DUCKS PONDER LOSSES
DURING BREAK

JANUARY 28, 2008 -- ANAHEIM -- The Ducks stumbled this past week. Their follow up to a terrific season high six game winning streak was a three game losing streak going into the All Star break. Losses to both the top team in the NHL and the bottom team in the NHL left fans with a bad taste in their mouth and wondering what happened?

GAMES

The Ducks hosted the Detroit Red Wings and their huge transplanted fan base at the Honda Center on Wednesday. The Red Wings had shut out the Kings the night before and still had plenty of energy for the Ducks. Brian Rafalski scored on a 5 on 3 power play and Valtteri Filppula scored the game-winning goal when Francois Beauchemin broke his stick defending the play and the Wings took off 2 on 1. "I tried to make a pass and the shaft broke in half," Beauchemin said. "They usually break in the blades, but tonight I had two in three shifts that broke the shafts. There’s nothing I can do. I break maybe five or six sticks all year long and tonight I had two. It’s usually Prongs on a one-timer shot, but tonight it was my turn." The Ducks finally mustered a goal of their own on the power play in the third period. Chris Pronger got the shot behind Dominik Hasek, who was screened by Todd Bertuzzi. Hasek stopped all 24 other shots.

The Ducks headed up to the Staples Center on Thursday to play their equally hated rivals the Kings. Two of these kinds of games in two days is too much. The Ducks looked mentally drained and could not muster much of anything against the Kings. The Kings got the first three tallies from Anze Kopitar (power play goal), Derek Armstrong and Alexander Frolov. Jean-Sebastien Giguere was making his second appearance in a row, but after the third goal, Giguere was pulled, giving him the rest he should have had in the first place. Jonas Hiller prevented further damage by the Kings. The Ducks only score came on a rare regular season goal by Rob Niedermayer late in the third. The Ducks had their chances, but nothing else went past Jason LaBarbera. Ryan Carter nearly had his first career goal, but the puck passed the line just after time expired in the first period. Ryan Getzlaf saw his 15 game point-scoring streak come to an end in LA. “We haven’t played as good as we could have the last three games," Giguere said. "At this time of the year it’s unacceptable. We need to be a little bit more desperate in these games.”

Sami Pahlsson continues on the IR with an abdominal strain that does not want to seem to go away. After making good progress, he experienced two setbacks, one minor, one major. Pahlsson had to take several days off after the last setback and the hope would be that he could return during the road trip. However, that remains to be seen.

Todd Marchant left the Kings game on Thursday after taking a hard shot to his left foot. The foot was bruised and sore and he is listed as day to day.

Shortly after Marchant left, Travis Moen joined him in the training room. Moen suffered a hard hit by Brad Stuart into the boards and was diagnosed with bruised ribs. The x-rays and MRI revealed no broken bones. Moen is also listed as day to day and both players will benefit from the All Star break.

There were no roster moves this past week. The only change was Brandon Bochenski a healthy scratch against the Kings. Todd Marchant was inserted into his spot on the second line and George Parros played in his first game back since injuring his knee on January 9.

The penalty kill remained at 81.3%, and the Ducks are still in 17th place overall in the league. The Ducks killed 4 of 5 penalties against Detroit and 5 of 6 against the Kings.

The power play was 1 for 5 against Detroit and 0 for 5 against the Kings. The numbers dropped this week to 16.8%, but remained in 19th in the league overall.

Although both stats have improved since the beginning of the season, the Ducks still need to allow fewer power play opportunities in games. The penalties disrupt the flow and tire out other players, making it difficult to play their game. The power play must continue to be successful if the Ducks are going to win enough games to keep a playoff spot.

The Ducks still have 60 points with a 27-20-6 record. Two losses this week dropped them to third place in the Pacific Division. They are only one point behind the San Jose Sharks and the Dallas Stars. The Ducks have played 53 games, same as the Stars. The Sharks have four games in hand. The Ducks are in 5th place in the Western Conference. There are only six points separating 5th place and 11th place and like last season, nothing will be set in stone until the last games are played.

The Ducks sent a league-high and franchise-high four players to the All Star game in Atlanta this weekend. Defensemen Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer were joined by forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. Perry and Niedermayer were added to the roster on Tuesday to replace injured players unable to make the game. For Niedermayer the honor was a surprise, considering he’s only played in 17 games. Clearly he has made an impact in that short a period of time. Perry leads the Ducks in goals and is third in the Western Conference in goal scoring behind Jarome Iginla and Henrik Zetterberg. Perry considered it “a huge honor” to be included.

In the SuperSkills competition, Getzlaf shone in the newest breakaway competition, getting plenty of style points for his moves. He went on to the final and lost to Alexander Ovechkin. Chris Pronger registered a blistering 99.7 mph in the hardest shot competition – good, but not even close to Zdeno Chara’s 103.1.

At the All Star game the East dominated the West in the first period and led 5-1. The West came back in the second period with great goaltending by Evgeni Nabokov. Nabby shut out the East, including two great chances by Ilya Kovalchuk, and earned the first shutout period since 2002. Scott Niedermayer scored one of the West’s two goals in the second and helped bring the West back within two goals. Between periods, Chris Pronger issued a challenge to his teammates to step it up in the scoring department. Getzlaf took that to heart and roofed a great shot early in the third and assisted on a goal by Dion Phaneuf, normally Getzlaf’s hated nemesis from their junior hockey days. Rick Nash got his third goal of the game and only the 15th hat trick in All Star competition and that tied up the game, 5-5. It was neck and neck after that, with the East breaking the 7-7 tie with :20.8 seconds left in the game and winning 8-7.

The Ducks start the final push to the playoffs with an eight game road trip. This one won’t be easy, by any stretch of the imagination. The first week is Minnesota on Wednesday and back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday in St. Louis and Philadelphia. The weekend games will be especially brutal with less than 24 hours between them and a time zone change. The Ducks need to suck it up and keep their minds focused if they are going to earn critical points during this period.

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