

“I want us to be playing meaningful games and be in the hunt to make the playoffs.” - Verbeek​

Looking at the standings, it's difficult to conclude that the ducks were ever truly in the hunt. Were the Flyers in the hunt this year? I doubt anyone would say so but they have only 2 fewer points than the Ducks. Same goes for the Sabres who only had 1 point fewer than Anaheim.

It's gonna be hard to tell people in the future that there was a time the Ducks were 4 back of a playoff spot at the beginning of March, considering they're gonna miss the postseason by at least 15 points.

 

[duckaroosky]

Even Mother Nature wants Cronin fired after last night:

 

[Lord Flashheart]

It's gonna be hard to tell people in the future that there was a time the Ducks were 4 back of a playoff spot at the beginning of March, considering they're gonna miss the playoffs by at least 15 points.

That was nothing but a mirage, in reality team is/was average goaltending away from having top 3 lottery odds.

 

[KelVarnsen]

It's gonna be hard to tell people in the future that there was a time the Ducks were 4 back of a playoff spot at the beginning of March, considering they're gonna miss the playoffs by at least 15 points.

Cro and the boys really picked up their play during this "meaningful" game period huh? What a joke. Faded like a suit from Mervyns.

 

[snowave]

I think we're right were Cronin wants us to be for his 10 year rebuild plan.

anyway, there's some so real talent starting to show on this team, and I'm grateful for that. However, we need to be a playoff team next year, period. There are a lot of things we need to do to get to that point, however... and I have my doubts it will come together that "quickly".

On another note, as optimistic as some of the games were this season, I only watched probably 50 of the games, almost all recorded and watched later. Of those 50, ~25 were FFw'd through at times, and the rest were wither watched all the way through, or turned off when things got too boring/ crappy.

Bottom line... as a fan, the Ducks are starting to lose me. I hate to bail on my team, and I love hockey, but unless we see a playoff team (even a low end one) next year, it might be it for me and the Ducks.