Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Niedermayer and Pronger, initial icetime results

Two and a half months ago, when the Ducks first acquired Pronger, I put a post together wondering how Carlyle would juggle the Norris blueliners in terms of ice time.

Well, through yesterday we have seen two games thus far where both Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger were dressed, so I thought I'd give the question an early visit.

I’ve been contemplating whether to exclude the last two periods of yesterday’s romp on the first-shot-goes-in Canucks, since the Ducks were already up 3-0 after the 1st period and there were signs that Carlyle was playing the ‘mercy’ card (i.e., a forward combination of Pahlsson, Moen, and Genoway on a 5-on-3 early in the 2nd), but hey, data is data, so I’ll just use the whole 120 minutes from the ANA-SJ and ANA-VAN games. It should be noted that both were home games, thus Carlyle had more control over situational matchups, and the Ducks never trailed in either game.

SituationTotal MinutesSN OnlyCP OnlySN and CPNeither player

Even Strength

74:14

27:22 36.9%21:25 28.9%00:24 0.5%25:03 33.7%

Power Play

23:49

00:20 1.4%01:55 8.1%09:33 40.1%10:41 50.4%

Penalty Kill

21:57

04:32 20.7%08:33 38.9%00:33 2.5%08:19 37.9%

2 Game Total

120:00

32:14 26.9%31:53 26.6%10:30 8.7%45:23 37.8%

As you can see, Niedermayer and Pronger don't get to see too much of each other, except when they team up to man the points on the power play. As this strategy seems to be working out swell, expect the team to continue this trend once the lineup gets finalized. I will continue to track this, however, to see whether things change should Anaheim find itself trailing in a game.

Incidentally, last night was the first of four straight for the Ducks (last night in Anaheim, tonight in San Jose Fresno, tomorrow in Vancouver, and Monday in Los Angeles). Per message boards, expect a different "B" team to handle the assignments in Fresno and Vancouver, while last night's "A" team is expected to resume its preseason Monday in L.A. How about that for preseason scheduling, eh?


From Wednesday's San Jose game, here's a rare moment with all the veterans on the bench.

Crap. Who's playing defense now?

10 comments:

Chris said...

hey Earl,

I'm just curious if you could tell me how Genoway is looking in the preseason and what his chances seem like of making the cut. I went to school with him, so I'm a well wisher in that regard.

Earl Sleek said...

Hmmm, he didn't dress Wednesday at the SJ game I was at, and every other game has been only radio coverage for me.

He's got it tough, in that there aren't that many spots available. If I had a guess, our opening day lineup would be (forwards only):

Kunitz - McDonald - Selanne
Chistov - Getzlaf - Perry
Penner - Marchant - Shannon
Fedoruk - Pahlsson - Green

and that leaves out Travis Moen, a solid contributor from last year, and Bobby Ryan (who probably needs another year anyway). From what I'm seeing, there's plenty of able candidates, even grinders like Karl Stewart or unknowns like Bjorn Melin.

For sure it's an uphill battle for him, but I haven't heard anything negative. Sorry to say, but I'm pretty sure that he's a year away at least.

Anyone see him play?

Temujin said...

Two Words:

Yo Luongo.

Temujin said...

I want to see a pic of the Ducks bench when Luongo stoned that last Ducks player.

Temujin said...

and perhaps one of the Canucks congratulating Luongo.

Anonymous said...

Really nice blog. I wish the Ducks plenty of luck this season. However, I doubt they will be needing it with the talented roster they have been putting together. I am coming down from the prairies of Saskatchewan to catch the Penguins play in LA and Anaheim during November. For the desire to save an extra 15-20 dollars and perhaps secretly sneak away with a Ducks t-shirt with the money "earned" I was wondering which side do the Ducks - or more imporantly the visiting team - shoot at twice? I was thinking of going into the terrace but the middle section seems to be picked over already.

If you could help with regards to which side I'll be able to see Ex-Shark Nils Ekman roof one over JS in periods 1 and 3 would be awesome.

Thanks for keeping me up-dated with all the happenings with the Ducks and once again, good-luck this season.

Earl Sleek said...

For the desire to save an extra 15-20 dollars and perhaps secretly sneak away with a Ducks t-shirt with the money "earned" I was wondering which side do the Ducks - or more imporantly the visiting team - shoot at twice?

Section 201 of the Pond/Honda Center is behind the net that the Ducks defend in the 1st and 3rd periods.

I bought a nice Ducks T-Shirt last week for $16, by the way, but it might have been a preseason special.

I still haven't heard what games I'm getting from the season ticketholder I poach off of, but I know Pittsburgh was on my list of hopefuls. Maybe I'll be in attendance.

Kent W. said...

Any indication of who Beauchemin's gonna play with? I picked him up in my pool and therefore want to know if there's any chance he's gonna get me some points this year.

Earl Sleek said...

Good news: even-strength, all indications are he will play with S. Niedermayer, as before.

Bad news: his first-unit PP time is being given to C. Pronger (3 PP assists last night), but Beauch should be on the second unit.

But hey, it's my problem too. I got Frenchie in both my fantasy leagues thus far. He'll be OK, but losing PP time will probably lower his numbers somewhat.

Kent W. said...

Bad news: his first-unit PP time is being given to C. Pronger

(sigh)...I guess I have to spend ANOTHER season hoping for Pronger to get (not-too-seriously-but-serious-enough-to-remove-him-from-the-line-up)injured.