Last weekend the Oregon Ducks hockey team returned to the ice for 2 exhibition games against Canadian university Simon Fraser at the rink exchange. While the games obviously won’t count for the Ducks ACHA Division 1 play the games offered me the chance to get familiar with the teams players, line combinations, D-Pairings, and goalies. For my second season covering the team this is very helpful as 9 of the 20 players on the roster are new comers this season (8 Freshmen and 1 try-out player)
Once the
Ducks play their final 2 exhibition games next weekend I will have a full season preview and once they begin playing regular season games I will chart high danger chances as I did last year, for the exhibition games I will offer up my notes and tid-bits.
Line Combinations
Forwards
Chapman (24) SO – Henningsgard (22) SR – Easterson SO
Abersch (9) FR – Ebott (2) FR – Orwig (13) FR
Anselmo (10) FR – Kerr (16) FR – Espositio (91) JR
Defensemen
Kluksdahl (3) FR – Streich (42) SO
Gabriel (4) FR – Voyles (6) SR GR
Wyatt (27) SO – Lazzaretti (77) JR
Serbin (60)
Forwards
In game 1 at 5 on 5 coach Hyman kept these lines and pairings together for the entire game whereas in Game 2 he kept his top line and pairings together but forward lines 2-4 he did a ton of experimentation with different combinations which is exactly what I would expect him to do in an exhibition with a new team.
It is notable that for the 2 games Chapman – Henningsgard – Easterson were kept together for nearly the entirety of the 2 games and scored both of the Ducks goals on the weekend as the Ducks fell 2-1 on Friday night and 6-1 on Saturday night. Jackson Henningsgard is one of the very few seniors and is the Captain of the team for the 2nd straight season while Dylan Chapman and Noah Easterson were the two clear best Freshmen Forwards last year. These 3 are the clear 3 best forwards on the team and Hyman’s approach with this line-up appears to be to load up one top line to win games and have lines 2-4 play other teams lines 2-4 even. This was an approach my favorite NHL team used in, what was sadly, their most successful regular season of my life. If your top players are can deliver it can lead to success.
I’ll be interested to see if at any point during the season Hyman decides to spread the wealth and lineup Henningsgard, Easterson, and Chapman as his 3 centers.
Defensemen
As I mentioned Hyman kept his D-Pairings locked in for the 2 games. Here are my thoughts on each one:
Kluksdahl (4) FR – Streich (42) SO
About 1 minute into the first game Austin Kluksdahl flashed all of his potential, confidence, and potential growing pains for this season. At his best the freshmen will be an elite puck mover at the ACHA division 1 level but early this season there will be mistakes he makes that could lead to quality scoring chances the other way. The challenge with a player like Kluksdahl is reigning him in enough so that those mistakes don’t kill you, but not breaking him too much that robs him of his special ability to create offense.
I really like the idea of partnering him with Carson Streich who was one of the best defensemen on the team last year as Freshmen. At their best both will be great offensive defensemen. The old thinking in hockey was that offensive defensemen needed a defensive “babysitter” to compliment each others skill sets. Recently at the NHL level teams have moved away from this old way of thinking of how D-Pairings needed to be constructed as the two best offensive defensemen in the world Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes both have hit career peaks with offensive minded partners Devon Toews and Filip Hronek.
Gabriel (4) FR – Voyles (6) SR GR
At the same time I think their still is a place to construct D pairings like lego blocks with opposite skills that compliment each other. Or at the very least putting one of the youngest players on the team partnered with the oldest as Freshmen Colin Gabriel and Super Grad Senior Hunter Voyles were partnered together in Gabriel’s first action as a Duck. Getting Voyles back for another year is huge for this back-end as Hyman will heavily rely on him when the Ducks have a lead in the 3rd period and on the penalty kill. At this moment the Ducks don’t have another defensive defensemen quite like him.
Wyatt (27) SO – Lazzaretti (77) JR
That leaves the final pair to be the only pair with 2 returners. Which I’m a big fan of as Hyman has constructed his pairings in a manner that he can roll all 3 and not have to heavily rely on 1 pairing every game but he can be agile based on game situation.
Goalies
In game 1 the Ducks went with Sophomore George Serbin who they heavily relied upon last year and was the one of the Ducks best players in the majority of their wins last year. Game 1 was relatively even although I would say that Simon Fraser definitely carried play through the first 40 minutes before the Ducks made a push in the 3rd period and I thought he played well to limit the Red Leafs to only 2 goals and keep the Ducks in the game.
Game 2 coach Hyman turned the net over to FR Finn Wilson. In his first action at this level I loved Wilson’s athleticism and ability to move between the pipes, at times the rebounds he was giving up were an adventure and will definitely be something he needs to work on his freshmen season, but for a freshmen I would rather have the athletic guy who has areas of his game to refine as opposed to the opposite. He was tagged for 6 goals, but 2 of those were absolutely awful bounces off SFU dump ins that took unfortunate bounces once Finn went to go play them behind his net and left a wide open cage for a Red Leaf to pick up a goal with the goalie out of his net.
Power-Play
When the Ducks had an opportunity to be up a man Hyman unsurprisingly went with his top-line, his top offensive defensemen and one of his freshmen forward:
Easterson (23) SO – Henningsgard (22) SR – Anselmo (10) FR
Chapman (24) SO – Streich (SO)
This unit flashed chemistry and created quality looks and will be fun to watch with more opportunities. Hyman’s 2nd unit I imagine will be a work in progress as he learns more about this very new team.
Overall with the pure amount of youth on this team has me excited 14 of the 20 players are Sophmores and Freshmen and when they become JRs and SRs they will be the first big crop of players to have exclusively played at the D1 level.
Check back in next week to see how any of these combinations for the year may have changed with the 2nd set of exhibition games and as always go Ducks.
