Ryan to left wing; Fowler, Mikkelson sitting pretty.

Quite a sight at practice today: Bobby Ryan was skating at left wing on a line with Saku Koivu at center and Teemu Selanne at right wing. The experiment with Ryan at center isn’t over, head coach Randy Carlyle said, but the coach said “it’s a possibility” that the Ducks will use that same line tomorrow night against Vancouver.

“We had discussions the other night about doing an anlysis of the games he played at center,” Carlyle said. “We thought the best game he played was against Phoenix, at center. We just said it’s not that we’re throwing it out the window, we’d just put him back at left wing for now and see how that develops.”

Carlyle also revealed a surprising confidence in rookie Maxime Macenauer, who took a few shifts at left wing Tuesday against the Kings, but was centering a line with Jason Blake and Troy Bodie in practice today. The other lines:

Matt Beleskey-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Aaron Voros-Kyle Chipchura-George Parros
Ryan Carter-Todd Marchant-Dan Sexton-Josh Green

Meanwhile on defense, Brendan Mikkelson and Cam Fowler were feeling good about life after the Ducks placed Brett Festerling and Danny Syvret on waivers earlier today.

Their thoughts, as well as more from Carlyle, in tomorrow’s editions.

Ducks 5, Sharks 4.

The 15,872 who showed up at HP Pavilion got their money’s worth for a mere exhibition, in which the Ducks and Sharks racked up nine goals and six separate fights.

Both coaches, who figured the game would merely be a good chance to tinker with their personnel in preparation for the regular season, probably got their money’s worth, too.

Playing on a line with Aaron Voros, Corey Perry had three goals and Ryan Getzlaf had four assists. San Jacinto’s Jake Newton scored his first of the preseason and Dan Sexton potted the game-winner with five minutes remaining.

Curtis McElhinney started in goal and stopped 18 of 20 shots in 29:25. Timo Pielmeier came on in relief to stop 22 of 24.

Veteran forwards Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu and Todd Marchant postponed their preseason debuts another day, likely until tomorrow night in Vancouver. Bobby Ryan also sat the game out. But Getzlaf and Perry more than held their own. Getzlaf had the primary assist on all of Perry’s goals, as well as Newton’s goal – which deflected into the net off San Jose’s Derek Joslin. All four of Getzlaf’s assists came on the power play.

Sexton took a nice pass from Jason Blake to beat Sharks goalie Harri Sateri with the game-winner.

Stephane Veilleux’s second game of the preseason was limited to 2:20. He and Scott Nichol fought at 11:55 of the first period – the fourth fight in less than two minutes – and were promptly ejected.

Ducks 5, San Jose 2.

Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist as the Ducks skated to a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks at Honda Center for their first win of the preseason.

 

Skating a more veteran lineup than in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes, the Ducks were buoyed by the presence of several regulars. Jonas Hiller started in goal and stopped all 19 shots he faced in 32 minutes. Corey Perry also scored a goal and the line of he, Getzlaf and Matt Beleskey (two assists) combined for five points.

 

Aaron Voros, Danny Syvret and Jason Blake also scored for the Ducks. Timo Pielmeier finished in goal, stopping 19 of 21.

 

Cam Fowler, the 12th overall pick in the June draft, assisted on Syvret’s second-period power play tally for his second assist in as many games.

 

The Ducks won despite being outshot 40-18 but otherwise held the edge on the stat sheet. Luca Sbisa (3) had as many blocked shots as the entire San Jose team and had five hits. 

 

The Sharks, in their first game of the preseason, failed to score on eight power-play opportunities, while the Ducks went 2-for-3.

Tonight’s Ducks, Sharks lineups.

Between the Ducks’ morning skate and the media Game Notes, here’s how it looks like the forwards will skate against the Sharks:

Beleskey-Getzlaf-Perry

Blake-Macenauer-Sexton

Bordson-Chipchura-Bodie

Veilleux-Bonino-Parros

Aaron Voros was also at the morning skate but wasn’t listed in the game notes. Since Voros played last night, we’re guessing that he’ll be the only forward scratched if everyone else is healthy.

The defense pairs were harder to figure out (or I just need better glasses), but those on the ice today included Cam Fowler, Luca Sbisa, Brett Festerling, Sheldon Brookbank, Andy Sutton and Brendan Mikkelson. Danny Syvret was also on the ice, but wasn’t listed in the Game Notes, so count him as the likely scratch. Timo Pielmeier and Jonas Hiller were the goalies.

Continue reading “Tonight’s Ducks, Sharks lineups.” »

Phoenix 4, Ducks 1.

Bobby Ryan took his first turn at center this preseason, and Emerson Etem and Cam Fowler made their debuts against NHL competition — which might be the main reasons for the 12,382 in attendance at Honda Center to hold on to their ticket stubs from this night.

Ryan scored the Ducks’ lone goal midway through the second period, giving Fowler his first assist on an NHL scoresheet. Phoenix dominated otherwise, outshooting the Ducks 40-21 and killing off eight of nine power plays. Former Duck Andrew Ebbett, Kyle Turris, Brett MacLean and Viktor Tikhonov did the damage for the Coyotes, with Curtis McElhinney (22 shots/20 saves) and J.P. Levasseur (20 shots/18 saves) splitting the bill evenly.

Ryan won just one of his first 8 faceoffs and finished 8 for 20 in the circle. A Ducks power play that had just three days to coalesce didn’t fare much better than a penalty kill that allowed two goals in five man-advantage shifts for the Coyotes.

The Sharks invade Honda Center tomorrow night. The San Mercury News reports that Antero Niittymaki is likely to start between the pipes. No word from this end on who Randy Carlyle will trot out.

More notes from Day 3.

A few notes from Day 3 of camp, easily the most interesting of the three days so far:

The politically correct locker-room term is “chippiness.” Call it what you will – 6-foot-6 defenseman Andy Sutton had to be separated from a couple teammates after making contact in open ice, and Corey Perry punched Dan Sexton in the head during the scrimmage.

Sexton upended Perry along the boards during the first 30-minute scrimmage session, sending both tumbling to the ice. Perry didn’t like it, and jabbed his teammate’s helmet. He also poked his stick into Sexton’s back as the two reached the bench. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound Sexton didn’t retaliate either time. Said head coach Randy Carlyle, “guys get tired playing and practicing against one another. We always call the third day of training camp the ‘hump day.’ … They get a little grouchy playing against one another.”

Teemu Selanne scored past two goalies with one shot. How? The black team was in the middle of a goalie change (Igor Bobkov was about to be replaced by Curtis McElhinney) when Selanne put a backhand on net. The two netminders exchanged an awkward look, sort of like that “I got it/you take it” look between two infielders deciding who should catch a pop fly. No one touched the puck as it slid into the empty net.

Selanne scored another goal, and Maxime Macenauer, Lubomir Visnovsky, Josh Green, Danny Syvret, Rob Bordson, Corey Perry and Sexton all scored one each in the White Team’s 7-2 win.

Day 3: Forward lines and defense pairs. Update.

For the first time all camp, you can put a lot of stock into these.

The Black Team is suiting up for tomorrow night’s game against the Phoenix Coyotes. The White Team is not. Should anyone be worried that the Black team lost 7-2 in the intrasquad scrimmage? Only if you’re on the Black Team, perhaps, but Randy Carlyle wanted to trot out a younger lineup in the Ducks’ preseason debut – probably with an eye toward the first round of roster cuts.

That means if fans want to get a glimpse of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu, Jonas Hiller, Todd Marchant, George Parros, Jason Blake, Kyle Chipchura, Andy Sutton, Sheldon Brookbank – and a couple others who will probably start the season in the NHL – the time is 10 a.m. tomorrow at Anaheim ICE. They get the night off.*

Bobby Ryan, Aaron Voros, Lubomir Visnovsky, Paul Mara and Ryan Carter won’t be there, since they will be with leading youngsters into battle at the morning skate tomorrow at Honda Center.

Without further ado, then:
Continue reading “Day 3: Forward lines and defense pairs. Update.” »

Injury update.

Day of 2 training camp was not kind to Jason Jaffray and Joe DiPenta.

DiPenta started the morning on the ice but finished with a visit to the dentist. A deflected puck struck the defenseman in the mouth and knocked out at least one tooth. He did not take part in the team’s scrimmage.

The news was worse for Jaffray, whom the Ducks acquired in a June trade from Calgary for Logan MacMillan. The forward was diagnosed with a sprained medial collateral ligament and a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, which he suffered in an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday.
Continue reading “Injury update.” »

Day 2: Lines and forward pairs.

The forward lines were rather fluid during today’s scrimmage at Anaheim ICE, although the defense pairs mostly stayed the same (in part because of the injury to Joe DiPenta). Here’s how they were skating during drills:

White Team:

Smith-Pelly – Getzlaf – Palmieri
Blake – Bonino – Perry
Chipchura – Sharp – Voros
Green – Carter – McMillan
Parros, Veilleux

Festerling – Syvret
Fowler – Mikkelson
Mara – Clark
Sutton

Pielmeier
Bobkov
McElhinney

Black Team:

Beleskey – Koivu – Etem
Smith – Holland – Selanne
Deschamps – Ryan – Sexton
Bodie – Macenauer – Bordson
Marchant

Mitera – Sbisa
Valentine – Brookbank
Visnovsky – DiPenta
Newton

Hiller
Levasseur

Day 1: Lines and forward pairs.

Team A:

Nicolas Deschamps- Bobby Ryan – Dan Sexton
Matt Beleskey – Saku Koivu – Emerson Etem
Jason Jaffray – Peter Holland – Teemu Selanne
Rob Bordson – Maxime Macenauer – Trevor Smith
Todd Marchant – Troy Bodie

Lubomir Visnovsky – Sheldon Brookbank
Jake Newton – Joe DiPenta
Mark Mitera – Luca Sbisa

Jonas Hiller
J.P. Levasseur

Team B:

Kyle Palmieri – Ryan Getzlaf – Devante Smith-Pelly
Jason Blake – Nick Bonino – Corey Perry
Aaron Voros – Kyle Chipchura – MacGregor Sharp
Brandon McMillan – Ryan Carter – Josh Green
Stephane Veilleux – George Parros

Andy Sutton – Cam Fowler
Danny Syvret – Brendan Mikkelson
Brett Festerling – Mat Clark
Paul Mara

Curtis McEhinney
Timo Pielmeier
Igor Bobkov