Updates on Foster, Ryan, Macenauer; plan for tomorrow.

Kurtis Foster will have a procedure later
today at UCI Medical Center to remove a piece of wire from his left
thigh, the Ducks announced Monday, and the defenseman is expected to miss 2-4 weeks. Foster hasn’t been taking part in drills since training camp opened Saturday.

A team spokesperson said the wire was placed in Foster’s left leg during surgery that took place
to repair a fracture in March
2008. The wire was causing inflammation/irritation, and therefore will
be removed.

A two to four week timetable projects to Oct. 3 at the earliest and Oct. 17 at the latest. The Ducks play a preseason game in Helsinki on Oct. 4 and do not play in North America again until Oct. 14, a home game against San Jose. Foster’s availability for the Europe trip seems to be in jeopardy, which would open a door for the other defensemen bidding for an opening-day roster spot.

Some more injury updates:
Continue reading “Updates on Foster, Ryan, Macenauer; plan for tomorrow.” »

Green, Macenauer to AHL; opening-day roster takes shape.

Josh Green and Maxime Macenauer were assigned to AHL affiliate Syracuse on Monday, making them the final cuts of training camp. The Ducks have 26 players on their roster, but three (Toni Lydman, Joffrey Lupul, Jason Jaffray) are expected to start the season on injured reserve. That ought to bring Anaheim down to the league-maximum 23 active players two days ahead of the deadline.

It also clinches the team’s final forward positions for Dan Sexton and Troy Bodie, and eliminates the possibility of a third line centered by the 21-year-old Macenauer. Barring any moves between now and Friday’s season opener against Detroit, this is the team Randy Carlyle will ice against the Red Wings.

Going down the list of pre-camp questions, then:

Final roster cuts? Check.
Team captain? Ryan Getzlaf.
Team identity? Not yet.
Cam Fowler? In the NHL.
Bobby Ryan? Probably a left wing again.

There are still plenty of challenges in store – namely solidifying the defense pairings and finding three scoring lines – that Carlyle probably would like to have nailed down by now.

The Ducks’ final practice in Anaheim is tomorrow, and the team leaves Wednesday for Detroit.

Who’s the surprise of training camp?

Hardly anyone expected Maxime Macenauer to still be in Anaheim. A third-round draft pick in 2007 (an otherwise poor class for the Ducks), Macenauer turned pro last season and spent the entire year in Bakersfield. He missed 26 games early in the season with a “lower-body injury” while playing for the Ducks’ ECHL affiliate and wound up with less than eye-popping statistics.

Yet by surviving two rounds of cuts, Macenauer is getting a longer look than players with NHL experience (Stephane Veilleux, Trevor Smith, MacGregor Sharp, Joe DiPenta) and players drafted higher (Emerson Etem, Devante Smith-Pelly, Mat Clark, Mark Mitera, Brandon McMillan, Kyle Palmieri, Peter Holland).

Maybe the only person who expected Macenauer to be here is the 21-year-old himself.
Continue reading “Who’s the surprise of training camp?” »

News and notes from practice.

Without Sunday’s cuts (Trevor Smith, MacGregor Sharp, Timo Pielmeier, Jake Newton, Stephane Veilleux), the light at the end of the tunnel that is opening night was visible at today’s practice (a long one, following a day off Sunday). The forward combos were significantly pared down:

Beleskey-Getzlaf-Perry
Green-Ryan-Selanne
Blake-Macenauer-Sexton
Voros-Koivu-Bodie
Carter-Chipchura-Parros-Marchant

A couple more notes:

Continue reading “News and notes from practice.” »

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.

Ducks 4, Vancouver 2.

The Ducks went out winners at the Young Stars tournament in Penticton, B.C., topping the Vancouver Canucks’ rookies 4-2.

After two straight losses in which they were outmuscled for net position and looked lost on special teams, the kids turned it around in a major way. A pair of power-play goals, by Rob Bordson and Cam Fowler, staked the Ducks to a 2-0 lead through two periods.

In the third, Vancouver came back to tie the game at 2 against goaltender Timo Pielmeier, who lost the tournament opener Sunday. But center Maxime Macenauer, who spent all of last season with ECHL affiliate Bakersfield, scored the game-winner with less than three minutes to play. Kyle Palmieri’s empty-net goal provided the final score.

The Ducks led in the shot column, 33-18, and Pielmeier needed only 16 saves for the win. Russian goalie Igor Bobkov was on the bench for the first time in the tournament, but the Ducks’ third-round 2009 draft pick did not appear in the game.

Some of the rookie camp participants will take part in the Ducks’ main camp, which begins Saturday in Anaheim.
Continue reading “Ducks 4, Vancouver 2.” »

Bakersfield eliminated from ECHL playoffs.

The Bakersfield Condors, the Ducks’ ECHL affiliate, saw its season come to an end Saturday with a 7-4 loss to Stockton in Game 5 of their Kelly Cup playoff series.

Timo Pielmeier allowed six goals on 33 shots in the loss and finished the playoffs with a 1-2-1 record, 3.39 goals-against average and .892 save percentage in four games. Jean-Phillippe Levasseur went 3-2-1, 2.61 GAA and .914 save percentage.

Kyle Calder, who had two assists Saturday, led the Condors with five goals and 10 points in 10 playoff games. MacGregor Sharp had a goal Saturday to bring his totals to three goals and eight points in 10 games. Ducks prospects Maxime Macenauer, Stu Bickel and Eric Regan also suited up for the Condors in the playoffs (team stats here).

Sexton, Clark, Salcido shut out in Hamilton.

Consider this a belated, Ducks-related, American Hockey League playoff update.

Since the Ducks do not have an AHL affiliate this year, tracking their prospects’ postseason progress is a more haphazard endeavor than usual. Three (Dan Sexton, Brian Salcido and Mat Clark) are with the Manitoba Moose, who tonight lost Game 1 of their seven-game series against the Hamilton Bulldogs. Needless to say, each was held scoreless.

On Wednesday, defenseman Nathan Oystrick had two assists in the Chicago Wolves’ 6-5 win over the Milwaukee Admirals in Game 1 of their series. Shawn Weller, playing for the Abbotsford Heat, contributed the second of three goals in a 3-2 win over the Rochester Americans. Heat defenseman Mark Mitera was held scoreless.

The Ducks’ ECHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, begin play in the second round of the Kelly Cup playoffs tomorrow against the Stockton Thunder. Kyle Calder, MacGregor Sharp, Ryan Donally, Maxime Macenauer, Matt McCue, Eric Regan, Stu Bickel, Timo Pielmeier and J-P Levasseur are all competing in the series for Bakersfield.

Another Ducks prospect promoted to AHL.

Defenseman John de Gray was loaned by the Bakersfield Condors to the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League today. De Gray had five goals and 11 points in his first 26 games in Bakersfield this season. The 6-foot-4, 209-pound defenseman was drafted in the third round, 83rd overall, in the 2006 draft by Anaheim.


He’ll be replaced on the Condors’ active roster by prospect Maxime Macenauer, who was activated from injured reserve. Macenauer had been having a good season — one goal and five points in seven games — for Bakersfield before going down with a knee injury Oct. 30. The 6-foot, 203-pound forward was drafted in the third round, 63rd overall, in 2007 by the Ducks.