On the Road Again: The Anaheim Ducks in Beantown

Tonight the Anaheim Ducks play the first of a five-game, eight-day road trip through the northeast portion of the Atlantic Division.

There is plenty of work to be done for the Anaheim Ducks to make the playoffs this year. Taking into consideration current seeding and tiebreakers, the Ducks need to make up two to three games on their fellow competitors. They went 10-4-1 before the break, but that needs to be a starting point. Hopefully, the players got some rest over the break because their task is daunting.

News and Notes

* How valuable is Ryan Kesler to the Ducks? Without him, Anaheim is 16-13-1 (.550 win %); with him they are 8-4-1 (.653 win %).

* Only three Ducks have appeared in all fifty games, Josh Manson, Antoinne Vermette, and surprisingly Chris Wagner.

* Rookie Ondrej Kase is on a roll. He has scored seven points in his past seven games, and 11 points in the last 13.

* John Gibson co-leads the NHL with six games of 40 saves or more.

Ducks @ Boston

Tonight the Ducks open the unofficial start to the second half of the season at the TD Garden in Boston. Going into the break, the Bruins have picked up points in 18 straight games. Why not start an uphill journey against the kings of the mountain over the past month? Anaheim catches one break as B’s leading scorer will resume his five-game suspension.

John Gibson will defend Anaheim’s crease. That’s very good news considering Gibson had to come out of his last game after being upended by Blake Wheeler. Carlyle again mixed up his line combinations at practice yesterday. It was a mild surprise after winning two straight with the previous incarnation. Here is the likely lineup for the Ducks:

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Forwards

Rakell-Getzlaf-Silfverberg
Ritchie-Henrique-Kase
Cogliano-Kesler-Brown
Wagner-Vermette-Perry

Defensemen

Fowler-Bieksa
Lindholm-Manson
Beauchemin/Holzer-Montour

Goalies

Gibson
Miller

Next: The importance of Ryan Miller

The Anaheim Ducks (24-17-9) will then travel to Ottawa to take on the Senators (15-23-9) on Thursday.