Tied for the bottom. Wow.

Frustrating. Completely frustrating.

Ducks went into Columbus tonight hoping for a win. And although they dominated the Blue Jackets on paper, Anaheim flies into Detroit tonight with 1 point after losing in the shoot out. But hey, let's look at the bright side, they are now tied for last place along with the Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference.

Totally frustrating.

Ducks started the game out in fine fashion drawing blood first in the 1st period when Bobby Ryan score an amazing goal from the LW circle giving Getzy and Perry the assists extending their white-hot point streak. That goal was scored right after the Ducks failed to produce on the PP. All was looking promising. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't that be freakin' amazing if the Ducks demolish the BJs just like the Red Wings did?!" It would be amazing if that thought would come true but alas, it didn't Rick Nash would put one in the back of the net on a hard shot after getting a 1 on 0 breakaway from the top of the LW circle. A shot too fast for Jiggys glove. All eyes would be on J.S. tonight who started since pulling his groin against the same Blue Jackets back in Anaheim. Everyone would be watching him to see if he could put his money where his mouth is since his controversial comments and win his first game of the season. J.S. was too aggressive against Nash by coming out too far of his crease.

Tied game going into the 2nd period.

Anaheim would come into period 2 on the PK after Getzlaf got knicked with a Holding Penalty late in the 1st. A penalty that came right after the play was stopped from Rick Nash crashing into Jiggy then throwing an elbow to his head knocking the netminder down. No penalty on Nash. Instead, Getzy gets one. Yeah, I know.
The Ducks would kill off the PK coming into the 2nd and the puck would find Getzy who came right out of the box. After entering the BJs zone he passed it to a streaking Todd Marchant who was streaking into the slot and put one in behind Columbus goal tender, Garon. Ducks up now 2 - 1.

I was happy and things were looking good. The last goal of the night would be the tying goal from Blue Jackets left-winger, Kristian Huselius. Who got the goal after controlling an amazing pass from teammate, Antoine Vermette who tricked Jiggy out of position yet again and gave Huselius the empty side of the net. The game then would go back and forth for both teams. Columbus would give the Ducks 5, yes, 5 Power Play opportunies in which Anaheim would come out 0 - 5 for the night giving our boys a 3 - 31 so far on the PP. Unacceptable. Anaheim would apply the offensive pressure towards the end of the 3rd period as well as getting a late PP that was washed out after Ryan Whitney got knicked for a very suspect looking boarding call. Actually, if I could, I would've give the BJs player who sold that call an Oscar because of his fine acting ability to get that call against Whits.

Nothing would come from the 3rd period. Heck! the Ducks would be the only team to get any SOG numbers in OT, 2 in case you were wondering. So Anaheim and Columbus would find themselves going into the good ol' Shoot Out. And I knew which players would be on that list for the Ducks: Getzy, Perry, Selanne. Surprise. I think everyone knew that. The Blue Jackets would shoot first and they would score on said first attempt. Getzlaf then stepped in, he skated, he beat Garon annnnnnnnd... goal post. The second attempt from Columbus would not be able to score. Then Perry stepped on the ice. I know. Wide, VERY wide right before shooting. He didn't fail on going wide right but he failed on scoring in his attempt. Rick Nash would go for the winning attempt and he would come out successful after going one footed when he lost his balance, freezing Jiggy down in the crease and getting a lucky goal after shooting the puck high into the net. Funny thing to see but "wow" funny.

So, the Ducks get 1 point and are now 6-8-3 with a 0.441 W% going into Detroit. They will face the Wings tomorrow at 16:00 PST. Sadly, I don't expect a win from the boys. They'll be tired even thought they will have a 35 min flight. It will be in less then 24 hrs. Never a good thing. But hey, Hiller could pull it off.

Absolutely frustrating.

All of the Ducks supporters patience is wearing thin, including mine. Something has to change. I keep saying this and I don't think that I'm the only one.

Something, has changed though. And it happened yesterday:

NHL reinstates Henry Samueli

NHL bastard-cough-I mean commissioner, Gary Bettman announced yesterday that the league lifted the suspension for Ducks owner, Henry Samueli in the following statement:

"We welcome Henry and Susan Samueli back as fully reinstated owners and members of the NHL community"

Susan, who was abiding by the terms of her husband’s suspension, also returned to her ownership role. And it leaves all of us fans wondering what will happen now that the owners are back. GM Bob Murray has made it clear that RC will be staying along with Scott Niedermayer and Jiggy, who have lately been churning in the rumor mill that has all three being let go and/or traded. Those are just rumors but I can't help to wonder if the Samueli's will be changing things around. I'm sure they know how their team is doing and I'm sure they're not happy. Only time will tell.

So for now, I will forget tonight and look forward. Jiggy wasn't able to get the win but he did show up for a lot of good saves. He hung in there and though I would've like to have seen better positioning on the goals he let it, well I take that back. That 2nd goal came off of a great pass. So I will say, better positioning from the first goal. There are many other things I would've wished differently from tonight's game. It wasn't all Jiggy. I don't want to point my finger just at him. The PP needs to produce, R2 needs to stop taking bad penalties, players need to stop turning the puck over...

Things just need to change. Let's hope a miracle happens tomorrow and we end the night void of frustration. Let's hope...

Go Ducks.