Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't

I feel like I've written this same piece before. it seems like no matter what the Ducks have done, will do, or should have done, no one is ever happy. This off season we saw the departure of Frankie Beauchemin, Chris Pronger, Travis Moen, Sammy P, Kent Huskins, and some others less notables. Now what I find interesting is that as soon as those guys left, everybody started screaming "The Ducks defense is less than average;" and that the Ducks would have a hard time and finish possibly seventh in the Conference. I still remember when every said at the trade deadline that we were done as soon as the above mentioned list of players were traded (sans for Pronger). The first thing I thought was that we got younger and faster. Suddenly, we went from "no chance" at making the playoffs to "rightfully" making them, as well as upsetting the number one team in the NHL, and taking the defending Cup Champions to a seventh game, and the final three minutes.

So now, we have over ten defensive men fighting for a starting spot, young and old, but more importantly cheaper than we would have paid for another slower, and complacent Chris Pronger (yea, I said complacent...so what?). We're younger and faster on the blue line, and we still have money left over for improvements, and/or signing Bobby Ryan to an extension.

Scoring has been upgraded far more than anyone is giving us credit for. Lupul should be good for at least 15-20 goals this season, along with Koivu's 20+ (maybe more since playing alongside another fellow country man apparently increases production), adding to that Bobby Ryan's first full NHL season (which ironically we never would have previewed last season had Beauchemin never gone down to injury), the Ducks should score more as many if not more goals than they did in 2007.

I've always said (usually when angry) we should trade (insert star player here) for 5 players if this guy doesn't get his act together. Well Bob Murry was obviously thinking the same thing. We let go/traded 5 or 6 players, and got back almost an entire starting lineup in return, and yet the Ducks still can not garner any love from the media, let alone some of the "so called expert hockey bloggers."

Scott Niedemeyer definitely has his hands full as captain this season, but I think the only thing better than a veteran team that's been to the mouton top, is a young team with veteran leadership and playoff experience. The Ducks have both; as I stated previously, they beat the San Jose Sharks (crowned the Stanley Cup Champions before the season even started) and took the Wings to seven games. This was done without Huskins, Moen, Sammy, Kunitz, O'Donnel, etc. We had Pronger and Frankie in the playoffs, but one miraculously came back from surgery and probably was not 100% and the other had become unusually silent (physically) in his playing style.

So regardless of the amazing job that Bob Murray has done with this team, it'll always be a case of being damned if you do, and damned if you don't. I for one, like the fact that rather than sitting on his hands and doing nothing when the team hits a seed bump, Murray has proven he can pull the trigger when needed. That's all I asked for from him when Burke left the team for Toronto. Burke blazed a new trail, and Murray continues to do the same. So as a true Anaheim Ducks fan, I stand by them win, lose or draw. I won't ask "is this the season they do it?" Instead I say I bleed Ducks orange to the end!