The Anaheim Ducks have had quite the rocky season this year. They are currently out of a playoff spot, and if they want to be one of the top three teams in the Pacific Division or clinch a wild card spot, they need to fix their problems fast.

The first issue that the Ducks are having is their overtime strategy. The Anaheim Ducks love to play backwards when playing in overtime for some odd reason. I wonder if they’re aware that they have to score first to win in overtime. Apparently they aren’t aware of this because every game they pass the puck backwards and play on their own side of the blue line rather than go to the other side of the ice. This method of playing backwards gives the opposing team an easier chance to score and receive two points.

Their next major issue is the amount of times the Ducks assign and re-assign lower-level players to their minor league team, the San Diego Gulls. It is hard to keep the team consistent when players are flip-flopping form each team. Coach Randy Carlyle also has made some mistakes in who he has moved from the Ducks to the Gulls and vice-versa. One example of this occurred very recently, January 8th to be exact. A talented young player, Kevin Roy, was given a chance to shine on the Ducks. Roy played amazing games, and scored many goals as well as contributed to many crucial plays in the games he was in. However, Randy Carlyle decided he was not useful to the team, and sent Kevin Roy back to San Diego.

The last problem that the Ducks have is their ability to successfully defend against a six-man team. For those of you who may not know, there are five players on the ice during the game. However, towards the end of the game, the team that is losing may pull their goalie out of the game to add an extra attacker. The problem here for the Ducks is that they do not have a good defensive strategy when they are in this situation. Many games this year have resulted in overtime. Anaheim needs to come up with a new strategy to change the outcome of games, considering that they have lost most games where this has occurred.

These are just some of the aspects of the team that I believe the Anaheim Ducks need to change in order to make it to play playoffs. Do you agree or disagree?