Are you in, or are you out?
What was Randy Carlyle thinking?
First he yanked starting goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere at 1:48 of the first period, after Giguere allowed two goals on two shots, and sent in Jonas Hiller. Then the puck dropped at center ice, George Parros dropped gloves with Jean-Francois Jacques, and when the fight was over, Giguere skated back into the crease and switched places with Hiller.
"The actual change in the goaltending, it's an extra timeout in the game. That's all it is," Carlyle said. "I did it for the simple reason of trying to stop what was going on, in a minute and a half out there, it was 18-something (18:12) on the clock and I figured it would just settle things down -- and it did. I thought it had its desired effect.
"We found a way to get back into it after we climbed out 2-1, but in the middle frame we made some mistakes."
Specifically, Giguere allowed goals on back-to-back shots again, at 2:10 and 2:19 of the second. And out came Hiller again -- this time for good. He stopped all 10 shots he faced the rest of the way, which wasn't a lot considering the Ducks peppered Dwayne Roloson with 39 shots over the final 40 minutes.
Hiller said he's never been sent into a game from the bench, then pulled out, then put in again.
"I was a little surprised to go in at all after two goals," he said. "I was just taking my time, because I thought Randy might have wanted to get an extra timeout. I went in, and I didn't know if I was going to go back out or not. When Jiggy didn't take his helmet off, I thought he was going to be back in."
As for Giguere, he looked more composed than he has all season after being benched at midgame.
"If we play like this," he said, presumably referring to a Ducks attack that notched a franchise-record 54 shots, "we'll be fine."
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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