Nothing boring about Anaheim Ducks winning close NHL games

The standings at the halfway point tell us that the Anaheim Ducks are the best team in the NHL at this stage of the season.

Those 58 points do not lie. They just defy logic.

By any other measure – from simple statistics to advanced analytics to media opinion “power rankings” – the Ducks are not anyone’s No 1.

No one quite believes (or can justify statistically) that a team with a record of 20-0-6 in one-goal games has not had more than their share of lucky bounces, artificially boosting their record.

The Ducks are the only team in the NHL that have not lost a one-goal game in regulation this season, which is why they are perched atop the standings despite having a mere 115-110 advantage in goals scored and allowed this season.

Half of the league’s 30 teams have a better goal differential, all the way up to the Chicago Blackhawks’s plus-39.

After edging the St Louis Blues, 4-3, and the Nashville Predators in a shoot-out over the weekend, Ducks forward Ryan Kesler was asked if the team would like to win a blowout once in a while.

“Those are boring for everyone,” he said to NHL.com with a laugh.

The rest of the league can only shake its collective head and, perhaps, wait for the breaks to even out.

Media experts do not have to wait. Of the six websites that publish their own subjective rankings, most place the Ducks fourth to sixth.

Not that the Ducks care.

“We’re first in the NHL,” defenceman Francois Beauchemin said. “You really can’t ask for more than that.”

If the Ducks are not an overwhelming force, they still have a play-off worthy roster, anchored by veteran linemates Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.

Getzlaf, a perennial most valuable player candidate, leads the team in scoring with 44 points.

Despite missing 15 games, Perry has a team-leading 15 goals. Newcomer Kesler has 12 goals and 17 assists – right in line with his prime years in Vancouver.

Goaltender Frederik Andersen has moved seamlessly into the starting spot after the team traded Jonas Hiller in the off-season.

Andersen’s 2.32 goals allowed and .916 save numbers will not win him the Vezina Trophy, but the pressure of all those tight games apparently does not bother him. He is 22-6-5.

In fact, the Ducks hope to parlay their tightrope-walk style into post-season success.

“Good teams know how to win those one-goal games,” Kesler said. “That’s how they are in the play-offs. If we know how to win them now, it’s going to make it that much easier in the play-offs.”

In the meantime, the rest of the hockey universe thinks it knows better.

sports@thenational.ae

Nothing boring about Anaheim Ducks winning close NHL games

The Ducks are the only team in the NHL that have not lost a one-goal game in regulation this season, which is why they are perched atop the standings, writes Gregg Patton.