Because Ducks coach Randy Carlyle likes to keep who will start in goal each night to himself, it leaves us media types to guess, speculate and wonder who the net belongs to that game — at least until when the team hits the ice for the warm-up skate.
Even the two goalies he has to choose from, Jonas Hiller and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, are often kept in the dark until the night before.
Following today’s morning skate at Honda Center ahead of its opener against rival San Jose, we’re going to surmise that the Ducks will go with … Hiller. The 27-year-old left the ice following the skate, while Giguere stayed out to take some more work in net.
It’s not a surprising choice, given that Hiller thwarted the Sharks throughout the Ducks’ first-round upset of the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners last season and put up better numbers than Giguere in the preseason. Whether this means that Hiller is the No. 1 goalie from this point on remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, center Petteri Nokelainen did not skate again because of a groin injury and won’t play. At this point, Nokelainen is day-to-day but it appears as if his status for the upcoming four-game road trip is in serious doubt.
Here’s a look at the expected line combinations and defense pairings for tonight’s game:
Bobby Ryan-Ryan Getzlaf-Corey Perry
Joffrey Lupul-Saku Koivu-Teemu Selanne
Erik Christensen-Todd Marchant-Evgeny Artyukhin
Mike Brown-Ryan Carter-George Parros
Scott Niedermayer-Luca Sbisa
Ryan Whitney-James Wisniewski
Steve Eminger-Sheldon Brookbank
Scratches: Andrew Ebbett, Nick Boynton
Post from: Ducks blog
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