Approximately one million teams, give or take a handful, played their 60th game of the season Tuesday. Included in those ranks are the Anaheim Ducks. Sit right back and read their tale.
Anaheim Ducks: 25-25-10, good for 60 points:
The Ducks got off to a terrible start to the season, but in recent weeks, as players such as Corey Perry and Jonas Hiller found their form, they've seen a tremendous uptick in their play. Now, the Ducks are only six points out of a playoff spot. They are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games, and although their goal differential is minus-17, obviously that is in part due to the aforementioned slow start.
The magical Finnish man that is Teemu Selanne leads the team in points with 53. Corey Perry, meanwhile, has the most goals with 28, and he has 49 points. Considering how poorly he started, that has required quite a nice run. Bobby Ryan has 22 goals and 38 points. The only player who hasn't quite found his footing is Ryan Getzlaf. He does have 41 points, but only eight of those are goals and he has a minus-13 rating. Lubomir Visnovsky's return to health has partially coincided with Anaheim's improvements, and he has 22 points in 47 games.
In net, Hiller's save percentage is only .909, but, and I may sound like some sort of broken record at this point, a lot of that is based off his slow start. He hasn't had a good season, but he has been much better recently. He has also shouldered a heavy load with 54 games started.
The Ducks, to me, look like this year's version of last year's New Jersey Devils. The Devils got off to an awful start, fired their coach, and then saw the team regress to the mean. They played really well down the stretch, but fell short of the postseason. I think that is Anaheim's likely fate as well. They fired their coach, and scooped up Bruce Boudreau, and then watched guys like Perry return to form. They could make the playoffs. Six points isn't a ton of ground to make up. However, in the end I think they will fall just short. Still, it's a better fate than what might have been predicted based on the start of the season.
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