Looking at our roster...I expect a great season

[Ducks]

Originally Posted by Sojourn

If you're talking about last season, Bobby Ryan had trouble cracking the line-up because the team couldn't afford him. Before that, he had trouble cracking the line-up because he wasn't in NHL shape, and Anaheim felt it was necessary to be patient with him. Salcido is 24 years old. He's running out of time.

I was using Ryan as an example that the team calls up the spot they need to fill, not necessarily the most talented player. IMO if it's between Salcido, Festerling, and Mikkelson. Salcido is the one with the most talent, but has not necessarily been the right one to fill the spot needed, hopefully that changes this season.

[snarktacular]

Originally Posted by juice1815

Any chance of Belesky making the team out of camp?

There's a spot for him if he wants it. We have 2-3 scoring LW spots. 1 is probably taking by Ryan, another may or may not be taken by Lupul if he can make the switch (he looked bad at LW with the Ducks and Oilers before, not sure about Philly).

Carter and Ebbett have been put at LW in some fan projections, but there's certainly some doubt there. If Beleskey does well, they may keep him. I wouldn't expect it though.

Originally Posted by bumperkisser

I dunno about accurate shot.. but definitely was a HUGE part of our powerplay success

I think losing Pronger is huge for the PP. He was vital for the way they were running the PP since he could handle the point almost single-handedly while Niedermayer roamed. None of the guys we have are near as good as quarterbacks, or at keeping the puck in the zone.

But it isn't to say we can't have a successful powerplay without him. They'll just have to change the setup. Such as let Getzlaf quarterback it from the half boards. Or make Niedermayer play a more traditional point, with Whitney holding the puck because of his dishing skills.

[KeepItDeep]

Originally Posted by snarktacular

But the whole basis of your argument is that officiating is tightening up because of some kind of huge NHL conspiracy.
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But to say it's some kind of league-wide conspiracy, and that they are consciously and deliberately trying to take away the grinding style as demonstrated by our Cup in 07?

Conspiracy? Why do you want to cast some funky-ass paranoid connotation to something as simple as:
1. The fact that the league is mainly selling itself through players like Ovechkin, Crosby, Malkin, and the like.
2. The fact that the league is calling more and more obstruction penalties in order to showcase the speed and skill of the game.
3. The fact that the Ducks, a team that thrives on taking away the time & space of their opponents, have led the league in having to play short-handed since they won the Cup (in which year they played every bit as aggressively, yet were 16th in the league going SH).

If you think those three things are independent of each other, and that tying them together is some form of "conspiracy paranoia", you are flying in the face of simple logic.

To ignore those facts, and attribute the entire increase in penalties to consistent defensive breakdowns, mental errors, and being out of synch, is not only illogical, it is silly. All 29 teams in the league that don't win the Cup are guilty of that.

Great. So it was true for the first 3 months of the season. What about the next 3.5 months + 2 months of playoffs?

The league went on to obliterate its own record for hooking calls, and general obstruction calls were at a all-time high.

As for the playoffs, the finesse teams were the ones that advanced, so that points towards less penalties. Which addresses your next point:

As fans of finesse teams, they should be the ones most benefitted. Furthermore, if there was a conspiracy, you would expect refs to call things MORE as the games get more important, since the NHL supposedly wants there to be more skill and excitement, and they would certainly want that showcased more in the playoffs when everybody is watching.

In every single professional sport, the game officials increasingly let the players play as the games get more important. That will never change... and it shouldn't.

As for the NHL, their approach has worked very well. Teams that rely on an obstructive-type defensive focus that bog the game down have been getting weeded out. The league got their poster boys to the front like they want in this years playoffs, and almost got their wet dream of Crosby & Malkin versus Towes & Kane in the finals. As it was, they still got second best with the Slick Wings. The only real missing element from their marketing standpoint was Alexander the Great vs. Sid the Kid in the ECF's. But they still got that in the semi's.

In fact, you could even make the claim that the "taking it to the boards" route is hurting us, because the team becomes quite predictable and it's much easier for opposing teams to shade toward the boards and defend it. In fact I have long been a proponent of having 2 styles of offensive lines (thunder and lightning), and was worried when Burke signed Bertuzzi last year that it would hurt us offensively (especially when McDonald was jettisoned for Weight to try to mesh with Bertuzzi). So I agree with you that the team can't be too one-dimensional.

I agree that we have been one dimensional. And rather than engaging us in the battle along the boards we try to create like teams did back when we won the Cup, most of the league has figured out that they should use the middle of the ice, and just let us take penalties trying to force the game to the boards.

I believe the Ducks decline has been majorly due to constantly getting behind the eight ball and having to kill penalties. Most times, any momentum they build in a game is eventually interrupted by going shorthanded.

But I don't believe that we will cure the problem by becoming "more disciplined". We won the Cup while leading the league in taking penalties, so I don't accept the notion that we are less disciplined now. The difference is that our opponents have figured out how not to go into the penalty box with us. And it's not because the other 580 roster players in the league are, all of a sudden, better able to discipline themselves than our 20.

I don't believe it's a conspiracy against the Anaheim Ducks, either. The league has taken regular steps towards promoting that which they can sell, the speed and the skill of the game, ever since the lockout. And they have been very wise in doing so.