And so the big trip begins.
It’s time for the Kings’ annual Grammy Awards trip, as they wander the eastern U.S. for two weeks to make room for Justin Timberlake. This time around, the trip is so big that it not only includes eight games, but appears to have dragged the Ducks along for the ride. (Even though the Honda Center has nothing to do with the Grammys, the NHL presumably didn’t want to send opponents to Southern California for just one game.)
This year, the trip includes seven games in the Eastern Time Zone — “We’re looking forward to seeing how the other half of the league lives,� said coach Marc Crawford — and is broken up by the team’s ability to settle into the New York area for a few days. With games against the Islanders, Devils and Rangers over a six-day period, they’ll actually settle into the same Times Square hotel for five nights, and won’t have to get onto an airplane for a full week. (They’ll have two nights where they stay put after a game — unusual for a road trip — staying in Philadelphia after tonight’s game before busing to Long Island, and staying on Long Island Thursday night before busing into Manhattan.)
In general, as Crawford notes, the schedule — which also takes the team to Detroit, Pittsburgh, Columbus and St. Louis — is relatively kind.
“The games are spread out on this trip,� he said. “We’ve only one back-to-back� — Pittsburgh and Columbus — “and it’s an afternoon and an evening game, so really, we have an extra half-day between which makes it not that taxing.�
Which is not to say it’s easy. Crawford notes it will probably the longest road trip most of his players have been on — “It’s one of the longest I’ve ever been involved in,� he said, “and I played in Vancouver where we routinely had two-week road trips� — and veteran forward Derek Armstrong says simply, “It’s tough.
“You’ve got to take it for what it’s worth,� he says. “You try to bond with the guys a little bit, and check the movie schedule to see what’s come out the last couple months.
“It’s definitely tough on the brain, but when you look at the schedule in October, you know it’s coming.�
Before the all-star break, Crawford indicated it was likely the Kings would be making some personnel moves to provide some depth for the long march.
“You’d like to have a number of people to draw on,� he said. “We haven’t had an extra player here since Christmas. … So from that standpoint, we’ve talked about personnel and what we’d like to have.�
And, he said, there are likely to be a few team activities on some of the off-days.
“I think we’ll do something with the Super Bowl,� he said. “It’s the second year in a row we’re in a city that either has the Super Bowl (or is involved) — we were in Miami last year, and this year we’ll be in New York which I’m sure will be a hotbed of Super Bowl activity. …
“We’ve planned a number of things for our guys and for our team.�
The Kings’ next home game is Feb. 15 against Calgary. They play the next night in Phoenix, then return home for three games.
Anaheim’s trip: The Ducks’ trip, which now will feature Teemu Selanne, who announced his return Monday, includes six of the eight teams the Kings will play — Anaheim goes to Minnesota and Colorado instead of Pittsburgh and Columbus — and also allows for a long stay in New York City. After their Feb. 2 game in Philadelphia, the team has two off days before playing the Islanders, Rangers and Devils in a four-day period.
While personnel was the first thing on Crawford’s mind going into the trip, game preparation was the foremost trip preparation for Ducks coach Randy Carlyle.
“We’ve done a little pre-scouting on the opposition,� he said, referring specifically to the four Atlantic Division teams, “because we haven’t had a chance to play against them. So we’ve had our pro scouts go in to give us a little bit of a pre-scout on paper.
“We’ll do some more work, but other than than that, we’ve got video and we’ve had people at three or four games. We’ll do our evaluation, but I think it’s more important for us that, yeah, we respect the opposition and recognize things they do well, but it’s more important to focus on the things we can do well.�
Carlyle, who has always believed in team-building activities on an extended trip — most famously a practice on a frozen canal in Ottawa — said there is likely to be “something along that line.� There’s also going to be a fairly significant field trip, although the team has not yet been cleared to announce details.
Bye week: There won’t be a notebook next week, since I’ll be on a road trip of my own, but look for the next edition to appear online Feb. 11.

(Something different this week — a topic I’ve thought about for a while, but wouldn’t have fit in the print edition because of all the numbers. Sorry some of the charts are a little hard to read, but the tabs from the original don't work on the blog, and it took a lot of work to get things as organized as they are.)

A lot of people — and I’m certainly among them — don’t like the way the NHL determines its standings in the shootout era.
It bothers us that teams can gain in the standings for losing. With a point awarded losses in overtime or shootouts, a team could theoretically lose every game and still end up with 82 points, giving it what would technically be a .500 record in terms of points earned.
It bothers us that this credit for losing makes teams look better than they actually are. (One of the great fallacies repeated by a lot of broadcasters is that “there are only (fill in number) teams with losing records,� a statistic which relies only on the first two columns in the standings, wins and losses. Overtime/shootout losses are ignored. By this accounting, that would mean that, after Saturday’s games, there were only five teams with losing record. But if you add in the third column — which are, after all, losses — the number of teams with losing records jumps to 15.
And it bothers us that a shootout win is worth the same amount in the standings as a dominant victory in regulation time. (Presumably, it bothers some people in the league, as well. More than once, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle has downplayed a shootout loss by saying something like, “We were even in the game but lost the skills competition.�)
There have been various suggestions on ways to address these issues. The most common proposal — voted down by the general managers a year ago — is to make a regulation victory worth three points.
My own preference would be to quit awarding points for overtime or shootout losses, in one of two ways: 1.) Award three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime win and one for a shootout win, or 2.) Award two points for a regulation win and one for an overtime or shootout win.
I’ve always felt this would do a better job of rewarding the good teams and exposing the bad ones, but I’ve never exactly known what the impact would be. So, this weekend, I sat down and did the math.
There are a lot of lists and tables coming up — hopefully I can get the tabulation to work on the blog to make them readable. If the details interest you, there’s a lot here to look at. If not, feel free to skip to the summary at the end.

OK, so if you got up Sunday morning and looked at one of those web sites that provides NHL standings for the entire league, ranked 1-30, this is what you would have seen:
........................ GP .. W L OTL .. Pts
1. Detroit............49 .. 35 10 4 .. 74
2. Ottawa............47 .. 30 13 4 .. 64
3. Anaheim.........50 .. 27 17 6 .. 60
4. Dallas.............50 .. 27 18 5 .. 59
5. Pittsburgh.......47 .. 27 17 3 .. 57
6. San Jose......... 47 .. 25 15 7 .. 57
7. Montreal.........47 .. 24 15 8 .. 56
8. Calgary...........49 .. 24 17 8 .. 56
9. Philadelphia.... 45 .. 25 15 5 .. 55
10. New Jersey....46 .. 26 17 3 .. 55
11. Minnesota.....47 .. 26 18 3 .. 55
12. Vancouver.....48 .. 25 18 5 .. 55
13. Colorado.......47 .. 25 18 4 .. 54
14. Columbus.....48 .. 23 19 6 .. 52
15. Boston..........46 .. 23 18 5 .. 51
16. NY Islanders. 47 .. 23 19 5 .. 51
17. St. Louis........45 .. 22 17 6 .. 50
18. Phoenix........47 .. 24 21 2 .. 50
19. Nashville...... 47 .. 23 20 4 .. 50
20. Chicago........48 .. 23 21 4 .. 50
21. NY Rangers...48 .. 22 20 6 .. 50
22. Carolina........50 .. 23 23 4 .. 50
23. Atlanta..........49 .. 23 23 3 .. 49
24. Washington... 47 .. 21 21 5 .. 47
25. Edmonton.....49 .. 21 23 5 .. 47
26. Buffalo..........46 .. 20 20 6 .. 46
27. Toronto.........48 .. 19 21 8 .. 46
28. Florida..........49 .. 21 24 4 .. 46
29. Tampa Bay....48 .. 19 24 5 .. 43
30. Los Angeles...49 .. 19 28 2 .. 40

Sorry about that, Kings fans.

Now, to figure out alternative standings, using any of the three methods mentioned above (adding three-point regulation wins to the current method, 3-2-1 for regulation, overtime or shootout wins, or 2-1 for regulation and shootout wins), we need some information not included in these standings, specifically a breakdown of the types of victories. If there’s someplace online that carries the standings this way, I’d love to know about it. In lieu of that, I had to go through each team’s game-by-game results, which was not a thrilling way to spend a couple of hours.
Anyway, here are the “expanded� records — breaking down wins (and losses; even though it doesn’t really matter for our purposes, I thought it would be interesting to see) by regulation, overtime and shootout. I’ve arranged them here according to the 3-2-1 standings method; below, I’ll list the rankings and point totals under the other two methods. (The number in parenthesis is their ranking under the current system. Ties are broken in favor of the team with most wins; remaining ties are broken in favor of the most wins in regulation..)

.......................W (R-OT-SO) .. L (R-OT-SO) .. Pts.
1. Detroit............35 (30-0-5) .. 15 (11-0-4) .. 95
2. Ottawa............30 (26-2-2) .. 17 (13-1-3) .. 84
3. Philadelphia.....25 (24-1-0) .. 20 (15-2-3) .. 74
4. Minnesota...... 26 (23-2-1) .. 21 (18-0-3) .. 74
5. San Jose..........25 (23-0-2) .. 19 (14-2-5) .. 71
6. Pittsburgh.......27 (21-1-5) .. 20 (17-1-2) .. 70
7. Anaheim.........27 (20-3-4) .. 23 (17-1-5) .. 70
8. Dallas.............27 (20-3-4) .. 23 (18-3-2) .. 70
9. New Jersey......26 (20-2-4) .. 20 (17-2-1) .. 68
10. Vancouver.....25 (20-2-3) .. 23 (18-0-5) .. 67
11. Colorado.......25 (19-3-3) .. 22 (18-2-2) .. 66
12. Calgary........ 24 (20-2-2) .. 25 (17-6-2) .. 66
13. Carolina....... 23 (21-1-1) .. 27 (23-3-1) .. 66
14. Montreal...... 24 (18-4-2) .. 22 (14-2-6) .. 64
15. Nashville.......23 (20-1-2) .. 24 (20-0-4) .. 64
16. Columbus..... 23 (20-1-2) .. 25 (19-1-5) .. 64
17. St. Louis........22 (21-0-1) .. 23 (17-3-3) .. 64
18. Phoenix ........24 (19-1-4) .. 22 (21-0-1) .. 63
19. Boston..........23 (19-2-2) .. 23 (18-2-3) .. 63
20. NY Islanders. 23 (18-3-2) .. 24 (19-3-2) .. 62
21. Chicago........ 23 (18-2-3) .. 25 (21-3-1) .. 61
22. Washington... 21 (17-3-1) .. 26 (21-3-2) .. 58
23. NY Rangers...22 (16-3-3) .. 26 (20-2-4) .. 57
24. Buffalo......... 20 (16-3-1) .. 26 (20-1-5) .. 55
25. Atlanta......... 23 (13-5-5) .. 26 (23-0-3) .. 54
26. Florida..........21 (16-1-4) .. 28 (24-2-2) .. 54
27. Tampa Bay....19 (17-0-2) .. 29 (24-4-1) .. 53
28. Toronto........ 19 (15-2-2) .. 29 (21-5-3) .. 51
29. Los Angeles.. 19 (14-2-3) .. 30 (28-0-2) .. 49
30. Edmonton......21 (9-1-11) .. 28 (23-2-3) ..40

Congratulations Kings fans. Since this system dramatically exposes Edmonton’s reliance on the shootout, you’re out of the cellar. Also, under this scoring, Calgary — currently the highest-ranking team with what is actually a losing record — drops four spots; Philadelphia and Minnesota, good at taking care of business in regulation time, are the big beneficiaries.

In brief, here are how the teams would rank under the other two methods.

Three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss:
1. Detroit, 104 points; 2. Ottawa, 90; 3. San Jose, 80; 4. Anaheim, 80; 5. Philadelphia, 79; 6. Dalls, 79; 7. Minnesota, 78; 8. Pittsburgh, 78; 9. Calgary, 76; 10. New Jersey, 75; 11. Vancouver, 75; 12. Montreal, 74; 13. Colorado, 73; 14. Columbus, 72; 15. Carolina, 71; 16. St. Louis, 71; 17. Nashville, 70; 18. Boston, 70; 19. N.Y. Islanders 69; 20. Phoenix, 68; 21. Chicago, 68; 22. N.Y. Rangers, 66; 23. Washington, 64; 24. Atlanta, 62; 25. Florida, 62; 26. Buffalo, 62; 27. Toronto, 61; 28. Tampa Bay, 60; 29. Edmonton, 56; 30. Los Angeles, 54.

Two points for a regulation win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss:
1. Detroit, 65 points; 2. Ottawa, 56; 3. Philadelphia, 49; 4. Minnesota, 49; 5. San Jose, 48; 6. Pittsburgh, 48; 7. Dallas, 47; 8. Anaheim, 47; 9. New Jersey, 46; 10. Vancouver, 45; 11. Carolina, 44; 12. Calgary, 44; 13. Colorado, 44; 14. St. Louis, 43; 15. Nashville, 43; 16. Columbus, 43; 17. Phoenix, 43; 18. Boston, 42; 19. Montreal, 42; 20. N.Y. Islanders, 41; 21. Chicago, 41; 22. Washington, 38; 23. N.Y. Rangers, 38; 24. Florida, 37; 25. Tampa Bay, 36; 26. Buffalo, 36; 27. Atlanta, 36; 28. Toronto, 34; 29. Los Angeles, 33; 30. Edmonton, 30.

And finally, here’s a chart of where the teams would rank under each system. ("Now" is the current system; "3win" is the 3-point win, two-point OT/SO win, one-point OT/SO loss; "3/2/1" gives points for the various wins, nothing for losses; "2-1" is the two-point win, one-point OT/SO win, nothing for losses).

..................... Now ... 3win .. 3/2/1 .. 2-1
Detroit............. 1 ........ 1 ........ 1 ........ 1
Ottawa............. 2 ........ 2 ........ 2 ........ 2
Anaheim.......... 3 ........ 4 ........ 7 ........ 8
Dallas.............. 4 ........ 6 ........ 8 ........ 7
Pittsburgh ........ 5 ........ 8 ........ 6 ........ 6
San Jose........... 6 ........ 3 ........ 5 ........ 5
Montreal........... 7 ....... 12 ...... 14 ...... 19
Calgary............. 8 ........ 9 ...... 12 ....... 12
Philadelphia ..... 9 ........ 5 ........ 3 ........ 3
New Jersey ...... 10 ...... 10 ....... 9 ........ 9
Minnesota ........ 11 ....... 7 ....... 4 ........ 4
Vancouver ........12 ...... 11 ...... 10 ...... 10
Colorado ......... 13 ...... 13 ...... 11 ......13
Columbus ....... 14 ...... 14 ...... 16 ...... 16
Boston ............ 15 ...... 18 ...... 19 ...... 18
NY Islanders .....16 ...... 19 ...... 20 ..... 20
St. Louis ...........17 ...... 16 ...... 17 ...... 14
Phoenix .......... 18 ...... 20 ...... 18 ...... 17
Nashville ..........19 ...... 17 ...... 15 ...... 15
Chicago .......... 20 ...... 21 ...... 21 ...... 21
NY Rangers ..... 21 ...... 22 ...... 23 ...... 23
Carolina .......... 22 ...... 15 ...... 13 ...... 11
Atlanta ........... 23 ...... 24 ...... 25 ...... 27
Washington ..... 24 ...... 23 ...... 22 ...... 22
Edmonton ....... 25 ...... 29 ...... 30 ...... 30
Buffalo ............ 26 ...... 26 ...... 24 ...... 26
Toronto .......... 27 ...... 27 ...... 28 ...... 28
Florida ........... 28 ...... 25 ...... 26 ...... 24
Tampa Bay ..... 29 ...... 28 ...... 27 ...... 25
Los Angeles .... 30 ...... 30 ...... 29 ...... 29

What we see is that the best teams and the worst teams are pretty much the same under any system, and there are a few teams that succeed (or don’t) only in the current setup. Also, either of the scoring systems eliminating points for overtime and shootout losses produce virtually the same results. If I didn’t break ties, I could have arranged the 30 teams in almost identical order; only Montreal (downward) and Florida (upward) would have moved.
That being the case, I’d probably prefer to see the method giving two points for regulation wins and one for overtime and shootout wins. It doesn’t inflate the point totals the way the others do, it’s not as radical a change as the three-point win, so the old guard might accept it, and still ends the practice of rewarding teams for losing. Also, it makes sure that teams don’t have any incentive to play for a tie in regulation, as they do now to ensure themselves of getting at least one point.
If possible, I’ll revisit this at the end of the season and see how playoff teams and pairings might have changed under the various system.
For now, there’s a lot there to peruse. Your comments are, as always, encouraged.

The Kings aren’t having a stellar season, but it’s now official that Anze Kopitar is.
The 20-year-old second-year center — the first player from Slovenia to make the NHL — was selected last week as the team’s lone representative in the league’s All-Star Game, Jan. 27 in Atlanta.
“It’s obviously an honor to be selected,� said Kopitar, who has 18 goals and 42 points in 46 games. “There’s going to be the 40 best players in the world. Just playing that game, I think it’s going to be really exciting for me, and really fun, too, to play against those guys in the same game. It’s different if you play (San Jose’s Joe) Thornton one night, and (Anaheim’s Chris) Pronger the next.�
As the world’s most elevated game of pond hockey — defense and hitting are just about non-existent — the game figures to play to Kopitar’s strengths as a skater and creative offensive player.
“I’m sure the score is going to be high, as it always is,� said Kopitar. “That’s a kind of a game that fans are really looking forward to, with all the skill that is going to be the ice, it should be fun.�
To coach Marc Crawford, Kopitar’s selection represents a degree of recognition that’s a bit late in coming.
“I thought last year he got snubbed when he wasn’t one of the rookie of the year candidates,� said Crawford, “and I think he’s the one rookie from last year that’s continued to excel all year. A lot of people talk about sophomore jinx, or whatever it is, and he’s a known entity now, and he’s continued to improve his lot in the NHL.�
This may be overstating the case a bit on Kopitar’s behalf. While the Kings player is ahead of his scoring pace of a year ago — he’s currently at .91 points per game; last year, the figure was .84 — Colorado’s Paul Statsny and Pittsburgh’s Evgeny Malkin are averaging over a point per game and on pace to improve on their numbers of a year ago. (The third Calder Trophy finalist, Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal, is struggling mightily in his second season).
Still, there’s no doubt Kopitar is one of the few bright spots in the Kings’ season, and Crawford strongly believes the best is yet to come, based on the player he considers most comparable to Kopitar: Mats Sundin, the standout Toronto forward.
“To me, that’s who he’s most like,� said Crawford. “And I think even the most skeptical of Kings fans would be excited if you had, looking forward, a Mats Sundin-type career.�
Well, certainly, they’d like Sundin’s production — 543 goals and 749 assists over a career in its 17th season. But they’d prefer Kopitar’s career doesn’t mirror Sundin’s in one respect: Sundin has never come close to a Stanley Cup, making the playoffs nine times in 16 seasons and making it as far as the conference finals just once.
Another young all-star: Winning a Cup won’t be a concern for Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf, who also received his first invitation to the All-Star game last week. Getzlaf, of course, already has last year’s Stanley Cup on his resume.
Not surprisingly, the Ducks’ young power forward is as excited as Kopitar.
“It’s something I’ve looked forward to,� he said during a conference call, “and hoped I could be a part of this year. It’s an honor to be selected for something like this. … There are going to be a lot of guys out there I’ve looked up to for a long time.�
The 22-year-old finds it a bit hard to believe everything that’s happened in his young career.
“I never thought I was going to get drafted, and then that happened,� he said. “I never thought that I would make it. And it’s just stepping stones along the way, I think, and that’s all part of putting together a good career. This is just another stepping stone along the way.�
Getzlaf, who leads the Ducks in scoring with 49 points (17 goals, 32 assists) and defenseman Chris Pronger will make up the Anaheim contingent at the all-star game, meaning another strong candidate for the Ducks — Getzlaf’s linemate and close friend Corey Perry (a team-high 24 goals, 10th in the league, and 39 points) didn’t make the team.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to play with him for the last three years,� said Getzlaf. “It’s unfortunate that he didn’t get there. But … there’s a lot of good players in our league. You can’t take anything away from the guys that were selected.
“I would have loved to see Corey there and be able to experience it with him.�
Youth movement: Bowing to the inevitable — or, perhaps, to a bit of public pressure — the Kings on Monday called up two of their top prospects, forward Teddy Purcell and defenseman Peter Harrold.
The 24-year-old Harrold has seven goals and 31 assists in 39 games with the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate in Manchester, N.H. Purcell, 23, is third in the league in scoring (14 goals, 39 assists) and leads AHL rookies. Both were recently named to play in the AHL All-Star Game.
Harrold has played 12 games with the Kings. Purcell will be making his NHL debut, perhaps as soon as tonight’s game at Edmonton.
With the Kings out of the playoff picture, fans and media members have wondered why general manager Dean Lombardi has not brought up some of the team’s highly-touted prospects. With forward Michael Cammalleri going on the injured list with a rib injury suffered on Dec. 22, the time has apparently arrived to give at least two of those players a look.
Your comments: As always, your comments are invited. Please be aware that comments must be approved before appearing — otherwise links to a variety of dubious overseas websites would appear here with regularity — so there may be a delay between the time you send the comment and the time it appears.

ANAHEIM — When the Ducks placed Ilya Brzygalov on waivers earlier this season, general manager Brian Burke said he was making good on a promise to give the goaltender, mostly a backup to Jean-Sebastien Giguere, an opportunity to be a No. 1 netminder.
Of course, there were also some financial benefits for the Ducks, who are up against the salary cap; Bryzgalov will make $1,363,000 this season, while Jonas Hiller, who replaced him as Anaheim’s No. 2 goalie, will make $850.000.
While no one is likely to claim the Ducks are stronger in goal with Hiller rather than Bryzgalov — a standout in his new role as the No.1 goalie in Phoenix — it does seem the Ducks’ backup is becoming more comfortable with his role.
Hiller played extremely week last Friday when the Ducks beat Chicago 2-1, making 20 saves, including several difficult stops on a first-period flurry by the Blackhawks.
“I was quite happy with the way I started,� said the 25-year-old from Switzerland. “Those few chances they had, they were good chances … In one way it’s dangerous, if right away you get scored on, but if it goes the way it did today, making good stops, for sure it boosts your confidence.
“For sure it helped me a lot that I had those good saves at the beginning. I felt pretty comfortable the whole game.�
Friday’s win gave Hiller a 3-3-1 record in 10 games, with a 2.44 goals-against average and .903 saves percentage. The latter numbers not that far from Giguere’s 2.41 and .913. That doesn’t mean Hiller is ready to challenge for the No. 1 job, but it does indicate he may be earning more playing time — particularly in light of his 2-1 record and .927 saves percentage in his last three starts.
“Our mandate is not to expect our goaltenders to win us hockey games, but to give us a chance,� said coach Randy Carlyle, who started Hiller in part because Giguere had been ill and in part, he said, “we felt we have to play our (backup) goaltender a little bit more, give him a little bit of an opportunity. …
“I thought he made some critical stops at critical times, and that’s all you can ask of your goalie.�
Opportunity is something Hiller would welcome.
“I feel more and more comfortable every game,� said Hiller. “I’m always happy for the chances.�
That’s particularly true because the backup role is an unaccustomed one. Before he was signed by the Ducks as a free agent last spring, he had been the primary netminder for Davos in the Swiss A League, playing 131 games over three seasons with a 77-44-9 record. And this year, before joining the Ducks on Nov. 16, he had split starting duties at minor-league Portland (Me.), going 3-2-1 in six games.
So the reserve role is something he has to learn as he goes.
“For sure it’s easier if you get a start like every second or third day,� he said. “You’re more in the flow or whatever. But that’s the situation I have to go through, the situation as a backup, and I have to handle it. The last few times, I think it’s gone pretty well.�

New face: The newest face to arrive in Burke’s season-long tinkering with the Anaheim roster is right wing Brian Bochenski, who arrived from Boston last week in a trade for defenseman Shane Hnidy and made his Ducks debut Saturday at Phoenix.
Bochenski had six assists in 20 games with Boston this season; in 101 games with the Senators, Blackhawks and Bruins, he had 21 goals and 26 assists.
The trade was not a total surprise, he said.
“I was in and out of the lineup, and then all of a sudden they put me on the first line for two days, so maybe I thought, ‘Oh, what is going on here?’ But you never really know.
“I thought maybe something would happen, but not so soon. I was still hoping it panned out there.�
Bochenski had a slow start to the season — perhaps too literally for Boston. He said he was asked by the Bruins to add some bulk to his 6-foot-1 frame and reported at 205 pounds, but lost some speed in the process. Now he’s back to his usual 190 pounds, he said, and hopes to reestablish his offensive game.
“I’m a guy who scores a lot of goals, usually, and contributes offensively,� he said, asked to describe himself as a player. “Cause a lot of turnovers, and usually a pretty quick player down low in getting to loose pucks. The biggest thing is just scoring goals. I’ve done that my whole career.�
Bochenski played his college hockey at North Dakota, finishing with 79 goals and 75 assists in 120 career games, and has had similar production in the AHL, with 89 goals and 93 assists in 143 games.
Carlyle did not rush Bochenski into the lineup, choosing to have him sit out his first game as a Duck.
“It’s important to create an atmosphere for him to have success and give him an opportunity to play an offensive role,� said Carlyle, “because that’s what he is, an offensive player.
“Historically, he’s been able to provide scoring at the college level, at the American Hockey League level, and now the test is that he hasn’t been able to do it at the NHL level. And we have to find the best possible scenario to help him help us provide some offense.�

Note to readers: This marks the debut of the hockey notebook as online-only material. Reader feedback is invited to illustrate that there is interest in continuing to offer the notebook on a regular basis.