ARTHUR:
Out of town Earl predicts Joffrey Lupul gets goal number one tonight. Jen is insisting he didn't score one, for her purposes, last night. And I think you can all join me in a hearty round of 'boos' for that. Boo! . . . Okay, stop. The creepers were a little too prominent in that rabble.
Moving on to the game. There was a considerable amount of play with the combinations last night. Carlyle was trying to match up against a fast team that was hot coming into the contest and beat him convincingly the last time around. He was rewarded by the explosive new combination of Selanne-Koivu-Bla... wait. They're telling me in the truck that those guys have played together before . . . and that the strong-skating combo of Lupul-Marchant-McMillan was a minus-1 . . . and that Getzlaf-Perry-Ryan had fewer shots on goal combined than Cam Fowler.
Okay, well, good shuffling anyways coach.
According to Dobber Hockey's Line Combinations, Perry-Getzlaf-Ryan make up approximately 22% of the Ducks' even strength lines so far this season, and Blake-Koivu-Selanne approximately 16%. The third most common? Ryan Carter, Josh Green and George Parros with 5%.
I should note that those percentage numbers are skewed by the sheer volume of line combinations that Carlyle has attempted. Dobber lists 277 distinct groupings for Carlyle. Vigneault's Canucks have only iced 232. For an additional contrast, the Red Wings have iced 200.
The Ducks have beaten the Canucks this season, but I doubt that matters to Carlyle.
SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL!
I mean,
FOWL!