Anaheim Ducks Waddle Through Season's First Half

The definition of "firepower" in Webster’s Dictionary reads as follows:

1 a: the capacity (as of a military unit) to deliver effective fire on a target, b: effective fire

2 a: effective power or force, b: the scoring ability of a team or player.

Pay close attention to 2(b).  Through the first half of the 2007-08 season, it was apparent that for the Anaheim Ducks, "firepower" was about as consistent as the rainy season in Southern California.

Mathieu Schneider, Todd Bertuzzi and Doug Weight are three big names, and three of the newest on a team loaded with offensive power and several defensively-gifted players. Throw in two goalies who have been almost consistent and, on paper, you have another potential championship winning team.

But after the Ducks finished the first forty-one games with a modest 19-17-5 record, the rest of us were left scratching our heads.

At the beginning of last season, the Ducks had a plan—go all the way and bring the Cup to Anaheim. This season the defending Stanley Cup champions seem to lack focus on the ice and where it counts—scoring.

A year ago, the Ducks finished the first half of the season with 62 points; this year, they have 43. But could this slow start present a serious problem?

In the long run yes, it could be. As of January 7, only five points separated second place from eighth place in the Western Conference.  That means that Anaheim's projected pace of 89 points will not be enough to grab a playoff spot. With such a tight race in the West, a loss or two can keep you bouncing in and out of one of the top eight spots on a nightly basis.

The Ducks have the talent and skill to score throughout the lineup. With the likes of Brian Sutherby and newly acquired Brandon Bochenski—while not quite the goal scorers that the previously named veterans are—Anaheim has potential scoring on the third and fourth lines.  That leaves the Ducks in the position to roll four lines as they did last year, which added to the success of the team and could mean success again.

The first half could have been nothing more than a trial and error period—or a get-to-know-you process, if you will.  But as the second half of the season begins, the time to play and show your stuff—or, quoting Schneider, "to put up or shut up”—is now.

To compare once more to last season, the Ducks finished the second half with just five more points than they earned the first half this year. To an optimist, perhaps the Ducks are just going for the opposite effect—or maybe that record reflects nothing more than the final piece of the puzzle.

The Ducks have gone 8-2-2 since the return of former captain Scott Niedermayer. This doesn’t mean current captain Chris Pronger isn’t doing a good job—he is—but it helps when you have someone helping to shoulder the load.  And with the growing talent of Beauchemin, an already gifted defenseman in Schneider, and gritty blue liners like O’Donnell and Huskins, the only thing left is for the forwards to start doing their job.

If I were to give an award for consistent scoring and point gathering, it would go to Ryan Getzlaf. With Corey Perry and Chris Pronger running a close second and third, it’s up to the rest to join them, start taking chances, crash the net, put the puck on net and see what happens—usually a goal or a very close scoring chance.

So, six drafts and four re-writes later, I have this article. Perhaps it’s not my best work—or perhaps it’s one of my better pieces of work.  Whatever one might think, the point is that it is an honest best effort, and it came when I finally let my brain let go of what I thought others' expectations might be.

It's a lesson the defending Stanley Cup champs might be able to learn from.  Maybe it’s not the endless night of partying with an inanimate celebrity that stunts a team's effort following a championship season—but rather it is trying to so hard to repeat that previous year's magic. Every effort has its own new magic if one is able to just let it come to them, instead of constantly trying too hard to recapture it.

Fortunately, with ten goals in their last two games, Anaheim seems to be making new magic.  The second half is yours for the taking, Ducks—and with a 4-0-1 start to the next forty-one games, it’s a promising start.