At this point it almost feels like it’s piling on to keep pointing out every single time the Anaheim Ducks get blown out, but when it keeps happening game after game there really isn’t much else you can do.
They continued what has been a nearly unprecedented run of futility in recent NHL history by losing for the 19th time in their past 21 games on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 6-2 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The current losing streak now sits at seven games and has seen the Ducks get outscored by a 37-8 margin.
Dating back to Dec. 18 when this run started, the Ducks are just 2-15-4 (by far the worst mark in the league) with a now minus-48 goal differential during that stretch.
Their goal differential for the season now sits at a league-worst minus-55. The next worst team in the league is only at minus-32.
Putting all of this together and it remains absolutely astonishing that they have not made some sort of a change behind the bench. The Randy Carlyle system is clearly not working, they have taken what could have been a Vezina caliber season from John Gibson and thrown it in the dumpster, and the team is not only losing every single night, it getting its doors blown off in the process.
Had it not been for the way Gibson played in the first half of the season we might be looking at one of the worst teams in the modern era here. Heck, they still might be that bad because all of their underlying numbers (shot attempts, scoring chances for and against, etc.) are at the level you would expect to see from a team that is actively tanking or going through a massive rebuild. The injuries have hurt at times this season, but there should still be enough talent on the roster to be better than this.
The schedule does not get much easier after Saturday as their next five games are against the Vancouver Canucks, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, Minnesota Wild, and Calgary Flames. All of those teams are in a playoff position right now.
Even if the Ducks see this as a lost season and realize a mid-season coaching change won’t really impact their place in the standings, you still have to wonder how long ownership and the front office is going to allow the team to keep getting embarrassed the way it has before it does something.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.
