Is It Time To Panic in Anaheim?

(Photo: Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports)

The Anaheim Ducks currently are winless this season and have only generated one goal during their first four games of the 2015-16 season. The Ducks lone goal was scored by defensemen Sami Vatanen on October 12th, in a shootout lose against the Vancouver Canucks.

Ducks Management believes that it isn’t time yet to push the panic button. The team has 6 new faces to the organization and a few AHL call-ups on this year’s roster. That’s 1/3 of the roster being new players, which means new systems to learn. The skills of these players differ but the Ducks search for an upgrade at every position. The Ducks are without 7 players who were apart of the team in the 2015 NHL playoffs.

Former Anaheim Ducks

Forwards

Matt Beleskey (Signed – Boston)

Emerson Etem (Traded – Rangers)

Kyle Palmieri (Traded – Devils)

Tomas Fleischmann (Signed – Montreal)

Defensemen

James Wisniewski (Traded – Hurricanes)

Francois Beauchemin (Signed – Colorado)

Goalie

Jason Labarbera (Signed Flyers)

New Anaheim Ducks

Forwards

Chris Stewart (Free Agency)

Carl Hagelin (Traded - Rangers)

Mike Santorelli (Free Agency

Shawn Horcoff (Free Agency)

Defensemen

Kevin Bieksa (Traded - Canucks)

Goalie

Anton Khudobin (Hurricanes Trade)

Although Anaheim added some key pieces that could help fill the empty areas, I still believe that the players that left are better than the players who came joined the team. Former Ducks Defensemen Francois Beauchemin was a huge leader for the Ducks and ate a lot of minutes for the team. He was one of their top defensemen and shut down some of the best in the league. The Ducks replaced him with Kevin Bieksa in a trade with Vancouver. Bieksa showed promise in the preseason, but hasn’t showed that same composer in the regular season. Stewart, Santorelli and Horcoff will all battle for minutes and fit in the bottom 6 forwards. They were brought in to replace Etem, Palmieri, and Fleischmann, while Carl Hagelin will try to replace Beleskey’s 22 goals from last season. The other player moved was James Wisniewski, whom filled the 7th defensemen role on the Ducks roster in the playoffs and holds a high salary for a player sitting in the press box. The Ducks decided his services weren’t needed and moved him for back-up goalie Anton Khudobin in a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.

In the off-season Management held an internal meeting and came to the conclusion that the team could have a slow start. GM Bob Murray is giving the Ducks some freeway to the start the season, but that generosity won’t last long. The team has placed a 10 game limit to turn it around. It’s believed that if the team can’t turn it around then a change will be made.

Many Ducks players could take the blame for the Ducks poor start. However, in the eyes of Ducks fans, the players aren’t taking the heat. Fans are seeking the job of Head Coach Bruce Boudreau, although he holds a record of 162 wins and 83 loses in his Ducks Coaching career. He may have a great record during the regular season but his playoff performances speak for themselves. In Washington, Bruce never pushed the Capitals past the second round in the playoffs and that resulted in him being fired in 2011. He was brought on board in Anaheim after the Ducks fired former coach Randy Carlyle. He helped put the Ducks into the playoffs for the past three seasons, but was eliminated in the 7th game in round 1, 2 and 3 during those years. The questions around Bruce in Anaheim have been asked for a few seasons. Former Anaheim Duck forward Teemu Selanne, decided to retire from hockey and the reason was Bruce Boudreau. "If we had any other coach, I'd still play," said Selanne in his Biography book. The book shares a moment from the 2014 NHL playoffs that speaks of Bruce’s inexperience in the post-season. Teemu was informed between Games 3 and 4 of the first-round series with Dallas that he’d be sitting in Game 4. The decision by Boudreau didn’t sit well with Selanne and he expressed his emotions to Bruce.

"I waited after everyone else had left the ice and skated to Boudreau," he said. "I yelled at him right to his face with what I was thinking. I asked what he has against me. I told him that since he became our coach, he has not respected me one bit. You never put me on ice when we play 5-on-3 or 4-on-4 or when we are one goal behind in the end of the game. Be honest for one time and answer. He just stammered that decisions were not his alone and it was a group decision. I asked which group and he said GM and scouts. I yelled at him 'Whoa, what kind of a coach are you if you don’t even decide the lineup?' He tried to skate away but I just yelled that I wasn’t finished. I told Boudreau if you ever want to win something in the playoffs, you’re going to need me. Nobody else wants to win as much as me." Selanne said "It felt really good," to get his emotions off his chest. The Ducks lost Game 4 to Dallas, 4-2 and Selanne was put back in the line-up for Game 5. The book also shared that the two haven’t spoken since the Dallas argument.

In June after the Ducks lost an embarrassing Game 7 against Chicago in the Conference Finals. GM Bob Murray wasn’t sure about Head coach Bruce Boudreau returning to the Anaheim Ducks this season. Murray did decide to give Bruce another chance but fired his long time friend and assistant Brad Lauer. Head Coach Boudreau is on a short leash this season and the relationship between Bob and Bruce isn’t strong. If he can’t turn the club around by the 10 game mark, Bob Murray will consider letting his coach go.

The answer to the question, what is happening in Anaheim, can’t easily be answered. The team is tied for 6th in faceoff wins per game and rank 7th in shots per game. Star players like Perry, Getzlaf and Kesler are combined for 26 shots in the four games, yet they just can’t find the back of the net. The Ducks need these three players to step up their game and earn the salaries their being paid. The newcomers to the Ducks rosters haven’t made an impact for the team thus far. One of the team’s biggest disappointments has been the play of Carl Hagelin. He leads the Ducks in shots with 14 and has the second worst plus/minus with a -4 in 4 regular season games. The players are shooting but can’t capitalize on those chances, which could come back to the failing system Boudreau is teaching.

The Anaheim Ducks players deserve most of the blame for this slow start and a shake wouldn’t make much sense for the team. If the team doesn’t play better by games 10 or 15, then yes the Ducks need to pull the trigger on a trade. Currently the chemistry isn’t alive within the Ducks locker room and it’s causing problems. The Ducks have 1 more Home game then 5 away games to prove they can be a Stanley Cup contender.

If the team can’t live up to that expectation, then a coaching change or trade will take place in the near future.

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