Happy Birthday Little Guy!!!

So many wonderful things for the Ducks tonight. Coming off what I felt was a strong showing on New Year’s Eve, the Ducks continued that strong physical play again tonight.

A few little things first.

Face-offs. It became instantly very clear that the Ducks were winning face-offs in a huge number and controlling the game because of it. One of the first face-off losses the Ducks gave up resulted in the Flyers first goal of the game. Ryan Getzlaf was fantastic going 14-6 (70%), Samuel Pahlsson 18-9 (67%). The little things like that give the team a great opportunity to get a win.

Corey Perry gets a goal. Big thing for him tonight to try and get that flowing again. Not only was the goal very flashy and exciting, but it came on a night that he was “in the spotlight” on KDOC. Not to mention…what a beautiful BEAUTIFUL pass to a very open Getzlaf for his power play goal in the 2nd period. Not to be overlooked, Steve Montador had a HUGE hit to get that play going in the right direction.

Robbie Niedermayer gets goal number 9 for the season. Keep it up buddy, you’ve already surpassed last years mark (8)! Perhaps he's on his way to a career year. His career season high was set in 2005-2006 while with the Ducks, he had 15 goals.

Physical play. MANY MANY big hits on the night for the Ducks. This is their style of game and it has been so prevalent for them in the past. It works for them, when they play that style, it pays off well.

Most exciting for the night, birthday boy Andrew Ebbett gets his first NHL goal of his career. “It’s nice to get it out of the way” says Ebbett while being interviewed DURING the 2nd period.

HUGE Penalty Kill PERIOD by the Ducks in the middle of the third. 8 Minutes shorthanded…not helpful in terms of scoring, but huge in terms of momentum. Well, here's the positive spin…I didn’t think the Ducks showed frustration like they normally do in situations like that. They stayed focused and cleared the puck well. I suppose if the Ducks are going to take so many penalties, then killing them forcefully and effectively is the best way to go about it.

JS Giguere was fabulous again tonight. Fabulous. He seemed focused, sharp and very quick. Seeing Jiggy in “Jiggy” form is always a highlight.

Scary moment of the evening, seeing Getzlaf go down after getting slammed, with no interference call by the way, in the neutral zone. It was fantastic to see him back out there and even better when he scored that intense power play goal in the second. I'm hoping that it's just going to be a little sore for him, and that there will be nothing further from the hit to the knee.

In addition, keeping Jeff Carter scoreless was HUGE! He's currently leading the league right now in goals, and seeing him NOT get one was a pleasure. In addition, it was equally nice to keep Joffrey Lupul scoreless especially after what he said about playing in Anaheim in his blog (you'll want to check out the December 31 post). Thanks to Adam Brady for the heads up on that one. Anyway, alot of credit goes to the checking line on this one. They shut down the Flyers' first line VERY effectively, as mentioned, keeping Carter scoreless. Even better, getting scoring from that same line was something that the Ducks need more of when playing powerful opponents like Philadelphia and those guys have to spend more time than usual on the ice.

So while this has been a fairly positive post, here comes my “bummer” of the evening…
It’s unfortunate to say that the Ducks gave up two goals and consequently two leads just moments after going ahead with big goals themselves. It proves to be the reason for the loss. Just keeping one of those goals out of the net means a win in regulation. Otherwise…strong game for the Ducks. Keep it up boys…don’t get discouraged.

Side note:
Teemu Selanne was visiting in the announcers booth tonight. He talked about how GOOD he’s feeling. He’s been off crutches for a few days now and said that, “If somebody would have told me that two weeks ago I could walk and I could do a lot of things right now, I would have been surprised.” He’s looking good. In addition, at the end of the 2nd period he said, “I can’t wait (to get back), I know coach doesn’t like these kind of games, but I’d rather win a game 7-6 than 1-nothing.” Love that guy.

Another thing he mentioned was that the cut he received on his left thigh was only, “2 millimeters away from the main artery.” YIKES! That would have been VERY bad to say the least!

Okay, so the Ducks only get 1 point tonight and don't exactly get 2009 off to the right start, but for the most part, they are showing great improvements. I hope to see more play like this from them in the future...it could really do some damage here in the Pacific Division.

GO DUCKS!!!

Oh...and don't forget tomorrow at 10:30am Pacific Time...starting line up will be announced!!