Spencer_12

It’s early, but Nesterenko has already looked more like an NHL player than Tracey and Perreault.

Yeah, it will take an epic collapse to finish out of the top 4 now. Awesome tank win against the Blues and Montreal doing what they should have done. We just have to hope the lottery doesn’t screw us out of staying in the top 4. I’m pretty concerned it will. I do have a tiny bit of hope we can finish 3rd. As of now we hold the tiebreaker against Chicago, Terry missed the 3rd period and could miss some time, and we have a difficult schedule to finish the season. It’s unlikely but it would be amazing.

Hoping to finish the season 1st overall going into the lottery isn’t the right way to look at tank to finish the season. It’s all about finishing in the top 4, and to that end CBJ getting the win is good. It’ll be pretty unbelievable if they manage to win two nights in a row in Montreal on the 2nd of b2b’s. Montreal winning is huge for us because at worst we would remain 6 points back of them. Personally, I think we need to finish 3rd to guarantee a top 4 pick. I can’t see two teams outside of the top 4 winning both lottery positions, but it’s happened a lot recently where one team did. If that happens and we finish 4th that would bump us down to 5th.

Big tank win against the Jets. It was a dodgy win though. We have to thank Eakins for playing Dostal in that one because he gave up a few questionable ones. Gibson might have stolen that one. Saturday could be huge. Montreal plays CBJ who will be coming off a b2b. We play the Blues. If we can lose that one then there’s a good chance we’ll have an 8 point cushion for the 4th spot with only 9 games left to play. Nightmare scenario of CBJ reg win and Ducks reg win would cut it to 4.

Let’s gooooooooooo Montreal and Philly both won. Tonight could be huge if the Ducks manage to lose in regulation. If not, at least those two teams won.

It would have been a bad move. We’re barely hanging on to #4 in the draft lottery as it is. Him coming in and playing like he is probably knocks us out, and he only has 1 year left on his contract. Best case scenario would be flipping him at the next deadline for something good, but that’s a lot of if. Didn’t work out for Klingberg and Vrana has is own issues.

They pick up a point which is nice, but I think they have their spot locked up. Maybe they slip to #3 at most. Their remaining schedule is extremely tough; they only have 2 games where you could see them actually winning (Canucks and Coyotes).

Exxxxxcellent tank display by the Ducks against the Canucks. I didn’t see that one coming; very nice surprise. I was going to lose it if they managed some BS result late after playing the way they did for most of the game. That would have been exhibit A showing that the Ducks aren’t being rewarded in the standings for their play.

Damn Canucks won. That pretty much guarantees we win tomorrow. How often to mediocre teams win both games of a b2b? Odds definitely against us. Arizona also won. That’s not as good as a Blackhawks win at this stage.

If we win tomorrow we’ll be within 2 points of the Habs. I think that’s likely with the Canucks on the 2nd of b2b. Habs have a decently strong remaining schedule, but they have a 3 game stretch coming up starting next weekend against CBJ, Flyers, and Buffalo. Hopefully they pick up some points.

Niceeeee Flyers won. So the only real damage when we win tonight will be moving within 4 points of Montreal. Could have been a lot worse if results didn’t go our way last night as well.

One nice thing is of our remaining 14 games only 5 of them are against teams with less than 76 points in the standings. 4 out of the 5 are at home though. Unfortunately we also only have 4 more road games, but at least 3/4 are against good teams and the 4th is against Arizona who have been strong at home this year. Anyway, at least 9/14 games are against decent opponents that are fighting for the playoffs.

A loss against CBJ would be so huge for us, but it ain’t happening. We’ll likely win pretty convincingly too. Surprised Vegas only has us at -125. It’s time to start paying serious attention to Philly and Montreal. After winning against CBJ, we’ll only be 3 points back of Philly (if they also lose) and 4 points back of Montreal. A regulation loss against CBJ gives us a 6 point buffer to remain in the top 4 and keeps us within 3 points of #1. So yeah, it’s huge. Unfortunately it’s CBJ on a b2b. We’re screwed.

That late 2nd period goal for NYI was huge. After that the Ducks got crushed. Excellent tank win. It was important too because the odds are insanely low that CBJ will beat us Friday with them also on the 2nd night of a b2b.

Well, with all those teams picking up points I suppose it won’t be so bad when we inevitably pick up 1-2 points against the Islanders tonight.

This team is absolutely fraking useless. Two 6 on 4 empty net goals to rescue a point. What the hell is the point? If I’m Eakins I don’t even try to pull the goalie in that situation until it’s closer to 1:30. I think it was closer to 3 when he did that. Sure, do that when wins matter, but not at this point in the season. Thankfully Arizona continues to save our sorry butt, and Nashville won in OT.

This team is useless. Thankfully so is Arizona right now so maybe we get lucky and can finish at #4.

Arizona is really screwing themselves over lately. That could end up keeping us at #4 even if the Sharks end up out tanking us. Problem is, I’m fully expecting a team outside the top 4 to win the lottery for the #2 spot. Someone from #1-4 will win #1. This would mean that even if we finish at #4, we will draft #5 and miss out on the 1st tier prospects. This assumes Verbeek would draft Michkov of course.

Why can’t we have more tank nights like these? Zegras awesome goal, Ducks lose, Habs and BJ’s pick up a point, and Arizona wins. Watch as we beat the Canucks tomorrow on the 2nd of b2b games and screw ourselves.

Time to let it go. We’re gonna need a lot of luck to be drafting #2, more than just winning that spot in the lottery. Probably need injuries to a couple key guys (Gibson, Terry, possibly Fowler), and then the luck to actually get the spot in the lottery.

So for once in my life Let me get what I want Lord knows, it would be the first time Lord knows, it would be the first time

I’d agree if Klingberg was still on the team right now. He’s not good and he’s got an expensive cap hit. I’m not surprised at the return. Nesterenko is intriguing if he signs. Nearly a PPG player his 1st year in college and this season too. Apparently has some skilled hands.

I think it’s clearly two different scenarios. Mouthing off to another player is rarely going to get you a 10 min misconduct from an official without other factors playing a role. Mouthing off to an official has a much higher chance of getting penalized, and it also has a chance of hurting long term if he develops a reputation with the officials because of it. He absolutely needs to cut that out.

Good to know Verbeek still has a pulse, though I have no idea why they were playing on Monday when others were already sitting out.

One of? They all need to be moved or else it’s a failure. With how bad San Jose, Chicago, and seemingly soon to be Columbus will be to finish the season (perhaps Arizona too) the Ducks are absolutely screwed if they don’t get worse too. The Ducks have been the worst team in the league so far this season; Verbeek needs to be careful not to throw all that away and end up with 5-6 odds for #1 overall instead of 1-3.