Ben Shelley: Ducks register 39 shots but fall short against Blackhawks

Just got done watching the Ducks vs Blackhawks. What a let down that game was. This is why you don't listen to Analitics. Ducks shot 39 shots. Then they almost got shut out. There Defense was horrible. They gave up 4 goals and let the Hawks constantly enter the offensive zone uncontested. This team won't win very much if they keep giving up 4 or 5 goals every night. And this is a very old problem. Over the last 5 years the Ducks have been tring to run this system of high shot totals with fast skating. And every year this system is a disappointment. Dallas Eakins did it 4 years. And now Greg Cronin has done this system for 1+ years. And it's garbage. Because it's based off of flawed Analitics that over value offense.

Analitics doesn't even have a true metric for Defense. What Analitics calls Defense is just Puck possession. Or the lack of puck possession. But true Defense is based on not playing with the puck. Playing in Front of your goaltender and supporting him is the truest form of defense in hockey. But Analitics just doesn't see it. Most Because the just don't have the data to show defense.
And in part because they don't care. It's just easier to track just offense. Tring to figure out Defense is just too much work them. So they just lie about it to cover their tracks.

So what do the Ducks do now? Well I'm pretty sure Cronin will continue to follow Analitics. But I just want to win. But Analitics doesn't care about winning. All the they care about is their numbers and their jobs. And the Analitics community will continue to lie as long as they get a pay check. "Fake it till you make it". That's their moto. And they just kill teams by doing this. Their like Locust. They consume any team that hires them. And them move on to the next. And all I can do is make sure my team doesn't fall prey to Analitics. Their just bad people. I'm sure some are nice. But they lie. And they don't care what they destroy. As long as they get their's

I’m kinda done with the Ducks’ current approach, whatever it is. I’m not a ‘hockey guy’, but the sign of a good coach in any sport is the ability to adapt to the talent on hand and get the best out of your best players. The coaching staff seems to be failing at both of these objectives. Without Dostal looking like a Marvel superhero, this team could easily be 1-10 or 0-11 instead of 4-5-2. Last night Dostal looked human and the team was cooked. It’s time for some adjustments.

I’m kinda done with the Ducks’ current approach, whatever it is. I’m not a ‘hockey guy’, but the sign of a good coach in any sport is the ability to adapt to the talent on hand and get the best out of your best players. The coaching staff seems to be failing at both of these objectives. Without Dostal looking like a Marvel superhero, this team could easily be 1-10 or 0-11 instead of 4-5-2. Last night Dostal looked human and the team was cooked. It’s time for some adjustments.
- hardenx

It's really frustrating. The Ducks just don't have enough speed at forward to pull off the speed game. They got lots of speed in the defense. And that's helps alot with back checking and zone exits. But to get that forecheck going they need forward speed. Every team that runs the Analitics style speed system has a roster built for that system. Like the Seattle Kracken. They just have alot of speed. Or the New Jersey Devil's. They have alot of speed. Mostly what really ticked me off is watching 4 goals get scored on Dostal. The Ducks just had bad positioning because of a aggressive forecheck. And the Blackhawks would just enter the zone uncontested, get good positioning with lots of open shooting and passing lanes. It's easy to score with that much open ice. It's just not gonna work with this Ducks team as built.

Once again, Cronin can’t adjust doesn’t know what to do and today at practice the line mixing continues….

Score a meaningless goal with five seconds left otherwise ….it’s another one goal game…

We roll out slow slow and slower forwards…

Cronin and Verbeek somehow think Killorn
& Strome are viable top 9 players and they’re simply not… they’re 4th liners on any decent team.

We keep Cam in the lineup and he’s again a wreck back there.

Once again, Cronin can’t adjust doesn’t know what to do and today at practice the line mixing continues….

Score a meaningless goal with five seconds left otherwise ….it’s another one goal game…

We roll out slow slow and slower forwards…

Cronin and Verbeek somehow think Killorn
& Strome are viable top 9 players and they’re simply not… they’re 4th liners on any decent team.

We keep Cam in the lineup and he’s again a wreck back there.
- dozerD10

Between Terry, McTavish, Gauthier, Zegras, Carlsson, Mintykov, and I guess now Zellweger, it seems (from the outside) that the Ducks should have a nice young group to build around.

Are they not being deployed properly, or just the wrong mix of vets on the team? Maybe not enough push from the backend to properly generate offense?

Between Terry, McTavish, Gauthier, Zegras, Carlsson, Mintykov, and I guess now Zellweger, it seems (from the outside) that the Ducks should have a nice young group to build around.

Are they not being deployed properly, or just the wrong mix of vets on the team? Maybe not enough push from the backend to properly generate offense?
- Chunk

Verbeek has made 2 good FA signings taking term and money into account - Gudas and Frankie.... everyone else has been an abject disaster...

We needed goal scoring ... so instead of getting Taffoli who has killed us everywhere he's been ... we go for Fabbri... instead of taking Detroit to the cleaners for Walman like Grier did... we take Dummo...

Both Cronin and PV simply hate goal scorers... they want plugs ... shot blocking gritters...

Verbeek has made 2 good FA signings taking term and money into account - Gudas and Frankie.... everyone else has been an abject disaster...

We needed goal scoring ... so instead of getting Taffoli who has killed us everywhere he's been ... we go for Fabbri... instead of taking Detroit to the cleaners for Walman like Grier did... we take Dummo...

Both Cronin and PV simply hate goal scorers... they want plugs ... shot blocking gritters...
- dozerD10

Oof. Want Brodie?

There was a lot of concern that KD brought in a bunch of what you are talking about (Smith and Maroon especially), but thus far it's not as bad as expected. Still have trouble scoring, but the team D is a much better than last year, and there is at least some semblance of being an NHL team. I lived in Orange for 10 years ('12-'22) and always liked going to the games there. It'd be nice to see Anaheim get back to winning again soon.

Just got done watching Ducks vs Canucks. Gotta say. The Canucks really have a good plan that fits their team. The Canucks are a good good skating team. And they're faster than the Ducks. But they just don't rely on the the speed. They make adjustments based on the score. They use all the ice to move the puck through all three zones. Like skating foward through the neutral zone while making cross ice passes connecting with other teammates passes. It's just very fluid what Vancouver does. Now the Ducks are nowhere near that close to executing plays. So tring to beat the Canucks with speed kind of backfired. Because Vancouver was just better at it. But I gotta say Ducks just need to keep it simple. Play within what they can do. And just focus on execution.