PetrSykora

Hahaha Red Wing fans spent the whole year slandering Zegras to talk up Raymond only for their guy to get left off the ballot entirely Fully expecting voters to overthink this just cause Sieder is a d-man on a marquee franchise. Bunting is old and piled up points playing alongside offensive dynamos. Zegras has turned more eyes on to the sport over his rookie campaign than both of them combined and has superstar potential and marketability. 60 points on a bad team whose only offseason addition was the hope that his offence would blossom. I'm biased as hell but I don't even think it should be a contest.

Trotz is one of those coaches who usually has a way of getting the most out of crappy rosters so in that sense it wouldn't be the worst move. On the other hand, he's still Barry Trotz. We'd have to air him out for several months to remove that stink. Also not sure if this current core could even play Trotz hockey where the only thing more painful than the elbows his players recklessly throw around is how painfully boring it is to watch on a nightly basis.

I was wondering why the NHL calls it a "wild card" if it's not actually a wild card/play-in scenario like every other NA sport now.. but then again I'm kinda glad it's not because you just know Nashville would be hanging banners for winning 7th place every year

The state of the NHL when a GM has to come out and defend his player for doing unique things with the puck because a large enough portion of the sport's fans would rather stick with the mentality of a team so devoid of talent, they're moving to a 5000 seat stadium where they'll continue losing on purpose in the hopes of getting their own Zegras in the draft

I can see them going captain-less for a couple of seasons after Getzlaf leaves. Fowler is a good player but he never really struck me as a true leader the same way our previous captains have. He'd be a good bridge until one of the young guns might be ready but then you got to deal with the awkwardness of relieving him of his duties when that time comes. They already rotate alternates too so it wouldn't be that big of a change for the team (outside of losing the face of the franchise for the last 15 years to retirement of course)

I don't know if captain ability is something we should be judging a rookie on.. especially if it's Patrick Kane, a guy with the character of someone who would only be fit to captain a frat-boy beer pong squad, that we're using as a comparison.

He's now in an organization that already employs a man named Sam Steel too. It works both ways for both guys seeing as how Steel is a pro at clanging it off the outside of the post

New GM in Anaheim but sill trading Swedes to Pittsburgh around the deadline. Oh well, Rakell on the wing with Malkin should be fun.

Sometimes when I'm really upset about the Ducks, I look in the mirror and tell myself: I am an adequate fan.

Oh wow that's a level beyond impressive to where it's almost spooky Repeat after me: Steel +2nd for Draisaitl

Bieksa was bad outside of that first round series against Calgary when his body got possessed by Chris Pronger. It's true we've had less talented players on the blueline over the years, seems like a number of them came over here simply to stress out Fowler as a youngster. With Bieksa though, it was his contract and that insane NMC during our contending window that elevates him to worst Duck of all time status on my list. The guy had two moves, defending an odd man rush (that he was usually responsible for creating) by making snow angels in a passing lane, and joining a post-whistle scrum so he can throw someone on top of our goalie. I would've taken him back last season but for all the wrong reasons. It was entertaining to see what goofy mess he would get himself into when the stakes were low.

A little thought exercise here, try not to let the visuals make you sick haha. Imagine the 2010s with Kopitar in a Ducks sweater while Getzlaf suits up for the Kings. Both are terrific players, that goes without saying. The Ducks were such a top-heavy team before those 3 years of healthy Kesler though. I honestly don't think they reach the same levels of success with Kopitar as the 1C over Getzlaf. Meanwhile in LA, I'd say it's a safe bet those deep teams still win two titles if they had Getzlaf instead. His playoff splits are so good in spite of Anaheim's playoff failures that you might even get away with saying LA wins a third with him. The Ducks were carried by Getzlaf's ability to physically dominate the competition while also being a top 5 passer in the game. Kopitar might be more "complete" of a player but that physicality was Ducks hockey for the last decade. I just wish they didn't run out of gas or get mangled every single May. Either way, I don't think any Ducks fan or Kings fan wishes they had one over the other.

Jeez I feel awful right now. I looked at a simple 2005 draft summary, looked at games played and used the player selected ahead of Kopitar as an example while failing to realize why Bourdon didn't get to play that many games in the NHL. I had no idea. Really bad example on my part and I'm wrong for that.

So are we just going to act like Bobby Ryan didn't score 150 goals during his 5 years in Anaheim? It's not like we're talking about Luc Bourdon here. Bobby finished top 15 in goals every full season he played here. It might not have worked out the way we all hoped or like it did for the Kings but show the man some respect.

Forget Kaliyev, Höglander is looking like the real miss. Either way, it's still way too early to quit on Tracey especially considering how wonky his career path has been because of the pandemic. This is his first year with some stability since the WHL shutdown and his numbers in San Diego are fine for a 20 year old.

Nice to see them punish a player for jabbing his stick into a goalie's facemask. Throwback to when they let James Knee pull that garbage on Gibson during a playoff game and shrugged it off like it was nothing.

Sounds good as long as he doesn't become another "Toxic Ball of Indifference"

His personality is so different from the typical boring hockey player and I absolutely love it. Not just on the ice either. How many rookies take their gloves off and blow on their hands after scoring 2 goals or ask for breakaway ideas on twitter? The sport needs more people who aren't afraid to go against the grain and be themselves and I kinda hope he never changes.

Man, Canada's Olympic roster really went from McDavid and MacKinnon to David Desharnais and Daniel Winnik. That's rough. McTavish will be there though so at least there will be some McMagic. Holding the Winter Olympics in humid and smoggy Beijing made little sense to begin with and that was before the whole pandemic thing was hanging over it. I don't blame the NHL for pulling out. Considering where the IOC has been holding their winter games, the NHL might as well push hard to move ice hockey to the summer games. At least they won't have to interrupt the season that way.

The NHL needs to get rid of that weak every team gets an all-star rule already. Talk about participation ribbons. There's no reason for teams like Seattle or Arizona to be represented considering the product they've barfed onto the ice this season. Even though I'd generally rather see our guys get rest over an ASG nod, this is the kind of year where it would've been really neat for a youngster like Terry to get that sort of recognition for his efforts. I mean, Timo Meier and Adrian Kantskate? Is it supposed to be an All-Star game or synchronized diving?

Red Wing fans are still very upset about Zegras since the "Dish-igan". A brief scroll through twitter and I've already seen several hot takes like "he's not a true rookie" (24gp last year on one of the worst hockey teams ever but ok) or "he's only a 1c cause Getzlaf is hurt" (even though most of his points have come after Getzlaf went down).. If anything all these arguments only strengthen his case. He played on those god-awful Ducks from earlier in the year who brought the exact same sorry roster into this season and now they're near the top of their division based off the improvement of their youngsters. They've managed to maintain their standing after their leader went out because of Zegras stepping up into his place and running with it. I don't even care if the Ducks miss the playoffs, the Calder is his. Give him next season's award too just to be safe.

So from a skill and style standpoint that's gotta be the greatest play in Ducks history, right? Am I overreacting? Those two playoff goals where Etem and Ryan made absolute fools of Trouba, Legwand and Rinne come to mind but I've never seen anything like what Zegras and Milano just did. I mean, McDavid tried pulling off the lacrosse move tonight and even he dropped the puck.

According to the NHL twitter account, Zegras joined Kane, Panarin and Barzal as the only rookies in the last 25 years with three straight multi-assist games. I don't want to hear anything about any trash Red Wings come June.

The hockey sweater is dead and Nashville killed it. I don't even want to link their latest crime against the sport here for you all to see without a substantial amount of eye bleach on the side for immediate relief.

Oh speaking of bogus, I forgot their stadium is getting a new name too. I get why sponsored names are a thing but crypto dot com arena sounds so soulless and devoid of character (especially for a team in Hollywood) it's making me wish stadiums never sold out to begin with.