Anaheim Ducks Weekly Rankings March 24th-March 30th: Where Are We Dropping?!?

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 25th against the Oilers, Mar 27th against the Canucks, and Mar 30th against the Kings.

After using Twitter last week to get a ranking suggestion, I figured why not throw it out again. Parker Bobb came through with a perfect topic: video games. My first video gaming memories go back to the days of the N64 playing through various classics like Super Mario 64, 007 Golden Eye, Super Smash Bros, etc. Since that point in time I have spent hours upon hours gaming on plenty of different consoles and PCs. In order to make my life easier and narrow down this category, I am only going to rank games that were released somewhat recently. Like past weeks, these rankings are 100% correct, and no one can tell me otherwise. I will probably leave off your favorite game, and it is probably because I hate it!

5 Stars: Horizon: Zero Dawn, Bioshock: Infinite, Overwatch, GTA V

These games are probably my favorite games to be released within the past 5 years. All of them are completely different but extremely enjoyable. Horizon: Zero Dawn takes an interesting view on a post-apocalyptic world and puts the player into a massive open world that somehow feels very small at the same time. Bioshock: Infinite on the other hand is a linear campaign that combines a cool aura and deep storyline. Overwatch is strictly a multiplayer game that redefined the genre for consoles (yes I know its similar to TF2, but TF2 never really became a hit on consoles). The last of these games, GTA V, built upon the legacy of Grand Theft Auto to create a wonderful open world game.

Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry - “If you like seeing Goaladas, and getting caught in the joy, If you’re not into losin, if you have half a brain, If you like havin beers at midnight, in the tunnels of Honda Center, They’re the love that you´ve looked for, write to them, and escape” (to the tune of Escape, The Pina Colada song, by Rupert Holmes). This line hovered around 50% in CF%, but the shot quality statistics show that this does not tell the whole story. All three were well above 50% in SCF% and HDCF%. They were absolutely buzzing in the Ducks/Kings game, creating the best chances for the team continually throughout the night. On the week, Rakell had 1 goal, 1 primary assist, and 1 secondary assist, Getzlaf had 1 secondary assist, and Perry had 1 goal and 1 secondary assist. Usually this would only get this line a 4 star rating, but that OT winner from Rakell against the Kings and specifically the beaut of a celly propelled the line to a 5 star rating.

Nick Ritchie - Adam Henrique - Ondrej Kase - This line on the week was overall very good. They were well above 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF%. On top of that Adam Henrique had 2 goals, Ondrej Kase had 2 primary assists, and Nick Ritchie had 1 goal.

Josh Manson - Hampus Lindholm - This D pair was well above 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF%. On top of this they were the best D pair on the team at shots, scoring chances, and high danger chance suppression. After a rough go at it for the past few weeks, it seems like this D pair is back in sensational form.

4 Stars: Monster Hunter: World, Bloodborne, The Last of Us

All three of these games are extremely, extremely fun, but each of them had one or two minor flaw that kept it from achieving a 5 star ranking. For Monster Hunter: World and Bloodborne, it is the lack of a tutorial. These games throw you into the deep end of the pool and forces you to learn everything for yourself. Even though that also can make the game more rewarding, it is frustrating from my point of view. For The Last of Us, my issue is that I am not a huge horror fan, and this game relies on a few horror elements at various points in time. It is a brilliant game that I loved, but will never be one of my favorites.

Andrew Cogliano - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg - I could basically copy and paste the RPG lines description for this line. They bounced back after a pretty bad week. They were over 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF%. Silfverberg had 0 points on the week, but Cogliano had 1 goal and 1 primary assist and Kesler had 2 secondary assists. This line would have been in the 5 star range if it wasn’t for a terrible Ryan Kesler game against the Canucks.

John Gibson - John Gibson had a very average week by a GSAA and sv% perspective. He only had a 0.01 GSAA and recorded a .911 sv%. I would usually give this a 3 star rating, but having seen these games he was slightly better than that.

3 Stars: FIFA, NHL

Sports games are the perfect 3 star game. They are never going to be the most enjoyable games ever, but they also will be the old reliable.

Cam Fowler - Brandon Montour - On the surface, this D pair had a solid week, being above 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF%. The issue is that they have come back to earth a bit in terms of shot, chance, and high danger shot suppression. They were the worst D pair on the team in terms of high danger shot suppression, and were only slightly better than the 3rd pair at shot and chance suppression. While this pair was succeeding, they did a fantastic job at shot suppression. Hopefully this is a blip on the radar.

2 Stars: Steep

As someone who loves snowboarding games, I was really excited for this game to be released, and it really disappointed. It almost even gets a 1 star rating. It just way under delivers on every element that a snowboarding game should have. The only positive thing about the game is that it’s pretty.

Francois Beauchemin - Marcus Pettersson - Basically take what I said for Fowler Montour, but add in they played against worse competition and were the worst on the team at shot and chance suppression.

1 Star: Assassin’s Creed: Unity

Thankfully I never actually spent money on this game, but there were so many issues with it, the biggest one being that it did not work on release.

Jason Chimera & Derek Grant - Yep, Jason Chimera is still bad and is dragging down Elite 1st Line Center™ Derek Grant.

Unranked: Batman Tell Tale & The Wolf Among Us Tell Tale

These two games are amazing Tell Tale games, but it would not seem fair to put a Tell Tale game on the full ranking.

Josh Manson (1 Game Played), Antoine Vermette (1 Game Played)

*All skater stats are from Naturalstattrick unless stated otherwise. All goalie stats are from Corsica unless stated otherwise