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Anaheim Ducks still making their own annual playoff push

By Jamaal Artis

ANAHEIM, CA - JANUARY 17: Adam Henrique #14 of the Anaheim Ducks celebrates his goal with the bench to take a 3-1 lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins during the second period at Honda Center on January 17, 2018 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA - JANUARY 17: Adam Henrique #14 of the Anaheim Ducks celebrates his goal with the bench to take a 3-1 lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins during the second period at Honda Center on January 17, 2018 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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The Anaheim Ducks are still very much alive in pursuit of the postseason.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before — the Anaheim Ducks struggled at the beginning of the NHL season, they’ve turned things around and are now pushing towards a playoff berth. Like clockwork, the 2017-18 season has been no different.

The Ducks are making their annual playoff push and at the end of 2017, the Ducks sat at 18-14-8, not a bad record but not great either, as they consistently sat in fifth place in the Pacific Division.

Part of the reason the Ducks did so poorly early on in the season was that the injury bug hit the team early and often. Big trade acquisition from 2017 Patrick Eaves has not suited up because of Guillan-Barre Syndrome, which is a disease of the nervous system.

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Team captain Ryan Getzlaf took a puck in the face in late October and missed a month of games. Ryan Kesler had off-season hip surgery and didn’t suit up for the Ducks until December 27th.

Needless to the Ducks missed a lot of goal scoring thanks to those big injuries. Just as they improved their depth with the return of Getzlaf and Kesler the Ducks season started to take off. When the calendar turned to 2018 the Ducks put it into another gear, the Ducks went 7-3-1 in January shooting up from fifth and back into a playoff spot.

The Ducks have gotten contributions from others that have stepped up during the season. Winger Rickard Rakell is the team leader in goals 22 and points 45 while trailing only Getzlaf with 23 assists. Rakell also made his first NHL All-Star game of his career.

The Ducks front office, seeing the lack of depth, pulled the trigger on a trade for Adam Henrique, formerly of the New Jersey Devils. Despite having to give up young defenseman Sami Vatanen the team has gotten 18 points in 30 games from Henirique and his presence helped to turn around the early season struggles.

With the turnaround, the Ducks seem poised stay in the playoff race but all isn’t as well as it seems. As of this writing February has not been good to the Ducks. They lost the first three games in a row before beating the Buffalo Sabres in overtime on Tuesday night.

With 11 of their last 26 games against division opponents the Ducks will have plenty of opportunities to maintain their top three finish if they can collect the points.

One player they may have to lean on is backup goalie Ryan Miller. Once an elite goalie Miller has been a backup for some time in the league as he gets up in age. Full time starter John Gibson was put on the injured reserve on January 31st. With no timetable on his return it’s the Ryan Miller show.

Miller has to be better than his recent 2-2-1 record with a save percentage of .868, if the Ducks want to maintain a playoff spot Miller will have to do better.

Next: Los Angeles Kings Continue Their Hunt For Playoff Berth

The Ducks are poised to maintain a playoff spot but if they don’t get good goaltending from Ryan Miller while John Gibson is out, or if their core offensive stars falter. This may be the year where their comeback magic runs out.

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