Zegras likely had his best NHL game, really wanted him to score a goal also, and he came close a couple of times. Both him and Drysdale got a star of the game. Really good sign both of these two are finding ways to excel on a current putrid Ducks team. The future is looking very good and a lot of fat will need to be trimmed this summer.
Are you really shocked that they blew another lead and lost? Eakins along with Murray both need to go. Eakins putting out two D on the face off that led to the GW goal against is his system in a nutshell, and a major reason they cannot seal games. They stop attacking and go into this turtle form, and the other team is spending way too much time in their zone. Safe is death.
Also, reading the Fowler hate, granted he had a bad game, but has had a solid season, but is no one even looking at how bad Silfverberg has been? I mean, Woof. Silf is a fan favorite but everything is dying on his stick, and the dump and chase is not working for him when he cannot even win board battles.
Regardless, at this point like I said, want the kids to get on the score board, let them have good games, and if they win or lose doesn't matter. I really like them to pick in the Top 3 this summer. This has been an unholy season, and already looking to the off-season and training camp which is around 5 months away. Crazy.
GM's get the players. Coaches coach the players.
GM
With GM Murray, you have to have a far bigger picture to understand that this year was going to be a stepping stone year. Buying out Perry in the 2019-20 season was a significant chess piece moved forward to the re-build. Injuries in that season helped to perpetuate the addition of an extra first round pick at the expense of clogging up the salary cap in 2020-21 with taking on Backes' contract. It was injuries starting from the 2017-18 season where Eaves' medical condition knocked him out for his career and Kesler's body declined significantly while not telling anyone how abysmal it was for him. 2018-19 was when Perry fell off the ice and Kesler finally retired after reaching 1,000 games milestone. Ritchie didn't pan out and Kase was made out of glass. D Faulk didn't want to be traded to the west coast. We couldn't be a Patrik Laine offer to get PLD.
Fast forward to today. Drysdale is an NHL'er today. Lundestrom has solidified himself as an NHL mainstay this year, at age 20. Comtois' game also elevated itself to be a regular. Terry's game took the long way around, but we think that talent is here to continually bloom. Jones is a wildcard, can play any wing position on all four lines, which is a good NHL role to have. Zegras is inching closer to being an NHL product. Perreault is getting his sea legs in the AHL as an 18-year old. Defensemen LaCombe and Thrun have produced, LaCombe after the WJC's and Thrun during the WJC's (and recently in the USHL). The future is looking very bright in Anaheim.
The problem the past two seasons have been missing Lindholm, team's #1D, and Manson on the blue line due to injuries. Injuries have been GM Murray's Achilles' heel. Injuries are more of a form of bad luck. If there is a way to reduce injuries, Murray is on it. He was the first person to mandate all of his skater wear skate guards to protect their feet and ankles from blocking shots. I believe everyone in the NHL is doing it. Everything else, though, is just sheer bad luck.
2017-18: no Eaves and 1/2 Kes; center position got hit hard with injuries and forced to start 18 yr old Lundy and 20 yr old Steel; traded for Rico
2018-19: 1/2 Kes and Perry's return from injury forced the Ducks to cut bait on his contract.
2019-20: Manson, Lindholm, Fowler, and Gudbranson out with long term injuries
2020-21: Manson and Lindholm out with long term injuries; many others on IR
Anaheim doesn't possess the talent depth and talent quality (Drysdale still is only 18 years old) to absorb hits to the team today like a Colorado. We are probably two seasons away from having talent quality depth where I expect to see D LaCombe, D Thrun, LW McLaughlin, RW Perreault, and LW Tracey in the AHL levels. But due to injuries again this year, we are going to land another top-5 pick, hopefully. That pick could also be AHL bound in two seasons.
Then add in the extra cap space, finally, that the Ducks will have going into next season. This is will be important in the next segment.
One of the biggest flaws to Murray this year is the development process of the youths. Steel should have been sent to the AHL long ago. Zegras should not have stayed in the NHL after a few games (3 to be exact). Drysdale should have been promoted earlier. But I wonder if Eakins has a say in this because Eakins was able to demote Rico to be waived and GM Murray implemented it.
The other flaw isn't a flaw, but a lost gamble. Murray swapped defensive D Gudbranson for offensive D Shattenkirk. We were expecting more out of Shattenkirk and also less as in playing time. If you don't watch the games, Shatty's box score numbers look decent for about $4 mil on a bad team. LoL I still think we lost that gamble as Shatty hasn't done much to elevate our PP, which in this year is important, again, to be addressed in the next segment.
Coach
Eakins has a bunch of mixed bags. Here's the positives: one-goal games.
| 4-Apr | | | | | |
| 2020-21 Ducks | Games | W | L | OTL | Pts |
| Total record | 39 | 11 | 21 | 7 | 29 |
| one goal games | 24 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 23 |
| Non 1-goal games | 15 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 6 |
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We have blown four leads against the Yotes only to end up on the losing side with all four of those games finishing as one-goal differential games. Out of 39 games, 24 games have been one-goal games, which represents 61.5% of our games.
This implies the Ducks are close to making a turn around for the good. They are missing some talent to get them over the hump. That's where the big cap space comes into play this off-season.
PK
When Lindholm was in the lineup, the Ducks were ranked 3rd best for that time on the PK. Then Lindholm along with RW Rowney fell to injury and so did our PK to the bottom half of the league. Here, we can say that we are missing talent that kept the team at the top of the PK efficiencies. We can say that we're missing them due to injuries and not because we are lacking talent.
PP
We just suck. On paper is shows it. On ice it shows it. This is Eakins' second season. We can at least move out from the bottom of the league in PP efficiency, but we're here again for a second year. GM Murray has said he will be looking for new assistant coaches for next season.
IMO, I think Eakins has some nepotism in him. Steel should have been sent down to the AHL to develop, but still hasn't. Steel needed to be sent down to the AHL last season too! Outside of Steel, Eakins has evolved in benching players and waiving them. The one player Eakins is very fascinated with is Shattenkirk. He really sees him as deserving of top pairing minutes. For Zegras, Eakins was saying Z will be playing a lot, but now is saying he needs more development? When the Ducks found one scoring line in Comtois-Lundy-Rakell, Eakins separated them. WTF?! We could go on about Eakins' line selections or who he puts out on the ice in OT or PP.
...
I'm fine with GM Murray, for the most part. I don't like Eakins because he doesn't have the gravitas to will his team to hold onto leads or be consistent for all 60 minutes or more and be consistent in each game. Eakins' time with the AHL club, he had a better collection of talent and he probably thrived in that atmosphere. But at the NHL level, it appears he needs a lot of talent to support him rather than the other way around. I guess the thought behind Eakins was that he would grow with the youth movement. I'm not so sure that's the best venue, but that one-goal game stat is enticing if we acquire more talent this off-season because we have a lot of cap space to use.
