After a brief hiatus for my honeymoon and then general busy-ness during the holidays, the weekly rankings are back!!!!! For those who missed this segment last season, this is a weekly series on Anaheim Calling to take a look at how various players on the team have fared. I will 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 December 29th against the Coyotes, December 31st against the Lightning, and January 4th against the Golden Knights.

For the first ranking of the new year and the first ranking in over a month, I needed to come out swinging, and swing I have. I am going to rank something that every person young and old loves: Disney Animated Movies. These do not include any of the Pixar films, only the actual animated flicks. I have a feeling everyone will hate me for these rankings, but whatever- sorry not sorry! (Writers Note: Just for context and because JLam requested it, I was born in 1991 and thus my rankings are biased towards the mid to late 90s and early 2000s) As always, these rankings are 100% correct, and no one can tell me otherwise.

5 Stars: Hercules

Hercules is a glorious movie telling the tale of a young and confused kid trying to find his way in the world. Spoilers: He eventually finds his way and is able to become the hero and god that the world needs. There are ups and downs throughout the film that can pull at your heartstrings, along with some great voice acting and a great soundtrack (I mean who doesn’t get the feelz when they listen to Go The Distance every single day. Wait no one else listens to that song each day? Well, you should!! Especially you, CJ!). There are a lot of great Disney Animated Films out there, but Hercules stands atop Mount Olympus looking down on them!

Nick Ritchie - Adam Henrique - Ondrej Kase - This was by far the most productive trio for the Ducks on the week. In the three games this week, Nick Ritchie had one goal and three primary assists for four points, Kase had two goals and one primary assist for three points, and Henrique had one goal and two secondary assists for three points. Outside of the production, they had an impact on the game from a chance perspective. With these three on the ice, the Ducks generated 14 scoring chances for and seven high danger chances for, while only allowing 10 scoring chances against and three high danger chances against.

4 Stars: Lion King

Alright now, before you start yelling at me and @ing me on Twitter, I like Lion King. I actually really really like it. It is just not the best Disney Animated Film to me. Having said that, this film, like Hercules and a lot of these other movies, shows us the journey a young Simba takes to find his place in the world and eventually take his rightful position as King after defeating Scar. It also has some absolutely classic songs that will live on forever, like Circle of Life, Hakuna Matata, and I Just Can’t Wait to be King. This movie is an absolute classic and is very very good. Just not the top for me.

Andrew Cogliano - Ryan Kesler - Jakob Silfverberg - So from a shot and chance perspective, this line was good this week. I am slightly confused by this, because my perception before looking into the stats was that they had a rough week, but I have set the precedent in utilizing all stats to evaluate players and I cannot ignore what these numbers are telling me. [Editor’s note: Jake could ignore numbers, but that would make him itchy. We don’t want that.] As a line they were at 66.67 CF%, 61.9 SCF%, and 77.78 HDCF%, and were on the ice for zero goals for and one goal against. My reasoning for knocking them to 4-Stars is that they played roughly 25% of the Ducks 5v5 minutes, but had only one point combined on the week, and it did not come when all three were on the ice.

Brandon Montour - Hampus Lindholm - This D pair was above 50% in CF%, SCF%, and HDCF% on the week, all while playing the most minutes at 5v5 of any pair and they finished the week with a 50% GF% at ES.

Jacob Larsson - Josh Manson - This D pair was very, very good on the week. They posted a 61.97 CF%, 58.62 SCF%, and 66.67 HDCF% over these past three games. They have become a very solid pair for the Ducks over the last little stretch. They are very quiet, but in the good way that helps you win hockey games. The main thing keeping them from 5-Stars is a bit of luck. They were on the ice for two goals against and none for, even though they had the better of the play.

John Gibson - Gibson was his usual stellar self against the Lightning and Golden Knights, posting a combined 4.43 GSAA in these two games, but had a slightly off night against the Coyotes with a -1.92 GSAA night. He still finished the week saving 2.5 more goals than an average goaltender.

3 Stars: Tarzan

Tarzan is the average for a Disney movie. It has a wonderful soundtrack put together by Phil Collins, and tells the tale of Jane and Tarzan finding each other and falling in love, all while saving the wildlife. It is a good movie that can be rewatched, but was not life changing.

Pontus Aberg - Ryan Getzlaf - Daniel Sprong - This line was pretty average on the week. They had middling shot and chance metrics, posting a 50 CF%, 45.45 SCF%, and 60 HDCF%. On top of this Sprong was the only player to impact the score sheet with two goals on the week. This was not a bad week for these three, but it was not good either.

Carter Rowney - Brian Gibbons - These two played majority of their minutes on the week together. During that time they posted a 52.94 CF%, 52.94 SCF%, and 28.57 HDCF%. From a production standpoint, each of them chipped in with a point (Rowney with a goal and Gibbons with a secondary assist).

2 Stars: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Honestly, I have only seen this movie once and cannot really recall any of it. I remember not liking it at all, and have never felt a need to go back and rewatch it. [Editor’s Note: The book is better and all of Paris mourned the author’s death! Disney got it all wrong. It’s like putting Perry in a King’s jersey.]

Josh Mahura - Andy Welinski - This D Pair was put together this week and the results were not fantastic at 5v5. They put up a 32.61 CF%, 31.25 SCF%, and 22.22 HDCF% together.

Kiefer Sherwood - Sherwood had a rough week. He was shifted up and down throughout the lineup and never was able to make a solid impact. He posted zero points along with a 43% CF%, 33% SCF%, and 16% HDCF%.

1 Star: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Like the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I only saw this movie once. The difference between this and the Hunchback is that I can remember just how bad this movie was. The only redeeming factor for it was it had cool toys at McDonalds.

I am feeling generous after my hiatus, so I am giving not giving any player on the team a 1-Star rating.

Unranked: Moana

I like Moana a lot, but I could not fully put it in this ranking because it was a 3D animated movie, whereas the rest of these films were 2D movies.

Ben Street (1 Game Played)

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