Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Team Speed An Issue For The Anaheim Ducks

04/22/2018 at 7:44am EDT

from Eric Stephens of the OC Register,

Bob Murray sees where the NHL is going and where the Ducks are at within it – and where his coach fits with their need to adapt.

The Ducks have to get faster and Murray, who just wrapped up his 10th season as their general manager, saw their current level of team speed wasn’t nearly good enough in grim fashion in a four-game sweep by San Jose.

“We just played a team that was way faster than us,” Murray said Saturday, where the Ducks cleaned out their lockers at Honda Center earlier than they imagined. “And they played the game faster than us.”...

The roster is expected to skew more toward youth. They’re expected to jettison older free agents such as Kevin Bieksa, Antoine Vermette, Jason Chimera and Chris Kelly. Murray did rave the work of fourth-line center Derek Grant and would like to re-sign him.

Bieksa played with a torn tendon in his finger that was suffered during his fight with Philadelphia’s Radko Gudas in October and said he opted to put off surgery until March because the recovery period would have taken months instead of weeks.

But the veteran defenseman also felt the March procedure made it easier for Carlyle to play youngster Andy Welinski in three of the four games against San Jose. His dissatisfaction was thinly veiled.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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