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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 April 1st against the Avalanche, April 4th against the Wild, April 6th against the Stars, and April 7th against the Coyotes.
With this being the final ranking of the regular season, I realized I needed to pull out all the stops and deliver a ranking that will go down in history. So the only topic that would make sense to use would be a ranking of my Podcast partner and AC writer Felix Sicard’s terrible takes. This will be a slightly different ranking set up than usual because 5 star will be the worst of his takes and 1 star will be the best of his takes. Like past weeks, these rankings are 100% correct, and no one can tell me otherwise.
5 Stars: Cinnamon Toast Crunch is bad and Pizza is Overrated
These are the pinnacle of bad Felix Sicard’s Takes. He believes that Cinnamon Toast Crunch is terrible even though, as he confirmed on the podcast, he has yet to ever try the its cinnamon deliciousness. He also on twitter threw out that Pizza is overrated, which is just blasphemy.
Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - Corey Perry - “Come on RPG, light that fire, Come on RPG light my fire, Try to set the net on fire” (To the tune of Light my Fire by the Doors). This line was really good yet again this week. All three players posted CF%, SCF%, and HDCF% numbers well over 50% on the week and also produced goals. Getzlaf had 4 primary assists, Rakell had 2 goals and 1 secondary assist, and Perry had 2 primary assists and 1 secondary assist. This line continuing this pace will be key for the Ducks to have success in the playoffs.
Andrew Cogliano - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg - I was really torn on where to rank this line. On one hand this line produced the most points out of any line on the team this week. Silfverberg had 1 goal, 4 primary assists, and 1 secondary assist, Cogliano had 3 goals, 1 primary assist, and 1 secondary assist, and Kesler had 1 goal and 1 secondary assist. On the other hand they were not the best on the team at 5v5 shot based metrics. All three were between 50-55% in CF%, at or under 50% in SCF%, but also over 50% in HDCF%. Overall I think they deserve a 5 star rating due to their production on the week, but for the Ducks to have success in the playoffs, this line will need to put up some slightly better 5v5 numbers.
Hampus Lindholm - Josh Manson - The top D pair for the Ducks has stepped up big with Fowler going out. They put up both the points and the 5v5 shot metrics. On the week Manson had 1 goal, 2 primary assists, and 2 secondary assists, and Lindholm had 1 goal and 1 secondary assist. They were well over 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF%. This pairing is going to be heavily utilized in the playoffs and them continuing this pace will be critical for the Ducks.
4 Stars: Miller Lite is a good beer and the Canadiens can win the Cup in 2019
Miller Lite being Felix’s beer of choice is the OG bad Felix take. It has since been surpassed by other bad ones, but is terrible. What type of person actually chooses to drink what essentially is carbonated pee water??
The Canadiens winning the 2019 Stanley Cup is the newest Felix terrible take. His thought process is the Habs would win the first overall pick and take Dahlin, and then also convince Tavares to sign there. With those two offseason moves they would become Cup favorites. I am all for optimism for your favorite team, but this is too far!
Nick Ritchie - Adam Henrique - Ondrej Kase - This line is kind of in the same conundrum as the Kesler line, but with lower production totals. Henrique had 2 goals, 1 primary assist, and 2 secondary assists, Kase had 2 goals, and Ritchie had 1 goal.
Francois Beauchemin - Brandon Monotur - The point production was not exactly there for this pair this week (3 points total), but they were very solid for the team. With Fowler going down with the injury, Beauchemin will be heavily relied upon with Montour to eat minutes for the team. On the week the two were above 50% in CF%, above 55% in SCF%, and above 60% in HDCF%. As scary as it seems, a lot of the Ducks success relies upon Beauchemin and Monotur having success come playoff time.
Ryan Miller - Ryan Miller had to fill in for John Gibson this week, after Gibson went down with an injury in the Avalanche game. Miller posted a 1.06 GSAA on the week along with a shutout of the Coyotes. He had some slightly below average games on the week, but overall put in a really good performance.
3 Stars: Canadian Hockey is the best hockey
The Anaheim Calling Slack chat during the winter Olympics will never see the light of day, but let me summarize how it went down: Felix and Adam became the biggest Canadian homers in the world and definitely hate America.
Jason Chimera - Derek Grant - J.T. Brown - This line was actually not terrible this week. Yes they were as a whole under 50% in CF%, but they were at or above 50% in SCF% and HDCF%. Comparatively to prior weeks, this was a solid week for the Anaheim Ducks 4th line. I do still really want to see Chimera taken off this line (We got a glimpse of what a good 4th line would be against the Canucks).
2 Stars: Ice Cream Floats are Bad
This is one of Felix’s better takes. Ice cream floats are definitely not great. I would consider them overrated, but bad is taking it a bit too far. This would probably be the 1 star rating but I couldn’t really think of a good 2 star one.
Marcus Pettersson - Andy Welinski - This pair was not great as a whole on the week. They were worst on the team in all three shot based metrics. I usually would give this performance 1 star on the week, but they seemed to settle in as the week went on. This was their first time as a pairing at the NHL level, so hopefully this past week was more so a blip on the radar.
1 Star: John Gibson and Ryan Getzlaf are Good
This isn’t really a big take by Felix, but something he has mentioned that is true so I figured it deserves the 1 star for terrible takes.
None
Unranked: Eric Stites wanting Nashville to be the Ducks First Round Opponent
This is unranked because it is not a Felix take, but it was such a bad take that I needed to call Eric out for his terrible opinion.
Cam Fowler (1 Game Played), John Gibson (1 Game Played), Troy Terry (1 Game Played), and Antoine Vermette (1 game played).
*All skater stats are from Naturalstattrick unless stated otherwise. All goalie stats are from Corsica unless stated otherwise
Thank you to everyone for reading and interacting with this fun and stupid idea this regular season. I plan to keep it going in the playoffs also, so lets enjoy the ride!
Also Love Ya Felix!