murray saw it coming i guess huh..

so whats next for the patos?

Good luck, Beauch-bag.

I like that. A lot.

I don’t believe this is as true as it was two years ago with Frenchie, but here’s what I wrote about him back after Scott Niedermayer’s half-retired season.

Normally, when a puck gets dumped behind two defensemen, it’s likely a 50-50 split which defenseman will go retrieve the puck, depending on what side of the net the puck is directed. For Scott and Frenchie, though, they’ve developed something like a 80-20 split, where Beauchemin gets only the very close dump-ins and expects his fleet-footed partner to gather the rest. I remember watching a Scott-less Beauchemin very carefully in the opening 34 games, and to my eyes I could spot this happening to poor spoiled Frenchie — he was so used to not retrieving pucks that he’d often leave his defensive partner with silly responsibilities that only a guy like Niedermayer could make look effortless….

Someday Frenchie is going to have to re-learn his puck responsibilities when paired with an average partner, but I don’t want it to happen this year.

the only problem is..usually teams with this much turnover take time re-calibrate..

in this case the d…might be swimming back there trying to defend..

i got real pessimistic all the sudden

It was hasty and informal — feel free to add to it or dispute it at your leisure.

Holy shit, you guys have 391 comments on Beauchemin? That’s more than I had over his 4 years as a Duck :)

Mostly, I refer to Beauchemin as “Frenchie”, even though I’ve heard he despises that name — I’m sort of a jerk about stuff like that. He’s been fantastic for the Ducks, of course, but for a lot of his Anaheim tenure it was with Scotty Niedermayer at his back, which enhanced his abilities somewhat. I estimate that over the course of his Anaheim career, Frenchie had to go back and retrieve 1,000 fewer pucks than he would have had to with a normal-speed defensive partner, and it is worth noting that Beauchemin’s scoring rates during Niedermayer’s “retirement” were terrible. Also is the matter of Frenchie’s historical salary — he was the steal of the century at half-a-million bucks when Burke got him in the Fedorov trade, and even at his next conract, $1.65M was a steal.

I’m not exactly sure how he’ll fare in Toronto’s system — really, it’s tough to translate how he did on a Niedermayer-and-Pronger blueline to how he’ll do on a blueline without either. But as a depth guy (2nd pairing, 2nd PP, 2nd PK) with somebody watching his back — Frenchie is fantastic. He can shoot decently, hit just fine — other than possibly footspeed, there’s no glaring weakness in his game. He’s tough, too (only misssed one game when he broke his jaw in the ‘07 playoffs, and like Forsberg, is playing without a spleen).

And I’ll let you in on a little secret. You may hardly ever get to see it, but Frenchie is quite a surprisingly awesome fighter. He normally leaves that stuff to his teammates, but on the odd occasion when he does drop the gloves, watch out. Nobody seems prepared for how fast his punches land — in the 2006 playoffs, he pummelled Jarome Iginla, and Iggy wasn’t the same in the series afterwards. Last playoffs he broke Kopecky’s face, and Kopecky wasn’t even in the series after that.

The Ducks will certainly miss Beauchemin’s minutes — he ate a ton of them — but we’re tightening our belts, and Frenchie is certainly welcome to earn his raise elsewhere. You guys will probably enjoy him (unless you’re a Francophobe), but I do have to note that in less than the span of a season, Toronto has nabbed Brian Burke, Dave Nonis, Francois Allaire, Brad May, and Francois Beauchemin from the Ducks.

When can we start talking about that inevitable J.S. Giguere trade? :)

nice write up Earl.