Yesterday, I put together some predictions based on my knowledge of the Ducks’ team and how Randy Carlyle sent his lines out against the Kings the night before.

My predicted forward match-ups were as follows:

Cole – Horcoff – Hemsky vs. Moen – Pahlsson – Marchant
Nilsson – Cogliano – Gagner vs. Carter – Morrison – Selanne
Moreau – Pisani – Penner vs. Kunitz – Getzlaf – Perry
MacIntyre/Penner – Brodziak – Pouliot vs. May – Sutherby – Parros

I wasn’t terribly confident that Carlyle would keep his lines together, but both teams seem to have done so, with the exception of Craig MacTavish’s 4th line. With Steve MacIntyre in for Zach Stortini, MacTavish alternated a variety of wingers with Pouliot and Brodziak, a strategy that resulted in some very strong shifts for the bottom group. Here were the team’s line-ups last night:

Kunitz – Getzlaf – Perry
Carter – Morrison – Selanne
Moen – Pahlsson – Niedermayer
May – Marchant – Parros

Beauchemin – Niedermayer
Pronger – McIver/Huskins
Montador – Huskins

Cole – Horcoff – Hemsky
Nilsson – Cogliano – Gagner
Moreau – Pisani – Penner
Pouliot – Brodziak – MacIntyre, et al.

Visnovsky – Souray
Grebeshkov – Gilbert
Strudwick – Staios

The only note that I have to add is that instead of using the centre’s ice-time as the basis for each forward line, I’ve decided to use whichever player (italicized) had the highest percentage of his ice-time with the other two; this should largely compensate for things like double-shifting and line juggling.

Getzlaf line: 4.0%
Carter line: 10.3%
Moen line: 81.7%
Marchant line: 4.0%

Niedermayer-Beauchemin: 80.l6%
Pronger pairing: 12.4%
Montador – Huskins: 7.0%

As predicted, the Horcoff line didn’t play power-vs-power tonight; they ran into Anaheim’s checking line and top defensive pairing. It was a better game for them than the one against Colorado, but even so they were largely contained by Anaheim’s checking unit. Hemsky in particular looked ineffective outside of a few shifts (in particular one with the fourth line where he got away from the checkers).

Getzlaf line: 30.7%
Carter line: 62.8%
Moen line: 3.7%
Marchant line: 2.9%

Niedermayer-Beauchemin: 7.2%
Pronger pairing: 55.9%
Montador – Huskins: 36.8%

The Ducks’ coaching staff generally managed to get the Pronger pairing out against the Kid Line, but they did see the bottom pairing a fair bit as well. They were matched against the Carter – Morrison – Selanne unit up front, and I think they carried the play for the most part (despite being physically dominated early on). For the second game in a row, they saw a nontrivial amount of ice-time against their opponent’s top line, and it seems like MacTavish is determined to increase the difficulty of their minutes this year.

Getzlaf line: 59.8%
Carter line: 16.4%
Moen line: 8.2%
Marchant line: 15.6%

Niedermayer-Beauchemin: 20%
Pronger pairing: 37.6%
Montador – Huskins: 42.1%

Looking at the near-even distribution among the Ducks’ defensive pairings, we can see that the Oilers’ shutdown trio was largely deployed in defensive situations, and most of that time was spent against Getzlaf and company. This line is really starting to grow on me—they’ve looked good so far and all three players have size and smarts on their side.

Pouliot – Brodziak
Getzlaf line: 39.4%
Carter line: 30.9%
Moen line: 0%
Marchant line: 29.8%

Niedermayer-Beauchemin: 19.2%
Pronger pairing: 33.7%
Montador – Huskins: 48.0%

The fourth line was MacTavish’s secret weapon for much of the game; outside of the three minutes of ice-time that MacIntyre got, they were playing with some decent offensive players (Hemsky, Nilsson) and doing it against the Ducks’ lower defensive pairings and away from their checkers. I think we may see MacIntyre draw in for games where the opposition has a high-end checking unit, to allow Hemsky/Nilsson/etc. to get some shifts in against less formidable defensive players. Both Pouliot and Brodziak were improved from the night before, and both played against some pretty decent offensive options.

Getzlaf line: 31.1%
Carter line: 25.7%
Moen line: 33.7%
Marchant line: 9.4%

Getzlaf line: 34.3%
Carter line: 46.2%
Moen line: 7.7%
Marchant line: 11.9%

Getzlaf line: 30.9%
Carter line: 23.7%
Moen line: 31.7%
Marchant line: 13.7%

The distribution of the minutes was much more even last night than it was against Colorado. All three defensive pairings saw a variety of opposition, and I think looking at things from a situational perspective (i.e. which zone the puck was in) would give us a better idea how these players were used. With what we know about the players, it seems safe to assume that 71-44 saw all situations, 37-77 were mostly used in the offensive zone, and 43-24 were largely deployed in the defensive zone.