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

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine’s Day—Ducks showing “love” on the scoreboard

Boy, am I depressed lately, and it has nothing to do with being single on V-Day. As usual, I can put up with personal issues a lot better than I can put up with on-ice issues concerning the Ducks.

Anaheim's current problem now is not health-related, as for the first time in more than a month the team has healthy scratches, and currently nobody is even day-to-day. Good news, right?

Except for no good reason, the scoring and winning I've grown accustomed to have dwindled to a pleasant memory. Here’s a little month-by-month breakdown thus far:

Month

GPW-L-OWin PctGF – GAPP%PK%

October 06

12

9-0-3

.875

3.3 – 2.0

22.8%

88.7%

November 06

15

10-2-3

.767

3.7 – 2.5

20.7%

82.8%

December 06

14

9-5-0

.643

3.4 – 2.4

24.2%

83.3%

January 07

11

4-5-2

.455

2.7 – 2.8

20.8%

88.5%

February 07

5

1-4-0

.200

1.8 – 2.6

0.0%

75.9%


Yeesh. Talk about falling apart. Here’s two main points of emphasis:
  • That 0.0% power play rate for February is not a misprint—the Ducks are 0 for 21 in 5 games thus far this month, spanning more than 35 minutes of power play time. Zero PP goals, while the opposition has managed to score 7 PP goals. Yuck.

  • And while the Ducks have put 9 pucks in over those 5 games, those all came in two games against San Jose. The Ducks have faced four netminders thus far this month, and managed to put pucks past only one of them (thanks, Vesa!). 107 shots-on-goal directed at Tomas Vokoun / Mike Smith / Peter Budaj have yielded 107 saves.
So I don’t know what to think, really. Yes, the team appears to be playing well, but to score zero goals in 3 of the last 5 outings? That’s a lot of unrequited “love” (tennis terminology used here), and even if the team does deserve better, could this lousy performance be the trigger to a big “save the Ducks” trade?

Still, (sigh), we hold top spot in the Pacific for another day, so again, I’ll mute the complaints. Happy V-Day, all ya couples out there.

12 comments:

VeryProudofYa said...

Maybe you should do a little breakdown on attendance and the ducks misfortunes. Because as they've strung together this shutout streak they've been horrible.

Earlier in the season when it was a whole big deal about them having subpar attendance numbers, they were a dominant force.

Earl Sleek said...

I'd study attendance, except pretty much every number published by the NHL is baloney.

At any rate, Mirtle points out that there are parallels out east, also losing their early-season luster, specifically:

Atlanta:
Oct06: 8-2-3, .731
Nov06: 8-5-1, .607
Dec06: 7-4-2, .615
Jan07: 6-5-2, .538
Feb07: 1-5-1, .214

Montreal:
Oct06: 6-2-3, .682
Nov06: 8-5-0, .615
Dec06: 8-4-2, .643
Jan07: 6-7-0, .462
Feb07: 1-5-1, .214

At least we got fans to commiserate with.

Miss. Scarlett said...

That's what you get when you spoiled early.

The ducks are still doing well now so quit your kvetching, you'll just look ungrateful :P

In the meantime, have a Valentine cup cake!

HG said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
HG said...

Grr... Stupid Blogger...


Anyways, do you need to come over for some pink heart-shaped pancakes? I'm making lots.

Your ride can be arranged:
http://h1.ripway.com/ddhockeygirl/hgcopter.jpg

(I couldn't get the link to work with the code so you'll have to copy and paste.)

E said...

oh poor ducks fans, no one to peel your grapes and fan you with ostrich plumes anymore?

[imagine the following hissed through gritted teeth]

you know nothing of true suffering

sorry about that, i'm done now. but seriously, smile dude, it could be worse. much, much, much worse.

Earl Sleek said...

Hmm, maybe I do come off as spoiled and petty, eh? You should remember, though, that I've been a Duck fan in some awfully lean years as well. Mostly I'm still learning to cope with excellence.

Oh, and HG, here's one shot at a proper link to your awesome chopper.

HG said...

Thanks Sleek.

I don't know why it didn't work for me. *shrugs* Whatever. I knew you would fix it.

I heart my chopper!

Anonymous said...

Love the chopper, hockeygirl. I actually have a wooden limo/touring car like that, but can't find any pics of it.
Sleek, we're underdogs at heart. We've felt the "love" before and we know what the Ducks can do.
P.S. I've got nothing as fancy as heart pancakes or cupcakes for singles' awareness day. I'll just beam over those chalky heart things they call candy.

Miss. Scarlett said...

I know what the whole being spoiled and being the underdog is like what with the Senators always "succeeding" and then end up blowing chunks in the playoffs.

I actually prefer the BitterSweets myself.

I bake chocolate cupcakes because nobody else will :P

Stevens8204 said...

The Ducks are just going thru a phase....it happens...nothing goes right even when everything seems right there. Carlyle is solid...no reason to panic....now the Habs...they need to panic.


stevens@www.thenhlarena.com

Anonymous said...

that chart depresses me.