First Star, Worst Star: October 25, 2015

It’s almost November, the Oilers haven’t been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet, it hasn’t come close to snowing and my pick to represent the west in the Stanley Cup finals, the Anaheim Ducks, are one of the worst teams in the league. Nothing makes sense right now, which means it’s time for First Star, Worst Star!

Goalies: what is up with them? Some people maintain that they are, in fact, voodoo. 

Others don’t, and are wrong. But regardless of what you think of these black magic wielding wizards, I think we can all agree that just over two weeks into the season we already have two strong candidates for Save Of The Year. 

First up is one of our arch enemies, local boy Cam Ward *spits*. Now, even though we hold a life long grudge against him for what he did to us in 2006, Ward is usually good for one or two of these five alarm saves a year. Yes, he’s super out of position and any goalie worth their salt shouldn’t have to flail around to make a save like this in the first place, BUT IT LOOKS SO COOL!

Not to be out done, former Hurricanes 7th round pick Frederik Andersen figured he would make virtually the exact same save. 

This also doubles as literally the only good thing that the Ducks have done so far this season. 

Speaking of the Ducks, MY WORD ANAHEIM what is going on down there?? When we had Columbus in here last week for similar reasons it sort of made sense. They’re a middle of the pack team at best who’ve made the playoffs once in the last 6 seasons. The Ducks on the other hand look amazing on paper, had a great season last year, finishing first in the Western Conference with 109 points, and as I mentioned above I had the Ducks as my pick to make the cup finals from the west. Currently, however, they sit 29th in the league, starting off the year 1-5-1, and sit last in the league by a mile with only SIX GOALS SCORED! 75 year old ageless wonder Jaromir Jagr has as many goals so far this season as the entire Ducks team. That is hilariously bad! 

Their leading scorer is Mike Santorelli, Getzlaf and Perry have two points combined, and they’ve been shutout FOUR TIMES in their first 7 games. Last season they were shut out four times the ENTIRE year! The NHL hasn’t seen a team start the season this limply since the year Connor McDavid was born. 

Not to be that guy but “it’s still early” and there is plenty of time for the Ducks to pull themselves out of this horrible tailspin. They have a lot of talent on their roster, so it would be more surprising to me if they continued to be this abjectly terrible for much longer. 

And cheer up Anaheim fans, things could be worse; you live in California, can go to Disneyland 365 days a year, and as of right now Bruce Boudreau hasn’t been fired and replaced by your AHL coach Dallas Eakins! When that happens then you have my permission to freak the hell out while we all laugh heartily. I CAN’T WAIT!