Ducks Gameday -- Sens and Sens' Ability

Ottawa Senators (All Stars) at Anaheim Ducks (Guitar Heroes), 1 pm
Silver Seven and Anaheim Calling -- Is the Ottawa blog named after the Sens' silver-medal finish in '07? :)

(Also see: Meg's Sharks Gameday and Rudy's Kings Gameday posts below.)

Oh no -- a political cartoon on a Saturday?!

Fortunately (?), I'm still mostly oblivious about SOPA, other than it'd probably kill this blog very quickly -- so let's quash this thing before I have to learn anything more about it, all right?

Oh yeah, hockey.

What's hidden a bit in the Anaheim Ducks scoring 10 goals over the past two games against the Canucks and Coyotes is that Ryan Getzlaf hasn't been a part of any of that offense -- in each game he has been held pointless and was a -1 on the night.

In 21 games that Bruce Boudreau has coached, Getzlaf has picked up points in only 8 of them, and he's been a plus player in only 5. (That latter stat is not really new -- in 24 games prior with Randy Carlyle, Getzlaf was only a plus player 3 times -- he's a team-worst minus-17 currently.) He has scored one goal in November, one goal in December, and one goal so far in January.

I suppose his game is improving some -- the top line has looked dangerous in stretches lately, and Captain Baldy is a +1 so far in calendar year 2012. That +1 isn't terribly impressive given the Ducks have outscored opponents 32-16 (!) in eight 2012 games so far, though. If Anaheim's top line ever gets in the business of regularly outscoring opponents along with the "lesser" lines, this Ducks team could really be awesome.

I still maintain: at some point somebody is going to have to lift that "C" from Baldy's sweater; whenever you feel ready, Coach Kirby.

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I'm not writing about it today, but a fantastic contract extension for Frenchie Beauchemin. The guy has been aces lately, and it's always nice when a soon-to-be-UFA takes a pay cut. We may see more of this, as Anaheim has lots of guys headed towards UFA freedom that could all be theoretically re-signed: The Rat, The Moustache, Brookbank Mountain, Team Finland... Stay tuned!

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And lastly: thanks again, Ottawa.

Couldn't have done it without you. :)

Prediction: I won't be around for game comments today -- screw you, early start! So have fun without me. Ducks 6, Sens 3 -- the miracle of 2012 continues. Captain Getzlaf is pointless and a -1, but he does throw some big hits or something.

Go Saturday.