2019-2020 Season So Far Rankings

For those that are familiar with my Anaheim Calling Weekly Rankings, the following article will be a similar format. For the newbies to this format, here is how this is going to go: I will rate a random topic on a scale of 1 to 5 stars and place different Ducks lines, D pairs, and goalies within the categories based on their performance so far this season.

My reasoning for the rating of the Ducks will be based on stats, results, and probably some of my bias. However, my reasoning for the rating of the random topic will be completely biased. I will elaborate more on some lines than others. I expect everyone to probably disagree with me on both topics and all of my takes will be outed. If there is something you would like me to rank, please feel free to leave it in the comments. On to the fun!

With Wrestlemania being this upcoming weekend, and wrestling being the only pseudo sport left in action, it is the prefect time for a wrestling topic. With that being said, I got back into wrestling a little over a year ago, mainly due to the Becky Lynch “The Man” storyline.

Since then I have watched nearly all PPVs and TV episodes for both WWE and AEW, once it came onto the scene, and fallen back in love with the performance art that is professional wrestling. For this article I will be using wrestling PPVs from the past year for my companion topic to the Ducks. The PPVS used will be from WWE, AEW, and NXT. I have not watched enough of other promotions to rank them, although I did catch Wrestle Kingdom in January and determined that NJPW is so good.

For the forwards, I will be looking at the most common lines based on who Ryan Getzlaf, Adam Henrique, Sam Steel, and Derek Grant were most commonly paired with. For the defense, I will be utilizing the main D pairs when everyone was healthy, which were Hampus Lindholm with Josh Manson, Cam Fowler with Erik Gudbranson, and Jacob Larsson with Korbinian Holzer

5 Stars: NXT Takeover New York, AEW Full Gear, WWE Royal Rumble

All three of these shows were fantastic. NXT Takeover New York was the first takeover I had ever watched and it certainly lived up to the hype that had been bestowed upon it. It was a short card with only 5 matches, but all of the matches were memorable and so good. The standout match for this PPV is easy to figure out. It is the best two out of three falls match between Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole. This match had it all and let to such a satisfying conclusion, even for a fan just getting back into it like myself. This is probably my match of the year also.

AEW Full gear is the best PPV that AEW has put on in their short tenure, and that is not a shot at their other shows. They were mainly fantastic, but Full Gear was the first PPV that AEW was able to weave story lines into from Dynamite, with Dynamite beginning in October and Full Gear happening in November. Almost all of the matches benefited from the long term story telling aspect of weekly television. It is hard to pick a favorite match from this card, but I will go with the Jericho vs Cody Rhodes match due to the the pay off of MJF turning on Cody.

The Royal Rumble from this past January is probably the weakest of the three cards, but it had some brilliant matches, which is why I am putting it in the 5 star category. My favorite match was the men’s Rumble. The story that they were able to tell with this last Rumble was great and had so many phases/episodes to it. From who would upset Brock, to Drew McIntyre eventually vanquishing the Beast, to emotional returns like Edge, to Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins continuing their feud, there were so many little moments woven into this massive match. It was a lot of fun and a big reason for this PPV being in this category.

No Duck forward line, D pair, or goalie was worthy of a 5 star rating over the course of the 2019-2020 season.

4 Stars: NXT Takeover WarGames, AEW Revolution, WWE Survivor Series

NXT Takeover WarGames was borderline 5 star rating, but I put it slightly below due to two or three of the matches being average or just good (Angel Garza vs Swerve Scott, Pete Dunne vs Damian Priest vs Killian Dain, and Finn Balor vs Matt Riddle). Both WarGames matches were a lot of fun though and they did a great job of utilizing two different stories in each match. The heel turn for Dakota Kai in the women’s match set the stage for the ultimate underdogs in Candice LeRae and Rhea Ripley to win against all odds. It also set up a future feud between Kai and Nox. While the men’s match had great in ring action with the Undisputed Era going up against Dominik Dijakovic, Keith Lee, Tommaso Ciampa, and a mystery partner. That mystery partner ended up being Kevin Owens. All 8 of these men are great in ring workers and created a memorable match and finish. Also Keith Lee is great, bask in his glory.

AEW Revolution was the second show for AEW since their weekly TV show came on the air. They followed up Full Gear with another great show, but a slight step down due to some of the matches just being alright (The Hager vs Rhodes match and the Nyla Rose vs Kris Statlander match are the two I am talking about here). Outside of those two matches though, this was a great show. It is hard for me to pick a favorite match because I loved the Orange Cassidy vs PAC match, but I know the Adam Page and Kenny Omega vs the Young Bucks match was the best match on the card. It brought everything and even got a 6 star rating from Dave Meltzer.

WWE Survivor Series happened the day after WarGames and they followed up WarGames with another great PPV. The push of NXT over the prior month was realized on this card, with NXT winning nearly every match pitting NXT vs Smackdown vs Raw. My favorite match on the card was probably the men’s survivor series match due to the rub that Keith Lee got. He is amazing and should be pushed.

Cam Fowler - Erik Gudbranson : This D pair is the only pairing, line, or goalie that I would consider to have an above average season. Some of that is certainly Cam Fowler having his beast season as a Duck, but the other part is him finding his groove once Gudbranson was acquired. My initial opinion on that trade was very negative, but as time went on Gudbranson showed that he could be a positive contributor to the Ducks when paired with Fowler. In 346 minutes at 5v5, that pairing would have the following shot quantity, quality, and goal metrics: 52 CF%, 50.2 xGF%, 59 GF%. While the numbers do not jump off the page at you, these tell you that as a pair the Ducks generated more shots, chances, and actual goals for than against when they were on the ice. They were the only Ducks D pairing to accomplish this feat over the course of this past season.

Rickard Rakell - Adam Henrique - Jakob Silfverberg: This was the best Ducks forward line over the course of the season. They put up the best shot quantity, quality, and goal based metrics at 5v5: 54 CF%, 52.3 xGF%, 56.7 GF%. In addition to this they scored 4.34 goals per 60 minutes of ice time. The next closest line for the Ducks in this article scored at a rate of 2.75 goals per 60 minutes. That is a pretty steep drop off. If this line was not going for the Ducks, it was hard for them to win games.

3 Stars: WWE Wrestlemania 35, AEW Fyter Fest

With Wrestlemania being this upcoming weekend, last years Mania had to appear on the ratings somewhere. To me it was a perfectly average card. The payoff for some of the storylines was amazing, specifically the Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston stories, but on the whole the card was extremely long and filled with some matches that just did not need to be on the card. Half of the matches could have been cut and it would have been a better mania in my opinion. My favorite match was the Kofi Kingston vs Daniel Bryan match. Not only was the in ring work great, but it was the payoff we all wanted for Kofi.

AEW Fyter Fest was the worst PPV type show that AEW put on. It was an average show that didn’t move along any of the stories that had been set up at Double or Nothing. The in ring work was fine to great, but it was a forgettable show that felt more like a tv taping than PPV type show. My favorite show on the card was Cody vs Darby Allin. Allin in his first match with AEW set himself up to be a crowd favorite, even though he was supposed to be the heel.

Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - Insert Right Wing: Turns out Dallas Eakins was constantly shuffling lines over the past season. This became evident when looking at the time on ice of players with Ryan Getzlaf. Rickard Rakell is the winger that played the most with the Captain over the course of the season, but there was not a consistent right winger with them, so this ranking is based on the Rakell Getzlaf pairing. These two together put up some average 5v5 numbers when it comes to shot quality and quantity along with goal metrics: 48.69 CF%, 50.1 xGF%, 51.4 GF%. The thing that they did best as a pairing was generate chances. They had the most xGF/60 our of any line in this article at 2.73, but the main issues is they also allowed as many chances against with 2.72 xGA/60.

Max Jones - Sam Steel - Ondrej Kase: This line actually had some solid metrics at 5v5. I was tempted to put them in the 4 star rating even because of it, but the issue for them is not many of their shots actually amounted into chances or goals. Their 5v5 metrics were: 56 CF%, 52 xGF%, and 63.6 GF%. Those numbers do jump off the page, but their 58 CF/60 only amounted to 2.21 xGF/60 and 1.98 GF/60, both of these were behind the Getzlaf and Henrique line. In a simple way, this line did a good job of generating more shot attempts than the other team, but these shots weren’t as dangerous as you would like.

2 Stars: WWE Elimination Chamber and Hell in a Cell

In some ways I lump these two shows together in my own head because they are kind of similar. For the most part, the cards outside of the main matches were bad or forgettable, and one of the main matches was good and the other pretty bad. In the Elimination chamber, the tag team match was a lot of fun even if the ending did not make a lot of sense with the Miz and Morrison basically losing every match in the lead up to the Elimination Chamber. The womens match on the other hand was just bad. I get that they were trying to build up Shayna as this monster but the long delays that left Shayna in the ring by herself were awkward and took the momentum out of the match. As for Hell in a Cell, the Sasha vs Becky match was great, with the only complaint I have is that Sasha winning might have been better long term than Becky, but it has turned out alright. The men’s match on the other hand was just bad. The red light was awful. The finish was awful. So much of it was awful and the fans in the building were correct to boo the show off the air.

John Gibson & Ryan Miller: Both goalies had below average years by both their lofty standards when digging into their underlying statistics. Gibson has a .904 sv% and Miller a .907 sv%, and it does not get much better when looking at GSAx to adjust for shot quality. Gibson had a -16.53 GSAx, which becomes -0.33 GSAx/60, and Miller had a -3.31 GSAX, which becomes a -0.16 GSAx/60. There are reasons you can come up for the drop off of each goalie; Gibson’s could be the workload put on him in the last few seasons and Miller’s could be aging, but that doesn’t change the fact that both goalies were below average over the course of the season.

Hampus Lindholm - Josh Manson: The cornerstone of the Ducks defense for the past few seasons had a surprisingly down season. They put up 51.58 CF%, 47.38 xGF%, and 40.43 GF%. While for some pairings these numbers would be respectable, Manson and Lindholm had set very high standards for driving play and limiting chances against. It is also hard to ignore the 40% GF%, especially when there were a fair amount of negative plays from both Lindholm and Manson in their own zone that lead to goals against.

1 Star: WWE Super Showdown and pretty much all other Saudi Shows

These shows just need to stop. For a long time it seems as if these were glorified house shows, with very little build, and the titles would never change. In order to stir up some viewership, the WWE has now had some titles change hands in Saudi Arabia in matches that have little or no build whatsoever. These shows are not fun and are simply money grabs for the WWE.

Nicolas Deslauriers - Derek Grant - Carter Rowney: This might annoy some people, but in my opinion this line deserves a 1 star rating for their on ice performance. Derek Grant and Carter Rowney were impactful on the PK for the Ducks, but when you look at this line at 5v5 this past season, the Ducks were defending more often than attacking with them on the ice, while also giving up high quality chances against. Their numbers at 5v5 were 43 CF%, 41.5 xGF%, and 47 GF%.

Jacob Larsson - Korbinian Holzer: This was the worst Ducks pairing this past season by far and the numbers confirm the eye test. They had a 41 CF%, 41 xGF%, and 36 GF%. All of these are significantly worse than the other two Ducks pairings, which was an issue since these two played significant minutes with each other over the course of the season. They negatively impacted the Ducks season and in a major way it seems.

Hopefully you all enjoyed that and will enjoy Wrestlemania this upcoming weekend. Make sure to stay safe and keep social distancing.

*All skater stats are from Naturalstattrick unless stated otherwise.