Health, rhythm combine at perfect time for surging Ducks
Surely there must be some illusionist out there in Southern California who could help the Anaheim Ducks.
Someone with a real knack for making things disappear.
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| Teemu Selanne and the Ducks have gone 10-5 since the second half of the schedule began last month. (Getty Images) |
That's all Anaheim really needs. And getting rid of it also makes sense since the Ducks don't really start playing much until the first half is over.
"We all know that only the second half matters," smiled veteran Ducks forward Teemu Selanne.
Not exactly, although in the Ducks' case the second half of the season really has mattered over the past few of them. In fact, it has become Anaheim's salvation in recent years and is shaping up to do the same this season.
"Hopefully there are some parallels," captain Scott Niedermayer said. "It's always about consistency, but we always felt we had the talent in this room to be a better team than we showed for the most part. Now we're finding a way to show it more."
Especially at home, where Anaheim won eight straight games before heading out on a 13-day road trip they ended Monday night with a .500 mark. Overall, the Ducks have gone 10-5 since the second half of the schedule began last month. The key has been going back to basics, which in Anaheim's case means a more traditional style that relies on grinding, physical play and just enough timely scoring. In the process, the Ducks have reduced their gap for the final Western Conference playoff spot from 12 points to three.
Selanne's return from a series of injuries and the weekend trade for speedy forward Jason Blake will bolster Anaheim for the stretch run, and it looks like the Ducks didn't hurt themselves by giving a vote of confidence to standout young goalie Jonas Hiller. Anaheim signed him to an $18 million contract extension just before shipping out salary cap-challenging franchise icon J.S. Giguere in the Blake deal. Hiller responded by shutting out the Florida Panthers 3-0 on Monday in his first game as a rich young man.
So it all seems to bode well for a team that has been exceptionally strong over the final 41 games of seasons since the lockout, with a 104-57-18 record in that time. That extrapolates into a 110-point season, a lofty plateau Anaheim has hit only once -- during its 2007 Stanley Cup season -- but the late charges have become something of a signature feature for the Ducks in the past couple of seasons. And one they are counting on again these days.
"It's nice to see we can turn it on when it comes down to the crunch," team scoring leader Ryan Getzlaf said. "But obviously you don't want to start seasons the way we have the last couple of years."
No doubt, but hey, whatever works.
Last season, the late shift into a higher gear helped the Ducks sneak into the playoffs. Anaheim then made some real noise by knocking off powerhouse San Jose and nearly taking down Detroit. The surprising effort by a team that seemed dead and buried around the new year raised some expectations coming into this season, but in retrospect probably didn't take into account big changes to the roster.
The Ducks lost key defensemen Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin in the offseason while adding forwards Saku Koivu and Joffrey Lupul to the mix and filling in a few other spare parts. In theory the boost in offense would have offset the losses in the back end, but a series of injuries, including long absences by Selanne and Lupul, kept Anaheim from developing any kind of rhythm. Not helping matters any were upstart Pacific Division rivals Los Angeles and Phoenix, teams with young rosters that were blowing past the Ducks in the standings.
"When you have a lot of new players, you have to have to put a lot of work into making it work and we probably thought it was just going to come by itself," Hiller said. "That's not how it happens in this league because other teams are just too good. But I think we've started to figure it out in the last few weeks."
At least enough for the Ducks to insert themselves back into serious playoff contention. Anaheim looked destined to be a trade-deadline seller in early January when it hit the midpoint in the schedule near the bottom of the Western Conference standings. But they've become a much improved team over the past month and with Giguere's cap hit off their books, might be in buying mode.
Selanne said he isn't surprised. In fact the future Hall of Famer's theory is that the Ducks always need some time to get their second wind after coach Randy Carlyle's training camps, which Selanne says are the most demanding he has been through in his 18-year career.
"It's almost like that," Selanne laughed. "It's tough in the beginning, but in [the] long run, the second half it starts paying off.
"Anyway, that's my view of things and how this has been working because it's always same story with the Ducks. We've always been a strong second-half team."
