Ducks 4, San Jose 2.

Even in the midst of some great news – the team’s first win since the Olympic break – bad news still found the Ducks in the form of game-ending injuries to Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf.

After scoring his 599th career goal in the first period, Selanne left the ice in a daze after colliding shoulder-first into the end boards in the third period and did not return. Getzlaf, meanwhile, re-aggravated the left ankle injury he suffered in February and played only 15:34.

A team spokesperson reported only that Selanne had suffered an “upper body injury” and will undergo tests Monday. Getzlaf, meanwhile, is day-to-day and will also be re-evaluated Monday.

Other than that, Sunday’s outing was easily the best thing to happen to the Ducks since the Olympics ended. Corey Perry, Lubomir Visnovsky and Bobby Ryan also scored goals and Jonas Hiller stopped 30 of 32 shots for the victory.

“They seem to bring out the best in us,” Ryan said of the Sharks. “Hopefully it’s a starting block.”

The win was the Ducks’ first in six tries against Western Conference-leading San Jose, allowing them to avoid an embarrassing season sweep.

“They’ve taken it to us pretty much all year.
It’s nice to finally get a win against them,” Perry said. “You never know down the
road
what can happen. It’s a confidence boost in knowing we can play with the
top teams in the league. We have to keep that rolling.”

Parros update.

George Parros was hit in the head by a
deflected puck during today’s morning skate and taken to UCI Medical
Center for precautionary reasons. A team spokesperson reports that tests taken at the hospital were all
normal and Parros was released this afternoon.

He has a
contusion/laceration on the right side of his head, did not play Sunday against San Jose, and is listed as
day-to-day.

MacDonald worth a look?

If the Ducks decide they are playing for next season, they might consider giving goaltender Joey MacDonald a look with the NHL club.

MacDonald, who was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a seventh-round pick in the 2011 entry draft at the trade deadline, recorded his second shutout of the season Friday night for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. The 30-year-old has allowed just one goal in his last two starts, both for the Marlies – MacDonald didn’t switch AHL teams after the Leafs and Ducks made the trade.

In 33 games at the AHL level this season, MacDonald is 12-18-3 with a 3.11 goals-against average. MacDonald is no prospect, having started six games for the Maple Leafs this season and 72 in his NHL career, but none since Dec. 5. He’s gone 18-38-9 with a 3.30 GAA for four NHL teams since breaking in with Boston during the 2006-07 season.

MacDonald is in the final year of his contract and becomes an unrestricted free agent July 1.

Plenty going wrong for the Ducks.

By losing their fifth straight game to start the month of March, the
Ducks have settled in nicely among a group of clubs whose season is looking like a “near miss.”

The first tier in the Western Conference has been established for some
time; only Chicago (93 points) and San Jose (95) have a realistic
chance of capturing the No. 1 playoff seed. The second tier is rounding into
shape, with seven teams separated by nine points, and only six
playoff positions to accommodate them.

Then there’s the third tier, in which four teams (St. Louis, Dallas, Minnesota, Anaheim) are separated
by three points for the consolation-only 10th through 13th spots.

It would be callous to
include the 13th-place Ducks in this group based on their 30-29-8 record alone. But
when he was asked Friday about his team’s emotional intensity, Randy
Carlyle delivered a strong vote of confidence for their record.
Continue reading “Plenty going wrong for the Ducks.” »

Nashville 1, Ducks 0.

A 5-on-3 power-play goal by Nashville’s Shea Weber was the difference, as Pekka Rinne stopped all 31 shots he faced. Two minor penalties in a game can usually pass by unnoticed, but not in the Ducks’ first period Friday.

Aaron Ward was whistled for interference at 17:19 and Ryan Getzlaf was caught high-sticking 17 seconds later. Few would have predicted that Weber’s blast 18 seconds into the 2-man power play would be the only goal all night.

Jonas Hiller played his best game since the Olympic break, stopping 27 of 28 shots.

More to follow.

Good vibrations in a bad situation.

Randy Carlyle’s message of staying positive appears to have sunk in.

Prior to tonight’s game against Nashville, one of seven teams the Ducks would have to catch to keep their pipe playoff dream alive, Dan Sexton spoke of getting on a roll – the same roll Anaheim has been trying to get on since the Olympics ended.

“We just need that first win to kind of get it going for us,” he said. “Once we do, I think things will be looking even more up.”

At least Sexton’s optimism could be blamed on youthful inexperience. But even cagey veteran Scott Niedermayer was looking on the bright side Thursday.

“Near the end of the season, everything is definitely getting
amplified, especially us trying to catch up to the top eight teams,” the captain said. “Performing
how we have the last four games is definitely disappointing. The good thing is,
we still have an opportunity to play better, be more consistent. That’s what we have to
focus on.”

If you believe in lucky numbers, here’s a start: A win against Nashville, which is tied with Calgary at 77 points for seventh place in the West, would leave the Ducks seven points out of the playoffs.

Mathematical elimination is still a ways off, with 32 standings points still on the table – for you optimists out there – if the Ducks were to rattle off a 16-game win streak.

Here’s the bad news: When the Olympics ended, Anaheim needed only two points to match the eighth-place Flames in the standings. The Ducks have gained only one point since.

“You have to deal with what’s coming next,” Carlyle said. “Those things are difficult to do when your team’s not emotionally and phys involved where you’d like them to be. that’s the
mental part we’re talking about.

One source of hope was last season’s late surge, when the Ducks went 11-3-1 over the last 15 games to clinch a playoff berth. But there were fewer teams in their way last season. When the streak began,  the Ducks had only Minnesota, Dallas and Edmonton in their way, and were three points out of eighth place.

The real miracle last season occurred in St. Louis, where the Blues were in 13th place in the West as late as March 9, then went on a 12-3-2 run over their final 17 games to gain the No. 6 seed (although it didn’t seem to matter much in their first-round playoff series against Vancouver).

“Our team has shown that we can be really successful in stretches,” Sexton said. “A team like Nashville, that would be a great jump-start for us, if we can capitalize on those guys.”

Prospect update: Sami Vatanen.

From The Hockey News:

JYP’s Sami Vatanen, 18, recently broke the Finnish SM-liiga rookie
defenseman points record when he scored his sixth goal and 28th point
of the season, one more than Tero Konttinen amassed playing for Pori
sst in 2006-07.

Vatanen, an Anaheim Ducks fourth-rounder
(106th overall) in 2009, is averaging 19:44 of ice time per game and
has emerged as an offensive force on the squad; he’s currently ranked
fifth in team scoring with 29 points in 51 games – 14 points ahead of
the next JYP defenseman.

“The whole season’s been a surprise,”
he said. “I didn’t think that I’d be playing a regular shift in the
SM-liiga, I thought I’d play a couple of games and then go back to
juniors or the Mestis (Finnish Div. 1) farm team. I’ve been playing in
a much bigger role than I expected.

“I don’t know what really
happened a few years ago, all of a sudden my development was just off
the charts, or straight up. Not sure why, but I hope I’ll keep
developing like this.”

Sbisa’s suitors lining up.

At least one AHL coach would like to see Luca Sbisa on his roster this season – if Sbisa doesn’t join the Ducks once his junior season has ended.

From the Winnipeg Sun:

Arniel isn’t sure the Moose will get him, but did concede he’s put in a
request with the Anaheim Ducks to have D Luca Sbisa assigned here once
the Lethbridge Hurricanes season is over. Sbisa has 47 NHL games on his
resume and appeared in both the world junior hockey championship and
the Olympics for Switzerland this year.

Ducks singing the post-Olympic blues.

Randy Carlyle has been here before.

As head coach in 2006, six of his Mighty Ducks players were named to their respective national teams to take part in the Winter Olympics. Only five were actually affected by the extra workload, since Scott Niedermayer did not play for Team Canada because of an injury.

But the circumstances (if not the uniforms) were similar at the time of the last Olympic break – Anaheim was in ninth place in the Western Conference standings, on the cusp of a playoff berth, and staring down a 25-game fight to the finish once the Games were over. The club proceeded to go 16-8-1 and improve to sixth place by the end of the season.

Barring a miracle, history will not repeat itself this year.

Continue reading “Ducks singing the post-Olympic blues.” »

Columbus 5, Ducks 2.

The Columbus Blue Jackets were riding a five-game losing streak, were shut out a night earlier in a game that saw them manage 11 shots on goal, and were missing their captain and best player (Rick Nash) due to injury.

For 40 minutes Tuesday night, the Ducks were no match for them.

Foiled early and often by goaltender Mathieu Garon, and unable to exploit seven power-play chances, the Ducks reverted to the kind of undisciplined hockey that marked their early-season struggles.

By the time they developed a sense of desperation in the third period, goals by Lubomir Visnovsky and Ryan Getzlaf were not enough to bring them back. Nor could they overcome their 11th penalty of the evening — Antoine Vermette’s power-play goal with 1:58 left in the third period made it 4-2 to seal the Ducks’ fate.

Garon made 36 saves, the biggest a diving glove heist of Dan Sexton at 11:55 of the first period. It was rivaled only by Garon’s pad save on Bobby Ryan at 15:39 as Ryan tried to finish an odd-man rush.

Jonas Hiller wasn’t nearly as sharp on the other end. Perhaps the loudest applause to that point came when he was pulled for Curtis McElhinney at 13:07 of the second period following the Blue Jackets’ third goal.

McElhinney proceeded to stop seven of nine shots, allowing the goal to Vermette and another to Derick Brassard with 16.5 seconds left in the game.

Visnovsky’s 4-on-4 tally at 9:11 of the third period broke the shutout, and Getzlaf legitimized the comeback bid with a top-shelf goal at 14:56. The Ducks outshot Columbus 17-4 in the final period.

But Anaheim got no help when a shot by Saku Koivu trickled under the pads of Garon 28 seconds into the period then had it waved off; the call was held up after a review. Koivu had been shoved from behind, dislodging the net, which was apparently enough to disallow the goal.

Teemu Selanne missed the game with “flu-like symptoms” and was replaced by Sexton as the second-line right wing.

Both teams were hit with 12 penalties for 33 minutes.