The Anaheim Ducks are on the hot seat. They went all in this summer and giving their investments, expectations are sky high.
The NHL on NBC’s lead announce team of Eddie Olczyk, Pierre McGuire and Mike “Doc” Emrick were on conference call for national media covering the NHL.
Olzcyk gave an interesting take on the Anaheim Ducks:
“To me, I don’t think there’s any team in the league that has more expectations and more pressure on them than the Anaheim Ducks. I think they have a good enough team to win. You look at the acquisitions of general manager Bob Murray from going out and really answering the bell of we need to get bigger, we need to get a little bit tougher, we need to add to our depth of our hockey club. Ryan Kessler, Clayton Stoner, Nate Thompson, they brought in Dany Heatley, hopefully he can get to the 10 or 12 goal mark. They gave Bruce Boudreau a two-year contract extension which I think is very similar to what happened in Pittsburgh one year ago when the pressure was squarely on the shoulders of the Pittsburgh Penguins after having a tough time for I believe four years in the Playoffs, and we all know how that ended up playing out.
So for me, when your arch rivals win two Cups in three years and your manager goes out and spends a lot of money, to me, both my eyes will be squarely on the Anaheim Ducks as to can they take the next step, and when you have two of the premier players in the entire world with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, you’re ahead of the game. The only question is can John Gibson be that guy, and it sure looks like he can be that guy, being a rookie in the National Hockey League.
So I’m looking forward to seeing what the Anaheim Ducks can or can’t do coming up in this regular season.”
Transcript courtesy of NBC Sports Group
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