Latest Headlines on OCRegister.com
[x] Close
Ducks blog ~ The latest on the Anaheim Ducks, by the Orange County Register Sports staff
« Previous Post
Next Post »

Ducks come home to re-group

November 17th, 2009, 5:00 pm · 8 Comments · posted by Curtis Zupke, Staff writer

There’s no rest for the weary, especially when the weary have lost 10 of their past 13 games. Ducks Penguins Hockey

Despite returning to Orange County from the East Coast at about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Ducks held an early afternoon practice and went back to square one after they went 0-3-1 on a road trip.

Centers Saku Koivu (groin-muscle) and Ryan Carter (foot) remain unavailable, so Coach Randy Carlyle (right) continues to tinker with the second, third and fourth lines.

His latest combination has winger Joffrey Lupul on the checking line with Todd Marchant. The two played together briefly in Monday’s loss to Pittsburgh as Lupul logged a season-low 9:48 minutes of ice time.

They might not be together by the time the Ducks begin a seven-game home stand Thursday because Koivu or Carter could return. But it’s clear that more experimentation is on the way.

“Probably a lot of things need to change, starting with the lines,” Lupul said. “That’s probably the least of our concerns, but that’s usually the first that goes.”

Lupul enjoyed some success playing with Marchant during his first tour with the Ducks in the 2005-06 season. Carlyle said “there is somewhat of a tendency for us to feel more comfortable with Lupul and Marchant than (with Corey) Perry,” but Lupul downplayed their chemistry.

“We’ll have to see,” he said. “Hopefully we can find something. We definitely need a little bit more from everyone, so hopefully we can find some lines that work.”

The Ducks have a big window for improvement. Starting Thursday they will play every other day for 13 days on home ice.

But that doesn’t guarantee success.

Part of the reason the Ducks practiced Tuesday was to make up for Sunday’s off-ice individual player meetings.

Were they beneficial?

“Probably not,” said Lupul about a 5-2 loss to a Pittsburgh team that was missing four of its top-six defensemen.

“We came out and played probably our worst game of the year. But it was good to hear feedback from the coach and I’m sure he likes feedback from us. But at the end of the day, it’s about the results. And it’s definitely not the result we were looking for (Monday) night.”

Back to square one, indeed.

Said captain Scott Niedermayer, “We’ve had many, many meetings since the season started, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Share this post:
  • E-mail this story to a friend!
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Fark
  • StumbleUpon
  • TwitThis
ADVERTISEMENT

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Reader Comments
Comments are encouraged, but you must follow our User Agreement.
  1. Keep it civil and stay on topic.
  2. No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks.
  3. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked.

 8 Comments

  • ochockeydude says:
    November 17, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    Come on guys and get your act together. Right now the Ducks are no better than Toronto, Carolina and Florida, the dregs of th league, despite having 4 or 5 of the best players in the league:-(

    Giggy and Hiller simply need to play better, as do Selanne and Lupul. The stupid penalties have to stop as well.

    We have another one line, bad tender team coming in on Thursday named Tampa Bay Lightning, so a good team to start a winning streak against!

    • Stephen says:
      November 17, 2009 at 7:08 pm

      I don’t know if it’s just me, but to me Selanne has been playing great. He currently has 10 goals and does a great job on putting pressure on the puck and has been physical.

      • ASeg says:
        November 17, 2009 at 7:43 pm

        Agreed. Selanne was the only scorer in the game against the Flyers. He could pass Perry as the team’s top scorer.

  • czhokej says:
    November 17, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    It’s painful to watch our team to lose game after game. I am still trying to figure out what system Carlyle wants to play, both defensively and offensively. There were some moments when the Ducks played quick transition game with nice passing, skating into the open positions, moving the puck well, etc. Unfortunately, there was no consistency and most of the time it’s just a mess. Carlyle should watch other teams and learn. Copy the Sharks and others to improve our offensive strategy, copy the Devils to organize the defense. Use the talent we have. Do something or leave, Mr Carlyle.

    • erikshunn says:
      November 18, 2009 at 12:28 pm

      I think Carlyle can learn something from the way the Devils play. But so could almost every team. I’m surprised more teams don’t copy them outright. I mean it helps that they have the Brodeur, but he doesn’t see as many pucks as Giguere/Hiller. Their breakout plays from the defensive zone are flawless, ours seem haphazard unless led by (former Devil) Niedermayer. Last time I checked, the Devils don’t really have any superstars on D, just a bunch of fundamentally sound skaters who make good decisions with the puck. The fact that Mike Mottau has resurrected his career at his age is a testament to the system they play.

      As for the Sharks…well, I would rather have less offense and not choke in the playoffs. Whatever the Sharks are doing, it doesn’t work once the regular season has ended. The Ducks offense will come around, there are too many talented players for it not to. It’s the defense I’m worried about.

  • Paul says:
    November 18, 2009 at 12:02 am

    ……”Carlyle should watch other teams and learn. Copy the Sharks and others to improve our offensive strategy, copy the Devils to organize the defense. Use the talent we have.”…..QUOTE

    If Carlyle needs to watch other teams to learn how to coach, he might be a wee bit overpaid, don’tcha think?

    And as for using the talent we have? He does…..badly. Everyone plays a grinding, cycling style….even if they are pure scorers or passers with years of experience. Dump and thump….or just dump and chase with the Duck getting thumped while trying to regain the puck,… for everyone.Wheeeeeee. Fun all around. What do we expect from a former defenceman? Offensive experience? Hardly…..and yet we question why we aren’t scoring enough to win…..and our scorers are trying their best to excel as defense first players….with the usual results.

    • ClippinWings says:
      November 18, 2009 at 9:05 am

      Right, the only line suited to that style is the top line and even then Bobby and Perry cold benefit from opening up the game a bit, bobby was actually remorseful for his Spin-a-rama goal last year.

      If Carlyle is intent on playing that system with every line instead of giving each line a unique role and making it harder for opponents to predict what the team is going to do, he should play lines with thugs and skill combined:

      Calder-Getzlaf-Perry
      Nokelainen-Koivu-Selanne
      Lupul-Marchant-Ryan
      Brown-Carter-Parros

      Scratch Artyukhin as he is a PIM machine.

  • Alisa says:
    November 18, 2009 at 11:50 am

    Watching this time has just been frustrating, and exhausting. I never know from one game to the next, what team is going to the show up - the one that cares and plays hard, or the one that doesn’t care at all - what players are going to show up - ones that get paid big bucks to play, or ones that don’t care about the check they’re cashing. It’s just difficult as a fan. At this point, I don’t even care if the teaam wins or losses games, I just want them to try. I want them to go out and look like they care. That it makes as much of a difference to them as it is to us how they look on the ice.