Why haven’t the Ducks, Sharks taken the next step?
It has been a disappointing start to the year for the NHL’s three Californian teams. The Los Angeles Kings are the last winless team in the league, and both the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks sit at NHL .500 and comfortably back of the pace in the Pacific Division.
While the Kings have an aging roster and are entrenched in a downward trend, both the Ducks and Sharks have young, talented cores and entered the year with high expectations.
While the Ducks were handicapped by the offer sheet to Leo Carlsson, they were still a playoff team a year ago, and the standard was to repeat that performance at least. Meanwhile in the Bay Area, the hype around this young core led by Macklin Celebrini has reached a fever pitch, and general manager Mike Grier added plenty of veterans to a group that pushed for a playoff spot last year.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton was joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss the disappointing starts to the year for the two young, promising teams out of California.
Carter Hutton: Right now we’re watching two young teams that we thought were going to come out flying, the Sharks and the Ducks, and these are teams that I’ve been kind of watching… the Sharks don’t have a regulation win, Petey, and the Ducks have dropped their last three being outscored 13-6. What are your concerns about these younger teams who were supposed to take the step forward in the Pacific Division?
Steve Peters: Well this is hard, because when you look at the Pacific Division, the top two teams are the top two teams now. It’s Vegas and Edmonton. I think we could have said that in July that those two teams were going to be at or near the top. It’s that next tier, and San Jose, I think we’re all saying, ‘Okay, another year of Celebrini. They got some veteran defending in there… This is a team that’s ready to take the Anaheim step from last year…’ It just hasn’t happened yet for San Jose. It’s hard to put all this together when you’re putting all of these expectations on these young players, and that’s what’s happening in San Jose. Yes, Celebrini and Smith, fantastic young players. Michael Misa, Ivar Stenberg, this is as good of a young talented team as there is in the league, but you still go through that roller coaster of growing pains… I still think this is a team that’s gonna find themselves just outside the playoffs this year. Anaheim? I don’t know. You watch them in the playoffs last year and you think this is a team that has to do what Edmonton did and has to outscore their problems. They have to do it with their offense, and right now, they’ve stumbled a little bit. I still think their better days are ahead for the Anaheim Ducks, but you’ve got two goals their last three games. It’s not good enough.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…
