...a picture of Ryan Carter.
Hooray!
But oh what a win it was. It was almost like having back the fiesty, fighty Ducks of years past. Physical play was a huge factor, and was hugely refreshing.
Speaking of which, how can you not smile at the sight of Brent Sopel* doing a momentary Superman impersonation before hitting the ice thanks to Corey Perry's repositioning effort. Did Perry nudge him in the back? Probably, yeah. But you'd think he had an air ram in his trousers from the way that Sopel flew. I'd call him Sopel-man from now on, except that his admirers** probably already use that in a positive sense instead of the dryly sarcastic way that I would.
If someone walked up to me on the street and offered me the chance to spend a day as either Brent Sopel or a grasshopper, I'd say "How the hell could you turn me into either of those things?" Then I'd choose to be a grasshopper so at least I'd have a reason for leaping if touched.
Brent Sopel is today's target of scorn.
Moving on...
The Chipchura-Marchant tag team goal, a.k.a. the "Hey kids, this is why you should be smart about challenging a play" goal, was awesomesauce.
The energy in the building every time Teemu had the puck and was facing the net? El Super Awesomesauce.
Hiller stopping every shot he possibly could*** might have been the lynchpin of the victory, but he didn't do it alone. There were plenty of bodies colliding in front of him, plenty of battles won, an adherence to the system that hasn't been seen a lot recently, and a healthy amount of fire in the belly.
Now, I don't mean to cast apsersions on anybody here, but have you noticed how cohesive the team seems to get when one of their big names is out? There have been plenty of games this season played without marquee players, Teemu and Getzlaf in particular, and they wind up in one of two very divergent places: either a tight, well-formed style, or a listless mess.
Luckily, tonight was the former, and the team is 2 points better for it. Can it happen again when the Islanders come in on Friday? I think so. The top two teams in the West were just toppled by the Ducks in reasonably decisive fashion. It's a reminder of two things: that this is a team with the ability to stand up to anybody, and that we've allowed waaaay too many opportunities to slide this season. A few more games like tonight's - games that the Ducks were always capable of - would surely have us in a much better position than we are right now.
But with 72 points in hand, I can sleep well tonight. There are 8 points (at least) to be made up in 13 games.
I'm starting to believe again.
Until next time...
-The Raving Duck
*Sopel, by the way, has clearly earned his Masters Degree from the Vlade Divac School of Flop. There are dives, there are dives, and then there's this:
Just... wow.
Sorry for the crummy resolution - it's the best I've got at the moment - but... wow.
**Does he have admirers? Seriously, does he? I'm only being about 18% facetious here.
***Well, maybe he could have stopped Seabrook's shot if he tucked his arm a little sooner, but that really doesn't diminish the stellar performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment