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For those that have missed this segment, this is a weekly series on Anaheim Calling to take a look at how various players on the team have fared. I will arbitrarily rank a random topic along on a scale of 1 to 5 stars and place different Ducks within the categories based on their performance over the past week.
My reasoning for the rating of the Ducks will be based on stats, results, and probably some of my bias. My reasoning for the rating of the random topic will be completely biased #dealwithit. I will elaborate more on some players than others. I expect everyone to probably disagree with me on both topics and all of my takes will be outed. If there is something you would like me to rank please feel free to leave it in the comments. On to the fun!
The games included in the ratings for this week are Mar 4th against the Blackhawks, Mar 6th against the Capitals, Mar 8th against the Predators and Mar 10th against the Stars.
It is Girl Scout Cookie season, so one of my best friends (Shouts to Andrew Wulc) gave me a great suggestion that I should rank Girl Scout Cookies in this week’s rankings. Little did he know what he was unleashing on the internets with this idea. Like past weeks, these rankings are 100% correct and no one can tell me otherwise.
5 Stars: Tagalongs
Tagalongs are the delicious girl scout cookie that have a layer of both peanut butter and cookie that is then coated in chocolate. I am craving a box of these just thinking about them. I also can neither confirm nor deny that I took down a box of these solo over the span of a few days. For those that love a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter, these are the cookies for you.
Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry - “‘Cause I hope, We will never have to take back, The goals you scored in the night, I hope that we will always have, All eyes on RPG!” (To the tune of All Eyes on You by St. Lucia) The RPG line was a firing this week. Rickard Rakell had 4 goals, 1 primary assist, and 1 secondary assist for 6 points, Getzlaf had 1 goal, 4 primary assists, and 3 secondary assists for 8 points, and Perry had 2 goals and 2 primary assists for 4 points. This kinda of production is absolutely insane and allows me to completely overlook their 5v5 shot metrics this week. Every player on this line had more than a point per game and that deserves 5 stars.
John Gibson - Gibson this week posted 4.33 GSAA and a .933 sv% in 3 games started this week. He continues to strengthen his Vezina claim with his strong play.
4 Stars: Thin Mints
Thin Mints for a long time were the pinnacle of Girl Scout Cookies. They were the top of the top and the best of the best. That all changed once Tagalongs came along. Thin Mints are still great, but they are now just one step down. Also if you have never done this, put Thin Mints in the freezer before you eat them. they become a great frozen treat.
No Ducks were as good as Thin Mints.
3 Stars: Samoas
Before this year, I would have put these in the 2 star range, but having recently tried them again I can appreciate why so many people love them. I would not consider them better than the 5 or 4 star cookies, but they are solid. My one complaint with them is the coconut. I despise coconut, so the inclusion of it almost ruins the cookie for me.
Andrew Cogliano - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg - This line had a pretty rough week at 5v5, but their production keeps them from dropping down to a 1 or 2 star ranking. At 5v5 they were below 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF%, which is not great for a so called shutdown line. Like I said though, they were able to contribute in the goal scoring department; Silfverberg has 2 goals and 2 secondary assists for 4 points, Cogliano had 2 primary assists for 2 points on the week and Kesler had 1 secondary assist on the week for 1 point.
Cam Fowler - Brandon Montour - This pairing had a bit of an up and down week, but their overall play since being put together has been solid. They were blow 50% in CF%, SCF% and HDCF%, but so was most of the team. The thing that is impressive to me is their shot and chance prevention has been among the best on the team.
2 Stars: Trefoils
This cookie is as basic as they come and yes, I am knocking it for it. The trefoils are just a shortbread cookie. They are fine and I would eat a box of them if put in front of me, but they are no different than a shortbread cookie that you can find all year round.
Nick Ritchie - Adam Henrique - Ondrej Kase - See my reasoning for the Kesler line but take out the production and that is why this line receives 2 stars. This line has cooled down both with 5v5 play and production. Part of me wonders if other teams are starting to key in on them a bit more and focusing on shutting them down. If this is the case, now that the Getzlaf line is going off they should get softer matchups again and hopefully benefit from that.
Hampus Lindholm - Josh Manson - This pairing had a bit of a rough week, being well below 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF%. It seems like the uncertainty with who their partners will be has had a negative effect on their game. Hopefully Carlyle keeps these two together to provide stability in their game.
1 Star: None
There is no such thing as a bad Girl Scout cookie!
Randy Carlyle - Carlyle decided to change up the defense that had gone 7-1-1 in their last 9 heading into the Nashville game by scratching Pettersson in favor of Kevin Bieksa. This on its own would not have gotten Carlyle a 1 star rating, but the follow up decision to split Manson and Lindholm does. By making these changes, he left the Ducks with 1 viable D pair against one of the best and fastest teams in the league. A coaches job is to set the team up for success and this decision did not.
Chris Kelly - Derek Grant - Jason Chimera - Ohhhh boyyyy this line was terrible this week. They were the worst line on the team in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF% all three being well below 40% in all three categories. It is hard to put a whole lot of weight in an RC 4th line that will play under 10 mins a game, but these guys were terrible. At this point I am almost 95% confident in saying Wagner & Brown >> Kelly & Chimera.
Marcus Pettersson - Kevin Bieksa - I am sorry Marcus for giving you a 1 star ranking, but Kevin Bieksa dragged you down here. This was the worst pairing on the week for the team. Bieksa has an extremely negative effect on any partner he plays with. It is shocking that he is still getting playing time at this point. Old man Beauch looks amazing in comparison to Kevin.
Unranked: S’Mores
I had the newly created S’Mores cookie this year and while they were solid, I found myself wanting it to be tweaked just a bit. I am leaving it unranked because of it being such a new cookie. Also while doing intensive research for this article, I found out the ones I had were from the ABC bakery and the ones from Little Brownie bakery look so much more delicious!!!!
Francois Beauchemin (2 Game Played), Antoine Vermette (1 Game Played), J.T. Brown (1 Game Played), Ryan Miller (1 Game Started).
*All skater stats are from Naturalstattrick unless stated otherwise. All goalie stats are from Corsica unless stated otherwise