Ray Emery took part in his first full practice Tuesday, one of three Ducks goalies on the ice along with Dan Ellis and Jonas Hiller, but couldn’t commit to being ready for Game 1 Wednesday against the Nashville Predators.
“I’m not sure. We’ll see how it goes when we get there,” said Emery, who has not played since leaving last Wednesday’s game against San Jose with an undisclosed lower-body injury. “I’m just happy with the way practice went today and we’ll go from there.”
Since Hiller has only played in three games since the All-Star Break, that leaves Dan Ellis as the likely starter by default. As usual Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle didn’t say who would get the call, but Ellis is the safe choice given his health and solid performances in wins over the Kings last Friday and Saturday.
The Ducks’ defensive pairs looked the same with Francois Beauchemin
back after a one-day absence. Here’s how the forward lines skated:
Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry
Blake-Koivu-Selanne
McMillan-Bonino-Beleskey
Winchester-Marchant-Parros
Ruutu-Chipchura-Sexton
Based on those lines, Nick Bonino could be in line to play his first game in a Ducks uniform since Jan. 2.
Carlyle didn’t address Bonino specifically, but said that lineup changes were always possible.
“When you get into a playoff series, you know you’re going to be calling upon the whole group,” the coach said. “Not just one. That speaks to Saku (Koivu), that speaks to (Andreas) Lilja, (Kyle) Chipchura, (Dan) Sexton, all of them — Bonino, now. We’re going to need all of our people pulling in the same direction. As we’ve seen historically from this hockey club, we access people and we use them.”
During the Ducks’ last playoff run in 2009, veteran winger Josh Green was called up from the AHL for five games after not having played a single game in Anaheim all season.
Ric Jackman went nearly two months between games, from March to May of 2007, during the Ducks’ Stanley Cup run. Seldom-used winger Joe Motzko went four months between NHL games that season – January to May – and played his only three games as a Duck during the conference finals against Detroit.
We’re guessing Carlyle was thinking about Motzko.
