Anaheim Ducks Weekly Ratings Jan 14th-Jan 23rd: Back to the Future

The ratings have returned!!!! For those who never followed this series at Anaheim Calling, this is a weekly series, where I, Jake Rudolph aka “The Pro Ranker of Things” per CJ Woodling, take a look at how various players on the team have fared. The players will be grouped into the lines and D pairs they spent the most ice time with, and a player will need to play in over half of the games in the week to be ranked. I will rank a random topic along on a scale of 1 to 5 stars and place different Ducks within the categories based on their performance over the past week.

My reasoning for the rating of the Ducks will be based on stats, results, and probably some of my bias. My reasoning for the rating of the random topic will be completely biased #dealwithit. I will elaborate more on some players 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!

The games included in the ratings for this week (I am being very liberal with week for this first rating) are January 14th vs Vegas, January 16th vs Vegas, January 18th vs Minnesota, January 20th vs Minnesota, and January 22nd vs Colorado

The NHL announced in November of 2020 the Reverse Retro Jersey program for every NHL team. The NHL released this statement about the jerseys “The Adidas Reverse Retro program creates a new formula to showcase the passion of the fans. The overarching design theme during Adidas’ two-year-long process was to mine each team’s jersey archive and team colors, remixing them to create something new and never seen before. With that in mind, Adidas created uniquely distinct and desirable jerseys that incorporated inverted team colors.” Some NHL teams really went all out and let Adidas create something unique and special, while others kept things super bland and boring. The following will be me picking one jersey to fit within each rating tier.

Having said that- as always, these ratings are 100% correct, and no one can tell me otherwise.

5 Stars: Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks and Adidas knocked it out of the park with this jersey! They have created one of my favorite looks for the Ducks ever, and a jersey that perfectly represents the spirit of the reverse retro program. They dug up a fun and exciting look from the past and recolored it in a way that came out fantastic. The team could have gone boring and brought back the eggplant and black third jersey from the mid-2000s and recolored it orange and black, or even worse recolored an original Mighty Ducks jersey orange and black. Instead, they made the right call with the cartoonish Wild WIng design and the team deserves a lot of credit for embracing something weird from the past instead of hiding it. I am so excited we will get to see it on the ice, even if it seems like hockey ops hate it due to the team only wearing it twice this season.

John Gibson - John Gibson showed that after a down season last year, he has regained his MVP level form this year. Prior to the great performance against Colorado on Friday, Gibson was the only reason the Ducks had any points on the season. He has a 0.929 sv% so far this year and has only allowed 9 goals when per Natural Stat Trick’s expected goal model, he should have allowed 11.73 goals. This is one of the best GSAx’s in the league right now.

4 Stars: Florida Panthers

The Florida panthers threw it back to their original home jersey, with the colors of the jerseys swapped. Instead of red being the primary color with blue being a secondary, blue is featured prominently on this jersey and oh man is it a beaut. The only downside to this jersey is that it is without a doubt a better look than their current jersey and should instantly be made their home sweater.

Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - These two did not start the season together, but after Getzlaf and Rakell did not find success separately in Vegas or in the first period against Minnesota, Eakins made the smart move and reunited the two of them with Sonny Milano. Milano was there for that game against the Wild and the subsequent one and then was replaced by Jones for the Avalanche game after he hit the IR. Getzlaf and Rakell had success with both players though. They posted a 56.34 xGF%, a 100% GF% (2 goals scored for and none against), and a 47.44 CF%. They were second on the team in xGF/60 and best on the team in xGA/60. Please keep in mind this rating is for these two as a pair, not their performance prior to coming together.

Cam Fowler - Jani Hakanpaa - Josh Manson’s injury opened the door for Jani Hakanpaa to take on a bigger role for the Ducks, and he has thrived in those added minutes. In the 2+ games that these two have been paired together, they have the highest CF% at 52.54%, the highest GF% at 100% (2 goals for and none against), and the highest xGF% at 60.97%. To my surprise, Jani Hakanpaa has been a big plus to the Ducks roster.

3 Stars: St Louis Blues

I actually think this is a solid look for the Blues, with them recoloring their mid-90s dark jersey, and while it does fit with the reverse retro theme, there is something off to me about a team called the blues wearing a primarily red jersey. For that alone, I am giving it three stars.

Danton Heinen - Adam Henrique - Jakob Silfverberg - Like Getzlaf and Rakell, this is only a reflection of the performance of this line when playing together, but once these three were united they were excellent. They had the best xGF/60 by a significant margin and limited chances against also. They posted a 66.57 xGF%, 100% GF% (1 goal for and none against), and a 61.9 CF%. They would have been a 4-star rating, but Henrique and Silfverberg were very poor in the games prior to having Heinen join them, so for that, I knocked them down a peg.

Nicolas Deslauriers - Derek Grant - Carter Rowney - The fact that this line is not a one-star rating means they had an ok week. This line was horrible last season and found itself in the one-star rating more often than not. Over the past week though I will say that they were average. They posted a 44.82 xGF%, 60% GF%, and a 44.76 CF%. To be honest the only reason why I did not have them lower was their three goals for. I have to give them some credit for putting the puck in the net when the Ducks struggled to do that for the majority of the 5 games. But on the other hand, they allowed two goals against.

Hampus Lindholm - Kevin Shattenkirk - This pairing had a great first series against Vegas, but saw a bit of a step back against the Wild. Overall on the week, they had a 50.87 xGF%, 57.14 GF% (4 goals for and 3 against), and a 48.19 CF%.

2 Stars: Minnesota Wild

I really want to like this jersey that pays homage to the Minnesota North Stars colors, while utilizing the Minnesota WIld logo. My issue with this jersey is it was ruined once someone told me it looks like a Subway logo due to the color scheme. I have never been able to look at this jersey the same way since then. Check it out below:

Max Comtois - Sam Steel - Troy Terry - As much as I personally love this line, I have to be objective and say that after a great first two games in Vegas, this line slipped slightly. They were on the ice for the most expected goals per 60 against over this five-game stretch and the lowest expected goals for per 60, not exactly a great combo. The positive for this line is they have had flashes of really solid play and as a line contributed with two goals. I wish I could place them higher but I just can’t.

1 Star: New York Islanders/Detroit Red Wings

It’s like they didn’t even try…

Jacob Larsson - Jani Hakanpaa and Cam Fowler - Josh Manson - These two pairings were really bad. I just got done recording the podcast and am now very tired. That is all on these pairs.

Unranked: The Kings Burger King Jersey

The Kings are cowards for not bringing this jersey back for this program.

Isac Lundestrom (2 Games Played), Andy Welinski (2 Games Played), Sonny Milano (2 Games Played), Max Jones (1 Game Played), Ryan Miller (1 Game Played)

*All skater stats are from Naturalstattrick unless stated otherwise.