Three games into the NHL season, hope and optimism reign and every team believes they are a Stanley Cup contender. Even the reconditioned Anaheim Duckswhose last playoff victory came less than four months after Barack Obama left the White House, have reason to dream.
“You have to have that mentality, that this is a playoff team,” the defenseman said Cam Fowlerone of two players on the Ducks roster who also played on that 2017 playoff team. “If anyone is here and thinks we can’t do this, I’d be very surprised.”
But after six straight losing seasons (the Ducks refer to much of that period as the “rebuilding years”), even Fowler, 32, acknowledges that the mentality — along with the Ducks’ new bright orange uniforms and revamped logo — will not be the same. enough to change the fortunes of the team. It will also take some victories.
“There’s not a lot to do or say,” he said. “You have to show up and prove it during the season. It hasn’t gone the way we have in recent years, but that doesn’t mean this year has to be that way.
The team’s long-suffering fans certainly showed up Wednesday, with a standing-room-only crowd of 17,245 at the Honda Center for the home opener. And they left happy after a 5-4 overtime win over Utah gave the team two wins in its first three games for the first time since 2021.
That team lost its next six games in a row and finished seventh in the eight-team Pacific Division. Whether this season mirrors that one or proves to be the season where the Ducks finally make the playoffs will be determined by a generation of talented but ultimately unproven young players. This is why hope and optimism must, at best, be greeted with caution.
Cam Fowler, left, and Tristan Luneau of the Ducks battle for the puck with Utah’s Logan Cooley.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
The Ducks have ranked in the top four of The Athletic’s NHL Pipeline rankings, which ranks the best young players in each organization, in each of the last three seasons. Four players on this team aren’t even old enough to buy a beer in California, including a 20-year-old Russian defender Pavel Mintyukovauthor of two goals on Wednesday, and the 19-year-old Swede Leo Carlssonthe second pick in last year’s draft, who scored the game-winning goal 54 seconds into overtime.
“The most important thing this year will be how quickly we can get the kids to mature in their game,” said coach Greg Cronin, who begins his second season behind the bench. “Your players win games, don’t they? Your talent wins.
“When you have young children, that talent hasn’t matured. Just in terms of repetition, a veteran who has played five years in the league, let’s just say he has 10,000 repetitions in a certain game. A young kid comes in, he has 100 repetitions. There’s a huge difference and you can’t manufacture, you know, 9,000 reps for a young kid. He has to follow the process.
And for Cronin, who is as much a teacher as a coach, this process will require boundless patience and tolerance for mistakes.
“A guy makes a lot of mistakes and if you attack the player he loses confidence,” he said. “These young kids, we know they’re going to make mistakes. What can we do to help them overcome their mistakes so they can continue to grow as players and contribute? »
Young players are also cheaper and the Ducks, after cutting high-priced veterans Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Jakob Silfverberg, Hampus Lindholm and others, have eight players making less than $1 million this season. That leaves the team’s overall cap allocation at $68.3 million, second lowest in the NHL and just $3.2 million above the NHL salary cap, according to Puckpedia.com.
Pavel Mintyukov celebrates his goal with Alex Killorn during the third period.
(Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
The Ducks’ payroll has ranked in the bottom four in the NHL in each of the past four seasons and owners, tech billionaire Henry Samueli and his wife Susan, have more than gotten what they paid for over the past four seasons. the team’s long rebuild, with the Ducks finishing last or second-to-last in the division each season. (To be fair, the Ducks were fourth in the NHL in spending during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season; they still finished in the division cellar.)
The Samuelis did not respond to requests, made through a team spokesperson, to share their ideas for turning around the Ducks. However, the team’s modest payroll leaves general manager Pat Verbeek with nearly $20 million in wiggle room if the young guys mature faster than expected, turning current fall optimism into legitimate hope for here next spring.
Players, even fans, are tired of waiting for this to happen.
“Looking ahead, it’s kind of over,” said winger Troy Terry, who is in his eighth season with the Ducks and has yet to appear in a playoff game. “We now have a team to try to make the playoffs. That’s just kind of the mindset we’re all trying to have.
“The last five or six years have definitely been the start of our rebuild,” Fowler added. “We’re kind of on the verge of getting out of this.” Now it’s up to us to grow as a team and show that we built this thing the right way.
As part of the pre-game festivities, Placentia’s Emma Melin was introduced as the 21st Duck, an honor given to a fan who exemplifies “great perseverance, character, courage, inspiration or who makes a significant contribution to our community.”
Melin, 9, was chosen for her work raising awareness about severe food allergies, a problem she has faced since her first episode when she was nine days old. Since then, she has had five near-fatal experiences, but has continued to work to educate others.
