Game 8: Stars 4 - Ducks 2

Where to begin..?

With the obvious, I suppose. The Ducks played, by my estimation, about 22 minutes of quality hockey. There are two problems with this. First, hockey games are 60 minutes, and the Dallas Stars seemed more acutely aware of that fact than the Ducks did; Second, those 22 minutes were the first 5 of the game, the last 2 of the second period, and the last 15 of the game.

Dallas' goals came at 14:01 in the first period, and 04:17 & 8:53 in the second period. And an empty-netter.

In other words, when the Ducks were doing their ducky thing - when heads were down and skates were churning and all the little battles were won - all Dallas could do was clog up some ice and watch Ryan Getzlaf and Joffrey Lupul do their thing.

Important note: The Stars' second goal was a gift from Jonas Hiller, from Switzerland with love (and presumably a brown paper package tied up with string). Had Hiller not misplayed the puck behind the net - had he just stayed in position a little longer or been a little quicker in returning there - it would have been a very different game. Instead, it created enough uncertainty to hand Dallas their third goal just a few minutes later.


Note how I emphasized the idea of staying in position above. Kind of important for a goalie.


The upsides for the evening:

• James Wisniewski. That guy was everywhere and smashing everyone, and he got an assist for his efforts. A+ individual effort there. And let's not forget that he was a game-time decision thanks to his spranied shoulder.
  
• Lupul and Getzlaf, the goal-scorers, scored goals. It's nice to see Getzlaf take that kind of tight shot when he has it. And Lupul... well, I wouldn't want to bet against him in a snooker match.
  
• Saku Koivu seems ridiculously close to breaking through as a Duck. He had a solid game last night and created a few lovely scoring chances but just couldn't find the back of the net. Also, Selanne-Koivu-Ryan was clicking along fairly well, fairly quickly. Hopefully that's the line that takes the ice on Saturday.
  
• George Parros and Mike Brown both dropped the gloves, against Krystopher Barch and Francis Walthier respectively. Brown definitely won his tilt, and I'll give the nod to Parros as well, if only for not backing down after dropping to the ice once or after being cut. Unfortunately, Dallas answered each fight loss with a goal less than 2 minutes later. Isn't that supposed to work the other way around?
  
• Brendan Mikkelson played very well, with fewer mistakes and needless giveaways, and with much more gumption about joining the attack. I'd still like to see Luca Sbisa at Scott Niedermeyer's side, but I understand how dangerous that is while Sbisa is still a little too eager and too loose. In the meantime, Mikkelson gets my vote as the other half of the top pair.
  
• Ryan Whitney point shot = cannon.

But still and all, Dallas played the better game (for a full 60 minutes) and they got their two points as a result.




Just as a random aside, has anyone else noticed that Steve Eminger has a weird sort of BrundleFly look about him?



I'd like to promise that this will be the last Eminger-bash here, but I can't do that. I need something amusing to write about, damnit, and so far the games themselves have been fairly unamusing.

Here's to better things this coming Saturday against Columbus.

Until next time...
-The Raving Duck