Ducks' Hiller pulls a Vokoun, shuts out Panthers 3-0

The Panthers had some energy early, but as is usual, couldn’t finish. They were outshooting and generally outworking the Ducks up until the halfway point. That was when they started looking like they played last night. After that, it was pretty much over. They looked tired for the second half of the second and for most of the third.

The goals were likely a result of the team being tired as they were all turnovers on sloppy plays where no one could get over to cover fast enough. The first was an attempted Ballard pass to Weiss, but it was way off and Getzlaf just grabbed it and shot before anyone could react.

The fresher team won. Period. If they didn’t really need the points I wouldn’t even worry much about it, having been as entertained by yesterday’s win as I was and tonight being the second game in two days. I’ll expect a lot better on Friday.

I thought they got outworked more or less the whole game. And, frankly, I’m not so willing to give them a pass. Ballard’s giveaway for goal one was brutal as was the defensive coverage that led to goal two. They play back to back on the road often and seem to do reasonably well. Tonight, from my seat, I saw very few, if any good scoring chances. The power play looked anemic. Kamil Kreps has no business playing over Mike Duco, Kendall McArdle or Michal Repik in my opinion.

They are in the thick of an extraordinarily tight playoff race. They have little, if any, margin for error. Perhaps the Ducks were more well rested. Them’s the breaks. You still have to go out and try to defend home turf, even if it’s in front of 5,000 fans.

There wasn’t much to cheer about at all. It was a very lackluster, dare I say boring, game. The refs handed them nearly 4 minutes of straight power play time in the third when it was still 2-0. A goal there and perhaps we pull a point, maybe two, out of this one. Instead, the power play looks brutal and never even threatens Hiller. Not good.

Granted, you can’t win them all, but still….

While I could not listen to the game and obviously couldn’t watch it, I still believe that we are short on offence. I think it’s eight goals in the last eight games, or something like that. We are in a very tight playoff race as dscruf said and we just don’t have enough offence. We need guys that can finish.

Waiting for Horton will help some, but what the Panthers management needs to remember is that we have a bunch of games to win before Horton comes back. We can’t fall further behind.
The guys like Kreps and Campbell are not helping with regard to offence. We need more scoring. Anyone seen Rhino?

Making a trade for a scorer is the only way to bolster our team. Burkie made a great deal in getting Phanuef. I don’t see how Calgary thinks that they improved themselves by getting 3 players from one of the worst teams in the NHL. My point is that deals can be made and you must be willing to give something up to get something. We’ve been waiting a long time for certain players to produce, and they haven’t. Let’s move on.

Anyway, I have been saying this since Booth went down, and even before the season started, we need a goal scorer. Someone that can finish.