There is no better way to introduce this blog than to begin with this picture of Anaheim Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau. This was taken with less than a minute remaining against the Dallas Stars as Boudreau's Ducks' were in the process of blowing a three goal lead and eventually losing in regulation. There is really no excuse for the Ducks to have lost this game, except for the fact that they were on a back-to-back and were undoubtedly exhausted after two periods of the high-flying Stars. Or maybe except for the fact that they were playing an explosive offence in the Stars. Or, maybe, because they were missing their best player in Ryan Getzlaf. I mean, blowing a three goal lead is never a positive thing for any hockey club, especially one who is off to an absolutely dreadful 1-6-2 start, but there were some mitigating circumstances.
Still, this feels like the end of Boudreau's time in Anaheim, if only from the look of despair his face exhibits in the above picture. It's important to note that while Anaheim has been extremely unlucky in this still extremely early season, they haven't exactly been a great team. Their 48.9% even-strength, score-adjusted possession going into tonight's game (via puckon.net) has them ranked 21st in the NHL and they have received fairly strong goaltending. The scoring has completely dried up thanks to terrible shooting numbers that will spike dramatically, but they still haven't been dominating games.
Tonight's game was almost night and day from the first two periods to the third period. At fives they were beating the Stars 30-23 in shot attempts up until the second intermission (via hockeystats.ca) before they fell off a cliff in the third (again, part of this surely has to do with playing on the back end of a double-header). In the third period the Ducks managed a whopping 5 (!!!) shot attempts towards the Stars cage while the Stars absolutely pelted Freddy Andersen in the third. They racked up 21 shot attempts in the third period alone and completely dominated the pace of play while the Ducks could muster nothing.
We can get a glimpse of the absolutely impotent Ducks transition game and attack in the third period here as Sami Vatanen attempts to lead a break-out while the Ducks forwards have absolutely bailed the zone and are hoping to receive the puck in the neutral zone with the three Stars back smothering each one of them. Vatanen has little-to-no options here as the Stars are in perfect position and he is forced to whip the puck off the boards to the Ducks winger at the far blueline. Predictably, this doesn't end up as well as Vatanen would have hoped and the Stars defender covers the pass perfectly with it resulting in an icing.
It was like this all third period. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Barring 3-on-3 overtime where really anything can happen or the unpredictable shootout, the Stars were bound to eventually break down the Ducks defence and bury the game-winner. Their relentless offensive pressure was overwhelming and the Ducks had little to counter this onslaught. Yet, the game-winner by Antoine Roussel with 1:28 remaining is a goal that featured some inexplicably awful defence in front of Andersen's net. And it wasn't a rookie or a young defender missing an assignment or a center being out of position, it was noted "defensive defenceman" Kevin Bieksa being victimized.
The play starts out innocently enough. Note the time on the clock in the picture above: 1:36 remaining in the third period and the goal came 8 seconds later so the play develops extremely quickly. Jamie Oleksiak has the puck in this frame and we can see one Ducks defender forechecking, meaning 4 Ducks defenders should be back ready to neutralize the rush up ice.
Instead, what happens is some truly shoddy defensive play. The puck bounces off the Ducks defender at the top-left of the frame above and ricochets towards the middle of the ice. At this point you can see that Vern Fiddler and the Ducks backchecker are locked side-by-side, both presumably ready to pounce on the puck. Fiddler blows by the Ducks player he is skating with and now has a 2-on-1 on an unlucky bounce, combined with some skeptical Ducks defending.
Note here #2 Kevin Bieksa violating Cardinal Sin #1 of 2-on-1 play: complete focus on the puck-carrier and complete ignorance of the other player on the odd-man-rush. Take the pass, they teach you early on as a defender. Not taking the pass would be an understatement to describe Bieksa on this play. Fiddler drives the net and gets an uncontested shot (Bieksa failed to take the shooter either) while eventual goal scorer Roussel waits in the crease for the puck to inevitably come to him because that's just the Ducks luck right now.
Roussel backhands home the puck lying in the crease as Bieksa fails to take the man with the puck, the man in the crease and the mailman. Seriously, what is Bieksa doing on this play? This year plus two more years of Bieksa could be painful in Anaheim. Even more immediate will be the impact this game has on Anaheim's coaching situation. As Elliotte Friedman noted in his weekly 30 Thoughts column, Ducks ownership is keen on Boudreau but the same cannot be said of the rocky relationship between Boudreau and GM Bob Murray. Many think this will be Boudreau's final game with the Ducks.
If it is, Bieksa owes Boudreau a beer. Then again, he might miss that assignment too.
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