Anaheim Ducks 2010 Preview & Predictions

Anaheim Ducks 2010 Season Preview, Predictions Picks & Odds

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ANAHEIM DUCKS

2009-10 record: 39-32-11
Shootout Record: 5-8
Division Finish: 4th, Pacific
Conference Finish: 11th, Western
Goals For: 238
Goals Against: 251

Anaheim Ducks 2010 Preview

If rival teams believe 2010-11 will be Duck-hunting season, they’re better off staying home.

While it’s true their point total has dropped since they won the Stanley Cup in 2007, the Ducks came within two points of their previous season’s total and were one tantalizing win away from being in a group of seven teams to have 40 victories in each of the past five years.

And rather than getting poor performances from players getting a little long in the tooth, a condition that often afflicts other Cup champions perhaps guilty of undue loyalty, Anaheim continues to get surprising numbers from old soldiers such as Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu.

Getting to 40 wins again will be a challenge without Scott Niedermayer’s leadership on the blueline, the future Hall of Farner deciding to retire after 17 seasons between California and New Jersey. That included being part of Anaheim’s Cup run in 2007.

Free-agent defenseman Toni Lydman will help, but many think the hockey gods were smiling on GM Bob Murray at the Entry Draft in Los Angeles. Cam Fowler of the Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires, selected to go in the top five, was still there when Anaheim’s turn came at 12th. California-born winger Emersen Etem was around at 29th, too.

Selanne, as he likes to do, elected to take his time before returning for what was the Finnish Flash’s 18th year in the League.

Selanne did the right thing in 2009-10, with 48 points in 54 games, the go-to guy on the Anaheim power play with 14 goals.

Koivu ended the season with six game-winning goals, best on the team. The long-serving Montreal Canadien didn’t get the adulation once heaped on him in Quebec, but another 50-point season with a team-best plus-14 made a strong impression on fans and management, and he signed two more years, though he’s also on the verge of turning 36.

But who wouldn’t want to have those two Finns around – or want to start 2010-11 with a team that includes Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Joffrey Lupul and Bobby Ryan at the top of their scoring ladder, with 30-game winner Jonas Hiller in net? Lupul was out much of the season with a back injury, complicated by an infection after an operation in mid-December.

An area of concern is the blueline, where the Ducks had to replace stay-at-home stalwarts Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin from the Cup-winning team. It gave up the fourth-most goals against in the Western Conference last season and the most in more than a decade.

Maintaining their second half pace will also be important to the Ducks, who were a much improved 2314- 4 beginning in January. They posted the eighth best record in the League in that span.

Ryan had been in Sidney Crosby’s shadow since the latter was chosen first overall in 2005, but 66 goals in two years has made him a force in his own right.

Put everything back together and keep the Ducks healthy and a different finish should result.

2010 Anaheim Ducks Offense:

The Ducks saw no reason to boast about it, but they had the most goals of any team that missed the playoffs with 238. Ryan has now had two noteworthy seasons, producing most points by an NHL rookie, followed by most goals by a Duck. If he resolves restricted free agency, 40 goals aren’t out of the question. After a slow start, Perry put together a fine campaign, finishing second in team goals to Ryan and showing his feisty side by recording 111 minutes in penalties. The year Anaheim won the Cup it scored 258 and those figures can be reached again if Lupul gets back toward the 28 goals his notched in the ’05-06 season, during his first stint with the team. A dark horse in this equation could be left winger Jason Blake, who has had wildly fluctuating seasons with the Islanders, Maple Leafs and Ducks, but who could hit 30 goals under the right conditions. Anaheim had two rookies make it to the top 25 of freshmen scoring, Dan Sexton with 19 points, one more than Matt Beleskey, who played 19 extra games.

2010 Anaheim Ducks Defense:

Fowler had 55 points in as many games in junior and was considered to be NHL-ready by many scouts. Without Niedermayer, the underrated Lubomir Visnovsky was a key pick-up at the deadline after the departures of Pronger and Beauchemin. His 13 points in 16 games as a Duck is just the start of what could be a long season of leaning on the veteran Slovak. His and Niedermayer’s numbers were almost identical. Lydman spent a long time in Buffalo and might need an adjustment period. James Wisniewski has now proven himself, having played in a career-high 69 games last season, notching a career-best 30 points. Stay-at-home blueliner Sheldon Brookbank played the most games of his career (66) and was a plus-l0. Steve Eminger, who appeared in 63 games for the Ducks, was traded to the Rangers for gritty winger Aaron Voros in July. Three-time Cup winner Aaron Ward also landed here at the end of the season after playing 800 games for Eastern-time-zone teams but likely won’t return.

2010 Anaheim Ducks Goaltending:

It was time for Hiller to spread his wings, or to butterfly if you prefer, on his own. He earned the No. 1 job and squeezed 2007 Cup winner JeanSebastien Giguere out. Hiller won 30 of his 59 appearances with a couple of shutouts, ending with a .918 save percentage. It wasn’t that long ago he was getting just a quarter of the starts behind Giguere. The new line of succession should become clear quickly. Curtis McElhinney did very well in 20 games, winning eight and forging a .902 save percentage after getting little work in Calgary behind Miikka Kiprusoff. But a more polished stablemate might be found. Anaheim took Joey MacDonald off the Leafs at the deadline, after brief flings with Toronto and the New York Islanders, but he signed with Detroit in the summer.

Anaheim Ducks 2010 Special Teams

Carlyle must shudder, wondering where he’ll find the 20 extra powerplay goals that Niedermayer and Selanne supplied last season, a big part of the Ducks’ fifth-ranked attack. No team fared better at home, where the Ducks were more than 26% successful, their 42 goals almost as many as most teams managed throughout the whole schedule. Selanne’s 14 goals were tied for third in the League, while Niedermayer had 22 assists. Anaheim gave back in the penalty-killing department, ranked far down at 24th and tied with Edmonton for the most scored on in the Western Conference. Swift veteran Todd Marchant still had three short-handed goals.

Anaheim Ducks 2010 Season Predictions

Even with a healthy roster, making the playoff grade in the West can be tough. Take away Niedermayer and it gets extremely difficult. But the Ducks expect Lupul to have a better campaign, once he gets re-acclimatized here. As a team, they should not be cursed by so many injuries, which felled Getzlaf, Hiller, Visnovsky and Marchant at the end of last season.

We predict that the Anaheim Ducks will finish 4th in the NHL Pacific.

Anaheim Ducks Betting

Anaheim Ducks Stanley Cup Odds: +4000
Anaheim Ducks Western Conference Odds: +1800

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