Kesler munching up minutes with Ducks
Ryan Kesler has never played this much in his 13-year NHL career.
The Randy Carlyle-led Anaheim Ducks are leaning hard on the 32-year-old for a little bit of everything and he’s delivering with his finest season in years. Kesler is averaging almost 22 minutes per game, the most in his NHL life and the second most among all forwards this season, trailing only reigning Hart Trophy winner Patrick Kane by a few seconds.
Kesler is starting only 33 per cent of his shifts in the offensive zone, the fewest among Ducks forwards and one of the lowest such marks in the league. He gets the toughest matchups for the Ducks each night; his most frequent opponents this year (per the Natural Stat Trick website) have been the Sharks’ top trio of Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski and Patrick Marleau, followed by heavy duty against Vancouver’s Daniel and Henrik Sedin and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid.
Kesler garners about 16 minutes on average at even strength and about three minutes each on both the power play and penalty kill.
He’s not just treading water either, but thriving at both ends. Kesler enters a Monday tilt in Winnipeg leading the Ducks in points, power-play goals, powerplay points, all while owning a sharp 52 per cent possession mark. He’s on pace for his best offensive campaign since 2010-11, when he posted 41 goals and 73 points for the Canucks.
His long-term contract is certainly worthy of concern — five more years with a US$6.875-million cap hit — but for right now at least the Ducks are getting their money’s worth.
DRAWING PENALTIES
No one in the NHL is better at drawing penalties right now than McDavid. He drew two more against the Flames over the weekend: Michael Frolik for hooking and Sean Monahan for tripping.
NHL leaders in penalties drawn this season (per Corsica Hockey): 1. McDavid: 22 2. Nikolaj Ehlers, Winnipeg: 18 3. Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary: 17 4. Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary: 15 4. Ryan Hartman, Chicago: 15 Leafs centre Nazem Kadri was the NHL leader with 38 penalties drawn last season, 12 better than Stars forward Antoine Roussel.
WORST IN TEAM HISTORY
This year’s Colorado Avalanche squad is almost sure to finish as the worst in franchise history since moving to Denver and one of the worst in recent NHL history.
The Avs are on pace for a measly 24 wins and 52 points, not even close to the 30-win, 68-point team of 2010-11, which currently ranks as the franchise’s worst output in an 82-game season in Denver. Only two NHL teams since 2000 have been quite that bad: the 2013-14 Buffalo Sabres and 2000-01 New York Islanders, both of whom finished with 52 points.
The last club to finish with fewer than 52 points: The 1999-00 Atlanta Thrashers, who had 14 wins and 39 points in their expansion season.
GOALTENDING WOES
The Blues challenged Dallas for the best record in the Western Conference last season, but this year they find themselves fighting for a wild-card spot — on pace for an 18-point drop-off from last season’s 107-point team. One big difference: goaltending. The Blues have the second-worst save percentage in the league at five-on-five this season (.905) after finishing last year with the fourthbest mark (.932).
Jake Allen just hasn’t been able to fill the No. 1 role. The 26-yearold was pulled after 25 minutes in each of his last two outings, surrendering seven goals combined on just 25 shots. His .897 save percentage is third-worst among goalies with at least 20 starts, better than only Detroit’s Petr Mrazek (.895) and former Blues teammate Brian Elliott (.893), now with Calgary.