deepdrive

If he ends up here, it will because he (or his wife!!!) wants the SoCal life and the Kings extended DD so they don’t have the cap space.
Longshot, but it’s all we have.

Smith-Polly not offered. After what he showed in the playoffs, I would jettison Ritchie and sign him if the price is reasonable.

Ducks would never pay what he's going to ask for in salary.
Anyway, we have Randy who's also a cup winner. Who could ask for more.

The problem with that is he just orcastrated a hugh collapse in the Gulls final two weeks. What did they have to do? Win 1 or 2 of their last 9 games to make the playoffs. Nope, didn’t happen. Massive choke.

No more blaming Bieksa for any of our failures. Vegas is up 2-1 in the conference final with Sbisa starting. Theadore wasn’t good enough play on the Ducks,but also starts on Vegas. The coaching and GM need to take responsibility for our failures.
For the fifth straight season, BM’s plan is to remake the Ducks into the team that beat us in the playoffs. I’m sorry, but it just looks like the guy doesn’t have a clue what the F he’s doing. Always trying to copy GM’s that are smarter than him. Who copies BM? Yeah.

10 years of nothing better than a #8 pick is starting to show up. I think the Ducks did the smart thing by drafting more defensive players because of the best player available philosophy. But, Murray's inability to trade for talent doesn't overcome the lopsidedness of our talent pool. 
I don't know what they're going to do. I'm concerned about BM's ability to fix this in the next couple years. I feel the NHL talent level has noticeably increased in the last couple years and we've been left behind. Hockey isn't a good sport to sign free agents in anymore (High cost; long terms; players who have taken a lot of abuse and therefore are iffy going forward). Decent first round picks are too difficult to acquire with the lottery in place. It doesn't look promising.
Does anyone else feel that BM needs to show some serious moves forward in the next year (two at the most) or the Samueli's will move on from him. I don't see how his time couldn't be coming to an end unless he fixes this. 

I thought this was a pretty good analysis.
https://sports.yahoo.com/learned-first-three-teams-eliminated-lot-common-153619455.html

Perry's not going to accept a trade unless it's to a location he prefers over Anaheim. Why would he? The guy's just clicking his years off here. 
I don't think Perry would mind being bought out at all. 
He's also not going to play on the Duck's fourth line. The Ducks would buy him out instead. The guy kind of dogs it now. Imagine how he would preform if the Ducks did that to him. You would easily be able to pick up a player in the 1-2 million range that would out play him. 

Just watch the tape of the third period on. It's all that's worth seeing.

I would be fine with the Kings beating us if we get the top wild card slot. Play Vegas round 1 instead of San Jose. 
Give the Kings the job of knocking off San Jose and two teams a chance to finish Nashville.
That's probably our best shot at advancing to the finals.

Exactly. Most of our guys are good. They play hard and at a quality level. But, they look a little klunky too often against opposing players that have a higher natural talent level.
We don't get the high draft picks and don't have a GM that is deft at making trades. It just feels a bit like the league is leaving us behind.

And this has already been exploited more than once in the regular season. Teams are comfortable pulling their goalie with 2 1/2 - 3 minutes on the clock. You know this is going to work against us in the playoffs if they don't fix it.
Another weakness we're going to see exploited is extra pressure put on the puck holder as we try to bring the puck up the ice. St Louis killed us doing that. 

I agree. I'd rather see a 2nd or 3rd,  or bust and don't make the playoffs.

Bieksa out 2-3 weeks.
Surgery to remove scar tissue. Now? 
Sounds like a mutual agreement to step aside.

Won't be a big deal unless the Kings win and SJ/STL tie.

It's a 4th line.If they aren't a negative, that's a positive. 
I would give them a few games to settle in before evaluating them. I actually feel good about a solid start that is nothing special to this point. I'm more worried about the productivity of Kesler's line.
I really like Grant as a 4th center.

I think it depends on what context you mean when stating whether this team is old or not. In the context of going forward, I would agree with Murray. The only key players the Ducks are dependent on 2-3 years out that are old are Kessler and Getzlaf. And Getzlaf is aging well to this point.
All the other old guys could be released in the next couple years and this team could replace them without too much difficulty. If they buy Perry out in the next couple years, we could actually up grade at that slot. 

There's no 'window' for this team as long as it has Perry's contract around its neck. Getzlaf and Kesler are not offensive threats of a level that allows us to have Perry as he is now.
You know UTH, I missed the last 5 pages of this thread. So, I did a binge read. Some great posts by you. I died reading your semi forecasts of the upcoming trade deadline and how our knowledge of BM tainted your views. You would be a prophet if BM's shortcomings weren't so obvious by now.

Years of dumpster diving finally allowed us to win something. Who would of guessed.

There you go. I lead the charge to trash Ritchie and he has his best game of the year. It's all good - just win baby.

There you go. I lead the charge to trash Ritchie and he has his best game of the year. It's all good - just win baby.

GB, there is no way Theodore was going to remain a Duck. History is very clear that when a Duck's coach sours on a player, Murray gets rid of them. All of Randy's moves the last year Theodore was here clearly showed he didn't want him on his team. The Las Vegas deal was just a convenient way to wrap it up.
I agree with you that he was a better player to keep than Bieska or Beach. But. not a chance he was staying.
I think it's a fair evaluation, to say Murray is a good solid GM. Nothing too special, but nothing about him that says' tool that is going to self destruct at some time' or bonehead. 
The thing is, he's not good enough to have a high probably of winning a SC. The Ducks could get on a roll (like the Kings 2nd) or Gibson/Miller could stand on heads for the full playoffs, but Murray makes too many mistakes to put a team on the ice that will probably win.
Oh and about the draft, I think that's more a case of him following the evaluation of his scouts. The draft (in my opinion) is different than trading or filling your team (which is a better indicator of a GM's skill).

You charge half a billion dollars. You have to give a franchise the ability to compete from the beginning. 
Vegas isn't where they're at because the system over compensated them. They're where they're at because they evaluated talent extremely well and are coached just as well.
And the season isn't over. They still may falter, because they are playing over their talent level. If they make it to the playoffs, we'll see how they do when everyone is playing at their max level.

Quit trying to steal our fans Tank.

Yeah, kind of ridiculous what they got for him. 
Nashville's GM seems to be doing a good job building a Cup team for the next 3-4 years.
I think Las Vegas is becoming just what everyone thought  they would - America's un team. Or, the most heavily visitor rooting venue in the league. I think they will dwarf what happens in Anaheim.