Ducks @ Hurricanes MORNING THOUGHTS: Good Things On The Horizon

The Anaheim Ducks finished their road trip on a high note, beating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in a shootout. Even better, they finished the road trip capturing 6 of a total 8 points possible, including winning both games of a back-to-back. This brings the Ducks to 6-4-1 on the season.

Let’s look at some Best and Worst take-aways from this game:

Best and Worst

B - Ryan Miller looks to be a reliable backup. This win against the Canes came heavily on the back of Miller, who had as good a game as you could hope for when playing your first game with a new team. He turned aside 34 shots, 9 of which came in a lopsided overtime, and put the icing on the cake by stopping all 3 of the Canes’ shootout attempts.

W - We aren’t out of the woods yet. The Ducks are still trying to escape injuries. Ryan Getzlaf played the first period after getting hit in the face by a puck just 30 seconds into the game. He would not return for the rest of the game however, listed with an upper-body injury and will be re-evaluated upon his return to Anaheim. On a less-worrying note, the Ducks also had Sami Vatanen as a healthy scratch in tonights game. We can only assume this was to ease him back instead of playing two games without rest.

B - The Ducks are finding ways to step up when needed. Each time the Ducks have been faced with a new injury, someone has stepped up and played at a higher level. When Getzlaf, the clear-cut leader of the team, was announced done for the game, it showed as the Ducks got throttled in the second. They needed another big player to come through and in the third you could tell someone was going to step up based on the pressure they were bringing. It came in the form of Jakob Silfverberg getting the tying goal late in the third. This was only the first of the season for Silf, but it couldn’t have come at a better time.

With the amount of injuries the Ducks were faced with to start the season, and the amount of injuries they’ve acquired so far, I don’t think anyone thought they would be above .500 after the first month. A huge chunk of their top talent was missing. As more injured players return the Ducks will become a scarier team, especially when their center depth fully returns.

Three Stars of the Game:

3. Corey Perry - Say whatever you want about Perry underperforming in terms of goal production. The dude know when to come in clutch, scoring the shootout goal the Ducks needed to get the W.

2. Jakob Silfverberg - We were all sensing that Silfverberg was going to break the seal soon. He chose a perfect night to do it. We can only hope there is more to come now that he’s got his first of the season.

1. Ryan Miller - This one’s a no brainer. Miller was amazing in his first game for the Ducks. He kept them alive in the second period. Then he stole overtime to keep the Ducks alive, coming one save short of trying the Ducks franchise record for overtime saves. He finished by turning aside each shootout attempt. “He came up big for us. He hasn’t played in a while and he made some big saves during the game for us. He won us that game in overtime.” - Corey Perry

The Anaheim Ducks Twitter sums it up best:

The Ducks begin their next month of hockey on home ice, Wednesday Nov. 1, against Auston Matthews and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

@AnaheimDucks Twitter