Best/Worst: Ducks Get First Win of the Year

Best: Depth Scoring

Wagner started off the scoring and Garbutt gets the game winner. Boll, Vermette, Holzer, and Sorensen all registered assists and played key roles in the Ducks first win of the season. Sorensen looked strong all night and got his first NHL point on the game winning goal. Holzer, with his face still bloodied from the first, had a beautiful backdoor pass to set up Garbutt for the game winner. Boll’s drop pass to set up Wagner’s opening goal will probably be the best play we see from him all year.

Worst: Penalties

What seems to be a reoccurring theme for these Ducks this season (same during Randy Carlyle’s first stint with the Ducks) is the team’s inability to stay out of the penalty box. It seems like the Ducks were trying to collect one of each throughout the game with everything from holding, to roughing, and even covering the puck with a hand. The Ducks took a whopping five penalties in the second period and a total of eight in the game to Philly’s three.

Best: PK Unit

Not only did they kill off all but one penalty, but they looked good in doing so. This game could have been a blowout in favor of the Flyers if they would have been able to capitalize on any number of the many opportunities they had on the man advantage. The Flyers had 17 shot attempts across the 7 powerplays and the Ducks PK only let one of those get past Gibson. The Duck’s special teams are going to play a huge role this season if this is any indication of how games will be called against this team.

Worst: Ryan Getzlaf

One of Hazy and Ahler’s favorite go-to lines is “the team goes as Ryan Getzlaf goes” and Getzlaf did not lead by example tonight. With the penalty issues that this team is having, taking a weak tripping retaliation call behind the play is not the kind of leadership and direction that this team needs right now. This game could have gotten ugly quick had Getzlaf lost his cool after some of those calls. I’d like to think that it was the captain that corrected this team issue during the second intermission but we’ll never know for sure.

3 Stars

John Gibson - Although he didn’t face an overwhelming number of shots, Gibson made a few key plays both early and late in this game to keep it close for the Ducks. He had to be stellar on the PK and only gave up one powerplay goal on seven opportunities. After a shaky opener, Gibson has been solid in every game since and seems to be settling in now.

Wayne Simmonds - Simmonds started the scoring for the Flyers with a powerplay goal. He had a strong physical game and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. He was a thorn in the side of the Ducks the whole game and was Philly’s strongest and most active player on the night.

Corey Perry - Always there just when you need him, Perry tied the game late in the second and gave the Ducks the momentum they needed to close the game out in the 3rd. Perry was responsible for two penalties in the second but they were both pretty weak calls, the second roughing call especially.