Ducks vs Blues RECAP: It's Time For Change
The Anaheim Ducks returned home from their god awful trip to Arizona that somehow saw them split that series and walk away with two of the available four points to take on the St Louis Blues. The Blues are widely expected to take the 3rd seed in the West behind Vegas and Colorado, so the Ducks will need to do their best to use them as a benchmark to try to keep pace for the final playoff spot available in the division, which means no more games like the ones against the Coyotes.
Lineup changes for this game included David Backes and Isac Lundestrom entering the fray (Backes for his season debut against his former team), and Troy Terry and Derek Grant out of the lineup. Grant was listed with an upper-body injury, so we’ll have to keep an eye on how long that will keep him out of the lineup.
This was yet another very disappointing performance from the Ducks, marking three games in a row where they have looked downright miserable. Giving up three goals in the first two minutes of any game is absolutely horrid, and that’s without factoring in that your offense has yet to score more than three goals in any game yet this season. Even their three-goal performance against Colorado included an empty netter, so it’s not like the offense was ever going to have the chance to make up that deficit. John Gibson left angrily, and I’m just glad he didn’t throw things at his teammates on the way out. Things are bad.
1st Period
The game started and….oh, the Ducks are losing. 20 seconds in and a quick shot in from the neutral zone left a rebound in front and Jordan Kyrou made it 1-0 for the Blues. It’s a yikes from me.
Zach Sanford followed that up with another goal on the next shift. 2-0 St Louis 57 seconds into the game, and once again, it’s a yikes from me.
Jordan Kyrou added a third goal for the St Louis Blues and his second of the night just a minute later, and with 17:54 left in the first period, it was 3-0 Blues and John Gibson was done for the night. Soooo yeah, things are going great here.
Ryan Getzlaf let out some frustration with a brief scrap against Kyle Clifford, but unfortunately, there were no fans in attendance to be fired up, so I guess the Ducks were hoping that it would get the bench more involved in a game they probably had no interest in playing anymore. The Ducks were tasked with scoring at least four goals to be able to win the game, something they haven’t done all season long.
With 11:00 remaining in the period, Rickard Rakell was called for tripping, sending the Blues to the first power play of the game, with the Ducks already trailing 3-0. In the first bright spot of the game, the Ducks were able to make the kill and return to even strength without further damage.
The Ducks would then get their first power play of the game as St Louis was called for too many men. If ever there was a time for the Ducks to get the power play moving after getting their first power-play goal via Danton Heinen in AZ, it was now. Unfortunately, this would not be the case and the power play looked as bad as ever, without even a sniff at the net.
The Ducks would finally get on the board as Max Jones cleaned up a dirty rebound in front of Binnington and it was 3-1 with 3:01 left in the frame. WE HAVE LIFE!
The goal would be followed by another aggressive shift for the Ducks and Getzlaf would draw a penalty after forcing a turnover on Vince Dunn behind the St Louis net. Back to the power play for Anaheim, and my prior statement about now being a good time stands. The first period expired with six seconds remaining on the Ducks power play, but no luck, despite Danton Heinen ringing one off the post.
2nd Period
The 2nd period started without conceding three goals in the first two minutes, so I guess that’s better news? The Ducks would then proceed to get hemmed into their zone in another one of the classic Ducks’ second periods.
Eventually, David Perron would add to the Blues’ lead with a shot that deflected off of Ryan Getzlaf’s leg and past Ryan Miller to make the score 4-1 with 12:30 remaining in the 2nd. Max Comtois would get a breakaway and a chance to get the goal right back, but after a nice move, he was barely unable to beat Binnington.
Outside of that, the 2nd period was largely uneventful, which would normally be a good thing for the Ducks, but when you’re down 4-1, you sort of need events to happen if you want to compete to win the hockey game.
3rd Period
The 3rd period started with the Ducks generating a couple of chances, and then you’ll never believe what happened next.
Kyle Clifford scored on a delayed penalty to make it 5-1 Blues with 17:01 left in regulation. Please just let us do something else, St Louis. We get it, ok? The Ducks are not scoring, so you don’t need to either.
After the delayed penalty that Clifford scored on, the Ducks decided that they really did want that penalty. Sam Steel just wanted to take a quick break and burn two extra minutes in the box instead of getting roasted by the Ducks broadcast team for a bad +/-.
The Blues would convert on the power play with a Vince Dunn shot from the point, and it was 6-1 Blues.
The Ducks got a power play with 8:09 left in regulation, but if you’re still reading this at this point, I commend you and also don’t blame you at all if you stop here and don’t even care to proceed to see if they ended up scoring on the power play.
I like to imagine that John Gibson is already home at this point, maybe watching a good TV show or enjoying a well-deserved drink. He seems like the kind of guy that would want to just put his feet up and binge a couple of episodes of a Netflix show before bed after any game. He seems like he wouldn’t just have a beer though. He’s too classy for that. Maybe a nice scotch.
The Ducks didn’t end up scoring on that power play, by the way, but you already knew that.
Unfortunately for me, there are still five minutes left in this game and I promised to write the recap, so here I am, still watching. I’ll be getting lawyers for emotional damages caused by this recap, and the supreme overlords of Crash the Pond will be hearing from them. That means you, Jake, Felix, and CJ. CJ has already admitted to switching the game over to watch Avatar instead, and I’ll just say that that will require a little extra compensation for trauma (Editors Note: We did give Eric the option to recap Avatar instead).
Have you guys ever had hot chocolate with the salted caramel Bailey’s in it? It’s one of my favorite wintertime drinks, and if you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend it. I think that’s exactly what I’ll be doing in a few minutes. Awww what the hell, a commercial break with two minutes left? Spare me.
How in the world do companies think that flashing their company logo in front of anyone still watching a game in which their team is losing 6-1 is a good idea at any point? I’m gonna make a note to remember all the ads run here that are preventing me from moving on with my life and never give money to these companies. My lawyers will be contacting them as well. Corporate America….smh.
Well, anyway, the game is over now. The Ducks lost 6-1. Go enjoy your night by doing literally anything else.
Final Thoughts
I’m torn here. Part of me is telling me to remind myself of the article I wrote just last week, reminding Ducks fans to not panic because losses against teams like the St Louis Blues should be expected and the team needs to focus on getting wins against teams like Los Angeles and San Jose. However, there really isn’t any reason or excuse for the team to look quite this bad while doing so.
The other part of me recognizes that this team is not where it said it was, nor where it needs to be. I think Ducks fans can expect roster changes coming soon, via either trade or AHL call-ups, and the Samuelis need to be taking a long, hard look at Bob Murray’s job and Dallas Eakins behind the bench. This team isn’t good enough, and it only needs to be as simple as that. Get ready for players that you like to be moved out the door and get ready to see some new faces on this team because something absolutely has to change.
Three Stars
1. Nobody
2. Nobody at all
3. Not even Max Jones, who scored the goal
Up Next
The Ducks will return tomorrow for the second half of their back-to-back games against the St Louis Blues at Honda Center. Oh boy (Editors Note: Good Luck Tony on following up this masterpiece).