Ducks vs Blues RECAP: Everything is Awful and Hockey is Dumb

One final game before the All Star break and the bye week. One more stretch of 60 minutes before being without Ducks hockey for 10 full days. One last push against a Blues team that sits far from where many expected them to be this season.

Thank God that’s over.

I’m not going to even bother with breaking down the game. What was probably the worst regular season attempt at hockey in the last several years doesn’t really deserve a detailed summary.

Instead, I’ll just give you a quick recap: Daniel Sprong goal on the first shot for the Ducks 6:44 into the game. Goals by Vladimir Tarasenko, Zach Sanford, Oskar Sundqvist, Tyler Bozak, and Sammy Blais for the Blues. 13 shots on goal total for Anaheim. 32 for St. Louis. 60% of the shot attempts in favor of the Blues. And 62% of the scoring chances. And 72% of the high-danger chances (26 allowed in total, what the ever-loving hell).

Gibson probably should have been pulled after the fourth goal. Instead, he was pulled after the fifth with Chad Johnson making just one save in relief.

This game resulted in one of the worst Gamescore cards I’ve ever seen:

Best and Worst

Best - Daniel Sprong

Sprong is one of the few Ducks who is pulling his weight offensively lately with six points in his last seven games, including a goal last night. He’s currently on pace for 30 goals over a full season since he joined Anaheim. The pure shooting talent seems to be coming around.

Worst - Looks around everywhere

Yeah, that sucked. It’s poetic that the Ducks would limp into the break like this. Last night wasn’t even just a bad hockey team. This was a team that had given up and looked like they actively were not trying to win the game. The Gamescore card above illustrates that pretty clearly.

This team doesn’t deserve John Gibson. Go show the rest of the world how good you are at the All Star Game, buddy.

Worst - No meaningful coaching or management changes are coming, probably

Given the context of this season, this kind of game would undoubtedly lead most teams to fire their head coach. Some would even fire their general manager after a performance like this. But we all know that’s probably not going to happen here. The old boys’ club will take a break and sip on their finely-aged whiskey while sitting in fine leather-bound chairs doing all the mental gymnastics required to convince themselves that they have no hand in how bad this team is and that those damn players just won’t step up and play better.

3 Stars

3. Zach Sanford

2. Vladimir Tarasenko

1. Ryan O’Reilly