Or is yet another factor of what makes us Duck fans scratching our heads wondering with the mass of talent we have why we are not consistent playoff contenders? Here is another article that is an offspring from two previous articles “Top Player Accountability” and “Obstruction, the Power Play, and Lack of Scoring…”, brought to you by Stats’R’Us where our motto is “where a geek can be geek”.

In the “Top Player Availability” article, we’ve consistently found that the bulk of our scoring were from the top 7 for the past seven years at a rate of 62.5% or greater. From Bob Murray’s interview for this past summer he’s noted that Bruce Boudreau will be implementing four lines as opposed to two and half lines [that former head coach Randy Carlyle implemented]. Randy Carlyle has been the head coach for the Ducks for the past seven years, though not being able to finish the seventh year due to yet another poor start.

“Obstruction, the Power Play, and Lack of Scoring…” brought along observations that the Ducks’ even strength scoring was slightly below average for the past seven years. Such that a lack of output from the power play unit would severely hurt the overall team scoring. Four of the past seven years, the Ducks have finished fifth or above in Power Play efficiency. In those seven years, the Ducks have made the playoffs five out of seven seasons. One of those seasons the team failed to make a playoff appearance happens to be one of the seasons where it finished fifth overall in power play efficiency, the 20009 – 2010 season.

Those two articles focused on scoring. This article will try to investigate the defensive aspect of things. I will research from Penalty Killing to our goalies and then even strength play to overall play. And should this article pan out like the previous two, then you better make some popcorn before you continue on reading.

Up first: The penalty killing unit.

From the Penalty Killing (from 2005–11) table above, the Ducks have finished only once in the top 10. That seems quite odd considering the team had Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger for multiple years. Although most of us feared what would have occurred should our superstar talents leave, the Ducks have managed to improve their PK ways from where it once was. But I am amazed at how low the PK unit was performing with the 2008-09 season with Scotty and Prongs on at the same time. Granted, there are other players involved in the penalty kill, yet I never expected to be in the bottom third in PK rankings. Since the 2008-09 season, the team has slightly improve year after year.

Out of sheer curiosity, I went further back in Ducks’ history. Bryan Murray coached the 2001-02 team and then rookie coach Mike Babcock had the team from 2002-04, including the infamous Stanley Cup run where JS Giguere won the Conn Smythe despite losing the series versus the Devils. One would believe that our teams back then were less talented than the ones amassed during these past seven years. So let us have the stats speak to us:

I am amazed and impressed. A rookie coach was able to improve upon Bryan Murray’s record. Babcock’s worse rating would rank 2nd best for the past seven years. With not as much talented players, Babcock was able to get a lot of discipline from them on the PK unit as well as not creating a lot of penalty chances (looking at the TSH stat). Well, now we can attribute the PK play to coaches.

For the past seven years, the Ducks have not restrained themselves enough to be under the NHL average for times short-handed (TSH). Of course, during the Pronger years we would automatically get called for roughing just by breathing on the opponents. After he left, we still were committing more infractions than the average.

But the PK unit is only as good as their goalie. So let’s have a look at the goalie stats as well.

Since the Championship season, every season thereafter the PK unit has allowed more goals allowed than the NHL average. The year after the Cup, our netminders have posted terrific numbers. And as bad as Hiller was last year, he actually kept the team in contention in helping the team be a middle of the road PK unit. Overall, we’ve been blessed with good goaltending. That means we’re right back to the philosophy on how the PK unit is administered. What can BB and his staff do differently this coming season?

Not only does our PK unit not perform well in the past seven seasons with the exception of our Championship run, but our defense started to deteriorate in the 2008-09 season where we still had both our defensive stalwarts. So what happened between 2008-09 and the 2009-10 season? We sort of lost our shutdown line. Pahlsson and Moen were traded before the end of the 2008-09 season and Robbie Niedermayer was not re-signed before the 2009-10 season. (The Moen deal brought us Bonino, G Pielmeier, and a 2011 fourth round pick that ended up becoming Chipchura. Pahlsson netted the Ducks Wisniewski.)

The personnel changes are the charge of the GM. A drop off is expected with Scotty and Prongs leaving the team, but that doesn’t explain the 2008-09 season aside from JS’ terrible performance. And the PK unit doesn’t look as great as one would think, yet in recent seasons it has been improving. We can blame a GM for not replenishing the cupboard, but something seems amiss. The first three years are awesome on defense, but takes a huge dive and seems to languish in the same area for the next four years. Compile that with an inadequate PK unit in six of the seven seasons and one has to wonder if it is the lack of personnel or the system being administered. With the shutdown line and our two defensive superstars in a Ducks’ uniform for almost four years (three years for Prongs), it seems a bit odd that the PK doesn’t reflect the total defense play.

I would like to blame the GM for not replenishing quality talent to sustain a proper defensive team, but it is very difficult to acquire two superstar defensemen. Let us look pre-lockout era again and compare to that era.

Is not that odd to see the pre-lockout Ducks team performed admirably on defense and the PK with lesser talent? The Ducks’ GA and PPGA seem to run similar to one another; not skewed like the first four years after the lockout era. I am not directing the whole problem is coach RC, but may be a combination of things where RC happens to be commonality throughout the past seven years. The PK and GA rate are slowly moving in the same direction together, unfortunately they are still in the bottom third of the league. GM Murray came in four years ago and the defensive side suffered, but that was a time of transition where the team couldn’t afford to keep both Scotty and Pronger. Yet, it doesn’t explain how a lesser talented Ducks’ team seem to play better defense than today’s Ducks. Even with a 19th ranking in GA, 2003-04 team still was able to allow 23 less goals than the NHL average at even strength.

Now, I’m curious when Perry and Getz started to play on the PK unit along with playing at ES and PP units. Those two players may have suffered in overall play as they were RC’s workhorses. We need other players to step up and become PK specialists. But may be playing all four lines will levy some of the burden so that we can perform better as a team.

I miss having Mike Babcock as a coach when looking back retrospectively. Okay, I didn’t need a retrospective look as I was very impressed with what he had done with so little. But there was little to complain about Randy Carlyle as he was able to bring about the Cup as well as made the playoffs often. I’m a Ducks fan first. Yet looking at all of these stats from having a below average Even Strength team as well as having a terrible PK unit for most of the seven year tenure, most of this is an attribute to coaching. And many have noted how many former players are doing well in their new stead. Again, the common component happens to be Randy Carlyle. But that doesn’t let GM Murray off the hook just yet even though we have seen two previous coaches, Brian Murray and Babcock, do wonders with much less.