Quack Attack

The Anaheim Ducks have successfully made it to the 2nd round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. We are fairly certain that this does not surprise anyone in the RHL. After a couple of intentional hiccups against the Minnesota Wild (Let’s be honest, we want to pad our players’ playoff career numbers), the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim quacked their way to a 2-1 defeat in overtime in Game 6 to secure their spot in the second round.

We can skip any comment on Games 3 and 4 as they were merely confidence builders for the Wild. We were actually hoping to see more from Charlie MacAvoy, but apparently he didn’t want to be a thorn in his good buddy Patrice’s side.

In Game 5, it was another slaughter by Anaheim as the Ducks put up a 7 goal effort against a meager 3 goals by the Wild. Led by offseason acquisition Bryan Rust’s Hattrick and Captain Patrice’s trifecta of apples, the Wild goaltenders Jake Allen and Dustin Tokarski didn’t show much of anything in the skill department. What is even more laughable is that only one goal was scored on the powerplay. Six even strength goals in a playoff game is, well, just embarrassing to see.

In Game 6 the Minnesota Wild were a bit more prepared for the Ducks. It was a tight game from the get-go and took the Ducks nearly 40 minutes to pot their first goal. Again Bryan Rust proved the stud he is with a beautiful deflection on Bergeron’s shot. Minnesota did strike back to tie up the game late in the third on a goal by ex-Anaheim Duck draftee Brady Tkachuk. While we hold no grudge against Brady, we are happy we got rid of him and his goon ways. As Minnesota entered overtime riding high, the Ducks didn’t take long to capitalize on the ineffectiveness of Minnesota’s defence, which has been apparent throughout the entire series. Eight minutes into the overtime, rookie Shane Pinto took a pass from Adam Henrique and wristed it home. The Ducks quacked their way into the second round for the 3rd year in a row. Another notable occurrence in the game was that Mike Hardman had an injury to his hand in the first period. I guess I’m using the term “notable” loosely, as I’m not sure if anyone, anywhere, has ever even heard of Mike Hardman. Nevertheless, we hate to see injuries in the game, and hope for a speedy recovery for Mike and a long and healthy career moving forward.

Next up the Anaheim Ducks enter the second round facing off against the Arizona Coyotes, a team that we didn’t even realize made the playoffs. We had been hoping to face off against the Edmonton Oilers and their poorly managed club, but alas they couldn’t even handle the Yotes. Stay tuned to see the Ducks flap their wings and quack their bills as they are sure to make some noise in the second round.

Quack Quack!