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The Anaheim Geese opened their 2024-25 season (because the final crew within the NHL to take action) on the highway towards the San Jose Sharks on Saturday evening.
Game #1: Ducks vs. Sharks Gameday Preview
The Geese closing pre-season recreation was held eight days earlier than their season kicked off.
After over every week of practices deploying the identical lineup, Geese defenseman Jackson LaCombe was a late scratch (sickness) after collaborating within the crew’s morning skate on Saturday.
Olen Zellweger crammed in for LaCombe on the left aspect of newly appointed crew captain Radko Gudas and on the crew’s high energy play unit. Pavel Mintyukov absorbed LaCombe’s penalty-killing duties.
Lukas Dostal bought the beginning within the crease for the Geese and recorded his second profession shutout, stopping all 30 pictures he confronted on this recreation.
Fellow Czechia native Vitek Vanacek opposed Dostal in purpose for the Sharks, who stopped 28 of 29 pictures.
Listed here are my notes from this recreation:
Lukas Dostal: Apart from a few flurries across the internet entrance (wherein Dostal remained calm and sq.), Dostal appeared to see many of the perimeter shot makes an attempt the Geese protection allowed on this recreation.
Dostal displayed high quality recreation administration expertise, aiding puck-retrievers and directing rebounds to protected areas of the ice.
“Pucks have been hitting me,” Dostal mentioned of his efficiency after the sport. “The fellows performed a hell of a recreation, they blocked pictures, they helped me on the market, so it was a crew effort.”
Penalty Kill: Assistant coach Brent Thompson overhauled the penalty kill scheme within the offseason, choosing a standard diamond formation in an try to eradicate seam passes that plagued the Geese’ Thirtieth-ranked penalty kill from 2023-24.
“Brent’s executed slightly little bit of a distinct system, which goes to take a while to iron out, however I believed we did job of clogging passing lanes and taking pictures lanes (on the penalty kill),” Geese head coach Greg Cronin acknowledged after the sport.
The penalty killers restricted puck motion to the highest of the umbrella and collapsed deftly in entrance of the crease. It is going to be fascinating to observe how the construction holds as much as groups extra pushed to assault the crease space on the ability play, just like the New York Rangers or Colorado Avalanche.
McGinn-Lundestrom-Leason: The Geese’ fourth line carried out like a prototypical fourth line on a contending crew, suffocating the opposing breakouts and pressuring from the within out with excessive power. They have been principally matched up towards the Sharks listed second line of Klim Kostin, Will Smith, and Fabian Zetterlund.
They deserved to be rewarded with Lundestrom’s game-winning purpose within the third interval.
“I feel we simply need to maintain skating,” Lundestrom mentioned post-game. “I do know all of us can skate fairly good and get pucks to the web.”
Energy Play: Nearly as good because the Geese penalty kill was, the ability play was equally as ineffective, going zero for 5 and managing six pictures on internet.
The Sharks carried out a high-pressure wedge construction on their penalty kill that gave the Geese matches. The Geese might want to study to learn their outs and keep away from getting sealed alongside the wall.
The Geese will journey to Las Vegas to tackle the Golden Knights (2-0-0) for his or her second recreation of a back-to-back on Sunday night at 7 pm PST.
