Anaheim Ducks (1st alphabetically) at Detroit Red Wings (1st in standings points), 4:30 pm
Anaheim Calling and Winging It In Motown -- coverage of the winter non-classic!
So, the Red Wings have won 18 straight home games? This looks like a job for Mario! (Or perhaps, I'm just lazy today.) :)
From the 2007 playoffs.
Actually, it may be a job for Ryan Getzlaf -- not sure the Ducks can bust this streak without some useful offense out of their captain.
Bruce Boudreau's Ducks have scored 83 goals in 29 games, and Getzlaf has picked up points on 17 of those -- despite top-line and top-power-play minutes, he's touching barely 20% of Anaheim's goals. He has had only three multi-point games under Coach Boudreau, one fewer than Saku Koivu, and even as the Ducks have been winning in 2012, there's not many games that you can say have been won because of Getzlaf.
Lately he's definitely been less costly -- he was a minus-18 in calendar year 2011 and a plus-2 so far in 2012 -- but he's still not really contributing offensively how we'd hope he could. I think part of the problem is that Getzlaf is too patient in the offensive zone -- he's holding onto pucks for an extra split second, but in that split second defenders get to recover, and it usually leads to a blocked shot or pass. It's just a theory, but I'd like to see Getzlaf play a bit more instinctively -- do something earlier with the puck rather than later.
I know that I spend too much time griping about the guy -- despite his mediocre results this year, he can be awesome. Let's just hope we can see some of that awesomeness today.
Prediction: I won't be around for game comments, so have some fun (I hope) without me! Let's recycle an old cartoon from the 2009 playoffs -- thievery by Getzlaf for once.
Go Ducks.
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