Quote:
Originally Posted by Chief Rum
No, not quite. You see, we weren't some amazing shootout team and became awful this year. We have been consistently awful from Game One, Year One of the shootout era. Even when we were rolling to strong performances in the playoffs, we consistently blew chunks in the shootout. It's amazinf really. Pure luck alone should have gotten us a higher success rate with it by now (much less practice).
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Even so, it does seem that the Ducks have straggled out of the gate (4-7-2), much as Carolina did last year. The Cup is a wonderful thing, but it is absolute hell on the team because of the short layoff (and it was even shorter for Carolina because of the Olympic break in '06). You keep thinking that they'll get it together eventually, but for Carolina at least, it never really happened last year.
Will the early struggles increase or decrease the likelihood that Niedermayer and Selanne come back? If they're in trouble by January, what incentive is there to come back then?