By Brian Hayward
FOX Sports West & PRIME TICKET
HAYWARD ARCHIVE
November 15, 2010
After three disarmingly brutal road games to open the 2010-11 season, much of the early criticism directed at the Ducks' start was centered on the performance of their defensemen.
The Ducks yielded over 120 shots and 13 goals against in those three games despite getting world class goaltending from Jonas Hiller. Disorganized, panicky, slow afoot, prone to turnovers and playing too soft protecting the crease area, were all valid criticisms. Anaheim's much ballyhooed top two lines, expected to create scoring chances most every shift, were ineffective largely because they never received a pass on the tape while in motion.
As a result, the Ducks offense was mired in quicksand.
At the time, prized free agent Toni Lydman's return to the lineup was in question, as doctors were unable to find a reason why Lydman had suffered a debilitating episode of double vision that raised the specter of some frightening medical possibilities. Then, 6-6 Andy Sutton fractured his thumb just over a period into his Ducks career and his absence would create a noticeable lack of bite on the back end.
Luca Sbisa, who was the key component of the trade of future Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger, had a bad training camp and start to the year. The 20-year-old Sbisa looked nervous and tentative. The Ducks amateur scouts had claimed that Sbisa was not only the best defenseman in the WHL last season, but predicted that the experience he gained as a member of the Swiss Olympic team last spring and the extra bulk he had added to his frame, made him ready for prime time as part of the revamped top four on the Anaheim blueline. Their assertions seemed hollow when Sbisa was sent to minor league affiliate Syracuse to regain his confidence.
Things looked very bleak.
Shell-shocked GM Bob Murray reached into the veteran players without a contract bargain bin to sign veteran Andreas Lilja, who had turned down an offer from the Detroit Red Wings over the summer and then had been released from the San Jose Sharks' training camp without receiving an offer.
What a difference a month makes.
Lydman returned, and even without a training camp or exhibition game under his belt to ease the transition to his new team, he completely stabilized the top defense pairing as a complementary fit for Lubomir Visnovsky. While his shot blocking acumen gets most of the attention, it is his ability to hang onto the puck under pressure and make good crisp outlet passes that distinguish him from lesser players. Murray expected Lydman to play 25 safe minutes a game and even went so far to say that if you didn't really notice Lydman on the ice, it probably meant that he was doing a good job. He has delivered much more, leading the team in plus/minus and contributing 2-6=8 pts in 15 games played.
Lilja has had a huge impact as well. The 6-3, 230-pound blue liner has used his big body to stand up opposing speedsters in the neutral zone, and his willingness to sacrifice his body to get into shooting lanes on the penalty killing unit has been both inspiring and contagious to his teammates. He has a quiet professionalism about him that has instantly earned the respect of his peers and even more importantly, that of head coach Randy Carlyle. The Red Wings have long been known as the best puck possession team in the game and those lessons seems to have stuck with Lilja, who is doing a nice job of not giving the puck back to the opponent too easily. He now looks like a steal.
With Sutton's return on the horizon, Sbisa still remains the "X-factor" in the fortunes of the Ducks this season. While 18-year-old Cam Fowler has deservedly gotten many of the accolades in the first part of the year, Sbisa's development is perhaps the most intriguing thing to keep an eye on in the next two months. Right now, he looks like a different player than the one that went to the American Hockey League in October. He is now using his skating ability to get pucks out of trouble. In his first game back, he led the Ducks in hits and more importantly, did not commit one single turnover. While he does not have the vision that Fowler has (very few do by the way), it is his array of skills seen frequently in practice that has me thinking that we have just scratched the surface of what Sbisa will one day bring to the table. In the salary cap world of the NHL where parity is king and there really is a fine line between winning and losing most nights, a significant leap forward from any player in your lineup has a bottom line effect on where you end up in the standings, especially if the player making that leap is a young defenseman.
If much of that Sbisa potential is realized in the short term, the Ducks will contend for a playoff spot and for the first time ever, Southern California hockey fans will see both the Ducks and Kings in the same postseason.
Wouldn't that be something.
