The Anaheim Ducks figuring out defence
The Ducks have more holes in their defence than a fishing net. Since the preseason opened the Ducks struggled to keep opposing wingers and centres in check and failed. In 5 of their 7 preseason games the Ducks defence allowed almost twice as many shots on
goal than their forwards could manage. To Anaheim’s goaltender Jonas Hiller’s and their forwards’ credit, the Ducks still managed to win games with almost close to half the number of shots on goal then their opponents.
Of course the regular season is a whole different world compared to the trial and error attitude of the preseason. The Ducks re-learned that lesson after losing all three of their regular season games, starting off with a shutout against the Detroit Red
Wings. The Ducks offense was more or less idle in the game taking a total of 21 shots on goal. Detroit’s Jimmy Howard was able to stop all 21 of those shots and made it look effortless too. 11 Penalties on the Anaheim side also meant that there were fewer
surprises for Jimmy and the defence became a bit of issue for the Ducks. The Red Wings took advantage and ended with 43 shots on goal against Jonas Miller to make the effort by the Ducks’ offense, to put it politely, look amateur.
The departure of defenseman Andy Sutton before the third period was felt pretty seriously by the Ducks. Detroit’s offense shot 19 shot on goals in the first and second periods but after Sutton was off the ice, they took 24 shots on goal in the final period.
Sutton broke his thumb while fighting with Detroit’s defenseman Ruslan Salei and he is out indefinitely.
In their next game the against the Nashville Predators, the Ducks tried to improve the offense with 37 shots on goal, but Nashville upped the ante even further with 49 shots and won the game 4 goals against 1. Hiller couldn’t be asked to do better than stop
45 shots in one game. The defence though has room for improvement and stopping a few pucks every once in a while wouldn’t hurt Anaheim’s chances either.
In their third game the Ducks faced the Saint Louis Blues. That game can be called nothing but a complete and unmitigated disaster. The Ducks scored just once while the Blues put five pucks in the net. The Ducks failed both on defence and offence. Anaheim
gave up staggering 21 penalties in the game. Defensemen Sheldon Brookbank and Paul Mara spent 12 and 14 minutes in penalty. The Ducks conceded a mind boggling 53 shots on goal in 60 minutes of play. The Ducks offence was able to attack the net just 14 times.
The Ducks need defence, they need someone to replace the injured Andy Sutton and they have decided to go with veteran defenseman Andreas Lilja. The Ducks signed Lilja to a one year, one-way contract worth $600,000 on Monday after losing Sutton on Friday.
The Swede is a 10 year veteran of the sport and a classic stay-at-home defenseman. In 478 NHL games Lilja has scored a total of 15 goals and made 59 assists. Considering the dismal state of Anaheim’s defence, someone like Lilja is exactly what they need. Lilja,
however, he won’t be able to play immediately for Anaheim due to unresolved visa issues.
Andreas Lilja had been playing for the Detroit Red Wings since the 2005 season. In the 5 seasons since, the defenseman played 298 games for Detroit. However in the last season he was only able to play 20 games due to a concussion. He came back to play 11
playoff games for the Wings in that season. Detroit had previously offered the defenseman a much more lucrative contract to stay on with the Red Wings but Lilja instead opted to swim in the perilous free agency waters to no avail. He then attended San Jose’s
training camp but was released without an NHL contract. The defence marred Ducks had been showing interest in Lilja but their pursuit truly got serious following Sutton’s injury.
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