By Brian Hayward
FOX Sports West and PRIME TICKET
HAYWARD ARCHIVE
Depth scoring is a term people use to measure the production of the players that make up the third and fourth lines of your team, or if you'd prefer, "the bottom six" of the 12 forwards on your roster.
Though these players seldom see much time on the power-play unit, they still are expected to chip in offensively every now and then to support the top lines.
That hasn't happened for the Ducks this season.
Without depth scoring, the game-plan for every Ducks opponent gets simplified. Shut down the Ryan Getzlaf line, take your chances with the Saku Koivu line, and don't worry yourself about the rest. Stay out of the penalty box, and your chances of beating the Ducks rise astronomically.
George Parros leads the "bottom six" with three goals. Brandon McMillan has one. The remaining four in the lineup (Todd Marchant, Aaron Voros, Nick Bonino or Kyle Chipchura) are all goose-eggs in the goal scoring column. Four total goals from your depth forwards just isn't good enough. As a reference, the Los Angeles Kings have 11 goals from their bottom six forwards in four fewer games played. Conference-leading Detroit has 19 goals from their depth forwards in five fewer games played.
For a team struggling to find some scoring pop from any source outside of their top six forwards, the cavalry may have arrived with Joffrey Lupul's return from the injured reserve list.
For those of you who have not followed his story closely, Lupul has been to hell and back. When he underwent back surgery last December to repair a herniated disc in his lower back, the assumption was that he would be back in 8-10 weeks to help the Ducks during the stretch run last season. But in fact, December was when his nightmare really just started.
The initial surgery did not go as planned.
Herniated disk surgery involves clipping off the protruding disk material that is impacting a nerve, thereby relieving the pressure on the nerve and by extension eliminating pain. Weeks after the first surgery, a follow-up MRI revealed that there was now more disc material impacting nerves, and creating even more pain. The second surgery eliminated all of the guilty disc material, but soon after, the area became infected leading to more pain, more tests, and more theories as to what was keeping Lupul from continuing his career. Antibiotics knocked down the original infection to the point early this past summer where Lupul's off-season training began again in earnest. He was excited to return to full health, and expected to be at 100% when training camp opened.
But then August rolled around and the pain suddenly returned, this time worse than ever. Blood tests revealed a significant problem. His protein levels and white blood cell counts were seriously out of whack. The infection was back and this time it was raging out of control. His weight dropped from 210 lbs. all the way down to 170. He said that he looked more like "Mr Burns" from "The Simpsons" television show than a professional athlete. There were many whispers that his career might be over.
But the cloud has lifted and after an almost 12-month sabbatical, he is back in the NHL. A new cocktail of antibiotics has taken care of the infection. He has worked his butt off to get back to his playing weight and feels stronger than ever before. After a three game conditioning stint with minor league Syracuse, Lupul is ready to begin anew.
Over the course of Lupul's still young career, he has averaged more than 20 goals per NHL season. Just 27 years old, he should be entering his prime seasons. With this year and two more remaining on a contract that will pay him an average of $4.25 million annually, he is now expected to produce at a 25+ goal per season clip. Certainly anything approaching that level of production would help solve a significant lack of depth scoring in Anaheim.
Let's hope he stays healthy. If he does, you get the feeling it won't be long before he regains his scoring touch. And to be honest, if anyone on this team deserves a break, it's him...
