Ducks Gameday—Reviewing the goaltender giveaway
Anaheim Ducks (39-25-7, 4th in west) at Phoenix Coyotes (34-30-5, t-10th in west)
I made this table below to show how the Coyotes have improved since they picked up Ilya Bryzgalov on waivers, including beating both J.S. Giguere and Jonas Hiller in shootouts. Interesting, since he'd never won a shootout for the Ducks, but then again, the Ducks have one of the worst shootout lineups around.
| Pre-Bryzgalov | Post-Bryzgalov | |
|---|---|---|
| Games Played | 17 | 52 |
| Record | 7-10-0 | 27-20-5 |
| Win Pct. | .412 | .567 |
| GF/gm | 2.41 | 2.63 |
| GA/gm | 3.29 | 2.40 |
| PP Pct. | 13.0% | 19.4% |
| PK Pct. | 77.1% | 83.6% |
| Opp. Shoot% | 11.2% | 7.8% |
Of course there's been more going on than just Bryzgalov since mid-November, but damn that's a mean improvement in goals-against. Also, somehow Breezy has managed to improve both the power play and the penalty kill by 6.4%. Crazy Russian.
You should definitely read Rudy's King-bracket breakdown below. My vote goes to Tomas Sandstrom, as his one-timer in NHL 94 is the reason I'm a hockey fan today. Speaking of brackets, thanks to my inability to turn down a bet BoC has been engaged in some sort of March Madness blog battle between The Play in California and Gossip on Sports (and maybe others). What this means is that we will go through the pretense of filling out a college basketball bracket, then once it's proved we're incompetent some other blog will be writing gloat posts here for a day. Anyway, if anyone wants to offer any good advice picks, leave 'em in the comments and we'll try to go down swinging.
Prediction: Bobby Ryan had a good re-debut on the 2nd line, which gives me some optimism about playing without Perry. Still, the 'Yotes have been playing the Ducks pretty tough all year. Ducks 3, Coyotes 1. Goals by Selanne, Pahlsson, and Kunitz.
Go Ducks.
12 comments:
Of course I'm so distant from college b-ball that I didn't realize there wasn't even a bracket to fill out yet. Still, once that gets finished (Sunday?), we'll be in the market for some advice.
Despite my ignorance, for some reason I feel more confident in my ability to predict college ball than I do in my ability to predict an NHL western conference champion. It's going to be a crazy playoff year, methinks.
I've been told that whoever finds random ways to predict March Madness wins will probably do better than those in the know who think hard about their choices.
Someone gave me a list of team who will probably win it all, but I can't for the life of me remember which those might be. I think Nashville and the University of Tennesse were two of them. Maybe I'll ask again. People are willing to help me out with my picks cause they still think I have no chance of winning.
This game is pretty zany thus far. Phoenix is a pretty decent-looking club, I must say. They carried a lot of that first period, and except for an inability to catch passes, would have made Anaheim's defense look pretty silly.
Wayne Gretzky turns a lot of interesting colors whenever the refs do anything.
I really can't believe the Ducks are taking a point (maybe two) out of tonight. So much disorder, and so many blown plays (things like 3-on-1s where they don't get a shot), they certainly didn't deserve it.
Oh well, the magic of Marchant, I guess.
Carlyle is fucking kidding with this shootout lineup, right?
Bertuzzi, Marchant, Pronger = equivalent of throwing in the shootout towel
Fucking figures. While the Ducks have lost more shootouts than any team in league history, this may have been the first time they lost without managing a fucking shot on goal.
Hey, what about that Teemu dude? Brilliant, Carlyle.
You beat me to the post Earl, I was going to ask you or Spade to explain the shootout choices to me. I loved Todd Marchant's attempt.
hey now, hey now, remember the guys he tossed out there when the ducks ended the dallas shootout streak a few years back? If you forgot, it went a little something like this:
Dallas:Antti Miettinen shootout saved
Anaheim: Rob Niedermayer shootout goal
Dallas: Jussi Jokinen shootout saved
Anaheim: Jonathan Hedstrom shootout goal
So I don't blame him for going in an unconventional direction. Sure, it failure astoundingly and completely, but really, isn't that what they were doing before hand?
I was at that Dallas game, so it hadn't slipped my mind, but I don't know. Back then Dallas literally wasn't beatable in a shootout, so a shotgun / whatever approach wasn't awful.
But show me where it says that Phoenix is some sort of shootout juggernaut. Yeah, they beat the Ducks twice, but that puts them on a long list. I think tonight's game called for a much more rational shootout lineup, so I'm perplexed really why Carlyle went with the lineup patterned after one that Gretzky would have chosen.
Bryzgalov > Giguere. It's that simple.
If that's true, then Hiller > Luongo. I can abide by oversimplicity.
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