Anaheim Ducks (18-12-3, t-5th in west) at Vancouver Canucks (18-12-3, t-5th in west)
Yup. Identical records so far.

In a follow-up to my piece on newcomer Brett Festerling, I thought it was well past time that I write a bit on defenseman Steve Montador.  Montador signed a cheap one-year deal last summer, and has provided the Ducks with pretty excellent play. Before I get all statsy, though, you should probably experience the song that plays in my head every time I see Montador on the ice:

When I was in high school, I spent a summer abroad in Chile, and this song by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs was one of the hits among the high schoolers (I also recall having trouble translating the meanings of "Rage Against the Machine" and "Ace of Base").  Odd piece of Chilean trivia: in U.S. high schools, a perfect score on a test gets a 100.  In Chilean high schools, a perfect score on a test gets a 7.  Weird, huh?

Anyways, read on for some pretty flattering stats on the Montador (oh yeah!).

 (It's not mandatory, but you can start the YouTube before reading on; the background music plus the bolding below will draw your eye to the Montador's stats.)

The table below represents the even-strength statistics for Anaheim blueliners, omitting the team's first six games.  Players are sorted by total even-strength ice time, and I've thrown in Getzlaf and Perry for comparison's sake.  Check out in particular Montador's plus and minus rates -- yowzas!

A few situational notes to add: Montador doesn't play many special teams minutes (secondary units only), nor has he really spent much time (per memory) paired up with either Scott Niedermayer or Chris Pronger -- he's a third-pairing even-strength guy by definition. Also, he's quite versatile -- included in these minutes are some time that Montador spent playing fourth-line winger when the Ducks were short a forward. It wasn't too much time, I think -- certainly most of these results came from his blueline position.

As for Montador's impressive GF/GA rates, obviously he's been piggybacking a lot on the backs of Getzlaf and Perry, but even in a comparison with those forwards' rates, most of the goals-against Getzlaf and Perry are surrendering happen when the Montador is off the ice (El Montador, te esta buscando).  But hey, that's Randy Carlyle's strategy, it seems. Niedermayer and Pronger are dispatched to handle the opposition's best scorers (plus a lion's share of special teams), and some third-pairing guy then takes the leftovers -- the easy minutes. In a lot of ways, it's a dream assignment for Montador, but that's not to say that it can't be done well, and it's tough to argue with Montador's results so far.  Even with all the caveats about his ice time, he's held up his end of the deal very well, and pulled well ahead of his teammates in terms of even-strength goal-differential.  Plus he's a very willing fighter who even drew Joe Thornton into a five-minute major -- for me, that's just icing on the cake.

I've mentioned a couple of times that the UFAs I'm most interested in re-signing before next season are Pahlsson, Montador, and Parros. Well now you have a glimpse of why the Montador is on that list. Sure he's playing easy-ish minutes, but it's still impressive how much he's excelling in them.

In short, el Montador esta Montando.

Prediction: It's the Sundin-less Canucks vs. the Selanne-less Ducks tonight, and the last time these teams met on Halloween, they played a 7-6 game that was decided in the thirteenth round of a shootout. So obviously this game will be a 1-0 Ducks win. Goal by Pahlsson.

Selanne, btw, has been diagnosed as being out 4-6 weeks, though for some reason the Ducks seem confident that he'll be back before then.  As a result of the injury, though, it's possible tonight will be the first game where both Brett Festerling and Andrew Ebbett play as Iowa Chops call-ups. Just like my XBOX360 predicted.

Go Ducks.