Last season was a complete disappointment to the city of Anaheim. The Ducks had a well-rounded team but just couldn’t compete with the other talented teams in the Pacific division. The downfall for them last season was their poor play on the road. If you want to make the playoffs, you have got to perform on the road. A 14-21-6 away record just isn’t going to cut it. As the season edges closer, Captain Saku Koivu will beigin to realize that he has a lot on his plate this season if he wants to see his club succeed. The team lost a lot of talent, most notably Scott Neidermayer who was the Ducks former Captain; yet management did not make the necessary moves required to replace the talent. Koivu needs to find a way to get the troops to rally on the road if they really want to make this uphill battle towards the playoffs a more bearable fight. The top 6 for Anaheim remains the same, which is a good thing considering they had the 7th most goals in the league last year. It also helps that the team boasts what might be the most dominant top line in the league right now. The Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry death-combo combined for 209 points last season and each forward averaged roughly 20 minutes a game. If they can all stay healthy you can expect them to mimic the production that they had last season, perhaps even top it.The projected second line looks pretty promising as well and the three forwards on that line all have more than enough NHL experience. You have Saku Koivu (35 years old) centering Jason Blake (36) and Teemu Selanne (40). Selanne, now over the hill, has showed no signs of slowing down productivity-wise; however, his health will definitely be a concern. Selanne will need to play at the same intensity he did last year, as his point-per-game production really bolstered the offense. Joffrey Lupul is another top 6 forward who has proven that he can score goals when he’s healthy. Before his injury and subsequent surgery last season, he picked up 5 points in his final 3 games averaging about 20 minutes a game. Lupul could come in and steal a top 6 spot once he gets back into the groove of things; however he will miss the start of the season due to his injury. The Ducks have some solid bottom-six depth as well and have the necessary toughness needed to intimidate opponents. Parros, who is willing to let any sucker try and put a fist to his moustache, returns as one of the most feared fighters in the league. Aaron Voros will most likely play with Parros and he is doing a good job at making a name for himself as a solid pest/grinder/enforcer. If he wants to save himself some embarrassment he should keep the gloves on a little more this season, but he probably won’t because he knows the value of pumping up his teammates and the crowd with a good ol’ fashioned boxing match. However, with the retiring of Captain Scott Neidermayer, the Ducks blueline got considerably worse. Now that Neidermayer is out of the picture the defense will have to heavily rely on Lubomir Visnovsky as their anchor for this upcoming season. Lubomir can be expected to produce some points and help offensively, but he is very prone to turning the puck over, which will be costly if he doesn’t have a suitable partner to cover his follies. The Ducks did bring a couple of veterans into the system to try and make up for the retirement of Neidermayer, though neither have the skills to compare to the former captain. They signed both Toni Lydman and Andy Sutton in the off-season and I am expecting to see Lydman start the season on the top pair with Visnovsky, despite his mediocre ice time per game average last season. Sutton, Sbisa, and Brookbank are pretty much shoe-ins for 3 of the other 4 remaining spots; and Fowler might make his NHL debut right off the bat because of the shallow, weak blueline that the Ducks are putting out on the ice next season. I think that the fate of Anaheim’s season will heavily rely on the play of Jonas Hiller. If Hiller can stand on his head and make up for the lack of defensive talent, then the Ducks might possibly see themselves flying up the Western Conference standings. McElhinney will probably see some more action between the pipes next season, as he had a solid season last year with minimal play; pretty much on pace to match Hiller statistically. I really don’t think that either goalie has the skills to carry this team into the playoffs, but at the goalie position, they will always have an opportunity to steal games from opponents. In the end, Anaheim will definitely need to make some moves now or early in the season to bolster their lacking blueline. I just can’t see them improving in the standings with a weaker product on the ice. The offense will probably continue to produce, but the defense is pretty much destined to perform even worse than they did last season. However, if they can somehow land a legit number one defenseman then they just might barely crack the top 8. If not, then it will probably be another disappointing season, which is pretty sad considering the offensive firepower they have up front. -CJ CJ is the founder of the Blueline Crew hockey blog. To see more team previews by the Crew check us out at http://bluelinecrew.com . A new preview will be released every day for the month of September on our homepage.
