For a team that is supposed to be fighting for a playoff spot, this is not the way to get things done.  On Sunday night the Ducks blew a 3-0 lead only to lose 4-3 in a shootout to Montreal.

That is the second time in a week that the Ducks have blown a lead.  They blew a 2-0 lead against Colorado last Wednesday as well.  This is getting to be a bad habit.

Since coming back from the Olympic break, the Ducks are 0-2-1.  Prior to the break, they were just three points out of a playoff spot.  In this short time, the Ducks have slipped to 13^th in the Western Conference and are now six points out of a playoff spot.

The Ducks had a franchise-record 11-game winning streak at home and they would need to continue that dominance to have a chance at the playoffs for the fifth year straight.  So far the Ducks have looked mediocre in their own building.

There are 17 games left and the Ducks are at 30-27-8 with 68 points.  Realistically, they still would need 95 points to assure themselves of a playoff spot.

Want to do the math?  The Ducks need 27 points in 17 games to reach 95 points.  That is 27 out of 34 points.   Or 13-4-1 to end the season.

"Where we are at in the standings right now and the points that we needed, we can't lose any extra points here," said Saku Koivu.  "We have to be ready for the next one.  These next two weeks are going to be critical for us. We can make a difference and make a push if we're successful on this one and that's what we're looking for."

While not impossible, don't go to Vegas with those odds.  No wonder the Ducks only want to look at one game at a time.  It is a daunting task ahead of them.

Everyone keeps talking about how the Ducks are a great team in the second half and how well they do at the end.  They certainly did that last year, just squeaking into the playoffs at the last moment.  Even GM Bob Murray showed his faith in the team's ability by making minor tweaks at the trade deadline, rather than selling off assets.

Perhaps what the Ducks truly need to learn is how to be a great team in the first half of the season as well.  Right now, the hole that they dug for themselves at the beginning of the season really might be too deep to climb out.

It really is "must win" against Columbus this evening.  If they can't even defeat Columbus, who is playing the second of back-to-back games, who isn't even in playoff contention, in their own building, then the Ducks should just tank from here on out and go for a higher draft pick.  Anything other than a win will be unacceptable.

Although the Olympic hangover seems to be finally gone, a 4-3 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens did not help the Ducks in their quest to earn a playoff spot.  Only one point earned is not enough and the Ducks let another one slip away.

Both teams played the night before.  Anaheim was shut-out in Phoenix and Montreal defeated the Kings in Los Angeles.  While the Ducks got the start they wanted, Montreal came back with a vengeance at the end of the game.

After two trips to the penalty box by Scott Niedermayer and Steve Eminger, Corey Perry turned things around with a goal at 8:54 that just made it to the far post behind Carey Price.   Defenseman Aaron Ward earned his first point as a Duck with one of the assists.  It was just the third shot on goal for the Ducks.

Fellow newbie, Lubomir Visnovsky, showed what he can do on the power play by stickhandling through significant Canadien traffic and finishing things off at 12:54.  Seeing as the Ducks neglected to convert on seven power play opportunities the night before, it was about time one went in.  First point for Visnovsky as a Duck as well.

With time running out, Niedermayer made it 3-0 at 19:07.  Ryan Getzlaf got the puck from the boards to Niedermayer, who was right in front of Price.  Price finished off the period, but that was it for the netminder.  Jaroslav Halak finished off the job for the Canadiens, instead of having a well-deserved night off.

The Canadiens got on the board in the second period thanks to a turnover by Getzlaf at the blue line.  Josh Gorges intercepted Getzlaf's pass and sent it to Tomas Plekanec, who streaked off down the ice and put the puck neatly over Jonas Hiller's shoulder at 7:48.  Hiller got to see another one of those shots from Plekanec later in the game in the shootout.  That one proved the end of the game.

Despite giving the Canadiens three power plays (with a 31.1% success rate on the road, that should have been good enough for one goal for Montreal), the Ducks were able to kill every one of them.

Montreal persisted and hung in there, taking advantage of turnovers and mistakes.  Brian Gionta brought the Habs back within one goal at 18:50.  Can you say nervous moments for the final 1:50 of the game?

With Halak vacating the net for the extra attacker, the Ducks could not hit the empty target, but Andrei Markov did what all Ducks fans did not want to see - tie up the game.  Only 10.7 seconds remained.  Shades of Wednesday's game against Colorado, when the Ducks blew a 2-0 lead.  Only the Ducks did not even get a point out of that one.

Overtime was not a dull, staid affair.  There were plenty of shots (5 for Montreal, 6 for Anaheim) and plenty of chances for each side to forgo the shootout.  Neither Hiller nor Halak refused to budge, so a shootout it was to determine who would get the extra point.

Getzlaf had the only goal in the shootout for the Ducks.  It appeared that Hiller was going to be successful in stopping all three Montreal shots until one of the strangest things occurred.  Hiller seemed to stopped Gionta's shot, but did not know where the puck was.  In standing up and lifting his arm, the puck fell out of his equipment and went into the net behind him.  It was actually reviewed and determined that indeed, the goal was good and the shootout would continue.

James Wisniewski, who had been successful in his two previous shootout attempts, perhaps had a bit too much baby powder and didn't even get his shot off.  Plekanec, who already had one roofed shot behind Hiller, put in the second to end the game.

This is not what the Ducks had in mind when they were aiming for a playoff spot, and are now six points behind the 8th and final spot and slipping further.

In other notes: It was the first game for Saku Koivu against his former team, after spending 13 seasons in Montreal, 10 of them as captain.

After a 4-3 loss to Colorado on Wednesday, the Ducks have had a couple days to think it over.

Olympians finished off their media obligations on Thursday, something that coach Randy Carlyle was thrilled about.

“From this day forward, that’s something in the past," said Carlyle.  "We’ve got to focus on our task at hand. Get everything put by the wayside today and come to work tomorrow. That will be the end of it. That’s the last we’re going to talk about it.”

So while yesterday's practice was missing several key players, it was a first look at the two newest defensemen joining the team. Neither Lubomir Visnovsky nor Aaron Ward could make it in time for Wednesday's game.  By the time they landed and arrived at the Honda Center, even the media crew had gone home.

On Thursday they got an introduction to the Ducks system.

"There wasn’t a whole lot of pressure today," said Ward.  "It’s a good chance to familiarize myself. I hadn’t played in 72 hours. I just need to get a little bit out of my legs. It wasn’t my best performance, but I felt like it was good. I got the jitters out."

Visnovsky seemed thrilled to be in Anaheim and the prospect of playoff hockey once again.    He hasn't seen the post-season since 2002, the last time the Kings made it in.

Both players were treated to a practice with the full roster on Friday morning before heading to Phoenix for Saturday's game.  Another day to get their legs under them and figure out exactly what it is that Carlyle expects out of his defensemen.  It also gave Carlyle another day to figure out potential defensive pairings.

“We’re going to try to fit some people together that are going to give us the best chance,” Carlyle commented. “We think we’ve played Niedermayer and Wisniewski too much in the past little while. Hopefully some of these new guys and the guys we have here will come in and take some of those minutes away.”

The Ducks will have their hands full in Phoenix.  The Coyotes have been a formidable team this year and made several moves at the trade deadline that should only make them better.

After the listless effort against Colorado, the Ducks need to move forward and put on their "A" game in the one brief game on the road before coming home to eight more games in a row at the Honda Center.

“Right now every game is important,” said goaltender Jonas Hiller. “We have 19 games left and we still have a lot of chances. We have to believe and we have to play better next game.”

Having a full complement of defensemen will help.  And one can only hope that by the time Saturday rolls around, the Olympic hangover will be a distant memory.

The Avalanche made a visit to the Honda Center for the first time this season. After losing the past five meetings with the Ducks, Colorado wanted to end that statistic. If they could end the Ducks 11 game home winning streak, all the better. Coming back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Ducks in their own building with a final score of 4-3 was great for Colorado. Not so good for the Ducks.

"We played one period of hockey and we didn't play very well after the first period," said coach Randy Carlyle. "They turned it up. We stopped doing what we needed to do. We started to get cute, too soft around the puck. We didn't get into the dirty areas. And some individuals had bad nights."

The Ducks had a good first period, outshooting the Avs 14-2. Even more important was the Ducks had the lead. They were ahead 1-0 thanks to a power play goal from Jason Blake at 16:11. Bobby Ryan got the puck to Blake, who was positioned right next to the net and was able to jam it in behind Craig Anderson.

Teemu Selanne extended Anaheim's lead to 2-0 at 4:37 of the second period. Blake got the puck to a wide open Selanne and goal #598 went in the net. Two more to go to 600.

After that, Colorado decided enough was enough and turned things around in their favor with a very strong period. They took advantage of two power play opportunities to tie up the game. First Paul Stastny got his pass through James Wisniewski's legs to Chris Stewart. Stewart had a wide open net and put the puck behind Jonas Hiller at 9:10, just :15 seconds into their power play.

Later in the period, John-Michael Liles did an excellent job keeping the puck in the zone, diving to prevent it from clearing. Peter Mueller, just acquired from Phoenix in the Wojtek Wolski trade this morning, grabbed the puck and took a long shot from the blue line that made its way past Hiller at 15:43.

Those two goals sucked much of the life out of the Ducks and the crowd.

The Ducks might have fared better if they could have stayed out of the penalty box. A delay of game penalty for a puck out of play gave Colorado their sixth man advantage. Matt Duchene, nephew of Ducks assistant coach, Newell Brown, got his 21st of the year at 8:09. Not so great penalty killing by the Ducks, giving up 3 of 6.

Not so great goaltending, either, by Hiller, who seemed to have some lingering fatigue after playing in the Olympics. He let in goal number four, this one not a power play goal. T.J. Galiardi picked up a juicy rebound from Stastny's breakaway attempt and lifted it up and over Hiller's shoulder at 9:19.

Can you say rusty?

Speaking of Rusty, Ruslan Salei took a double minor for high sticking late in the third period. Anderson did a superb job of stopping an onslaught of Ducks shots. The one one he couldn't stop was Scott Niedermayer's deflection off of Scott Hannan's skate to make at 4-3 at 16:55. There was only :23 seconds left in the power play.

The question that remained was could the Ducks tie things up in the remaining minutes? Answer - no.

"It's disappointing when you come out like that and it ends up this way," Niedermayer said.

End of franchise winning home streak. No two points in the standings. Not the way to begin the final 20 games.

"Right now every game's important," said Hiller after the game. "It's tough. We had a 2-0 lead and we give the game away. There are 19 games left. We have to play better the next game."

The Ducks now head to Phoenix on Saturday before they have another seven games at home and a chance for a new winning streak.

In other notes: The Ducks used only five defensemen after trading Ryan Whitney earlier in the day. Neither Aaron Ward nor Lubomir Visnovsky were expected to join the team until Thursday.

Dan Sexton also played in his first game since being recalled from Manitoba.

Every year there is concern that there won't be much movement at the trade deadline.  Every year those fears are unfounded.  Somehow, even in this salary cap era, there are plenty of deals to be made.

GM Bob Murray, who stated yesterday that he "liked the atmosphere in the room," also admitted that he would likely make a few tweaks to the roster to improve things.  Two of Murray's criteria were "how much sense does it make economically?" and "how good is it for the organization?"

Murray decided there were a few defensive moves that would be good for the organization, but he left the forwards alone.  The biggest trade was sending defenseman Ryan Whitney and a sixth-round draft pick to Edmonton in exchange for Lubomir Visnovsky.  If Visnovsky is paired with James Wisniewski, broadcasters everywhere will have a lot of fun with that combo.  All they need to do is bring back Vitaly Vishnevsky and you can have Vishnevsky, Visnovsky and Wisniewski.   Almost sounds like a law firm.  Visnovsky, a former King, had to waive his no movement clause, which apparently was not a problem.

The Ducks also picked up another veteran d-man in Aaron Ward.  In exchange, they sent the Carolina Hurricanes minor league goaltender, Justin Pogge and a 4th round draft pick.

Pogge's AHL position was quickly filled by Joey MacDonald, whom Anaheim acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs.   He was purchased with a 7th round draft pick in 2011.

Vesa Toskala, who was obtained in the Jean-Sebastien Giguere on January 31, did not stay in Anaheim long enough to even change his pads and helmet.  Toskala, 32, heads back up to Canada, this time to the Calgary Flames, in exchange for a younger back-up in 26 year-old Curtis McElhinney.  Toskala will rejoin Miikka Kiprusoff after having both been part of the San Jose Sharks organization.

Because neither new goaltender could be in Anaheim by the puck drop this evening, the Ducks recalled Timo Pielmeier to back up Jonas Hiller against Colorado.

In a final and late move, the Ducks sent Petteri Nokelainen to the Phoenix Coyotes for a 6th round draft pick.  Nokelainen had been obtained last year at the trade deadline, but had been a healthy scratch of late.

One thing is certain - the annual team photo tomorrow morning will be a bit different than it would have been this morning!

With all the Olympians home from Vancouver, the Ducks have very little transition time for the final stretch of 20 games.  No time to revel in their gold, silver and bronzes.  Now is the time to focus on making up the three point difference in the standings to get into the playoffs.

"It’s not going to be easy to push these emotions away and get focused right away," said Saku Koivu.  "I think the key for the team to make the playoffs right now is we have to do well in the first two weeks, in the next five or six games. You can have as many medal guys on this team, but if you don’t show up as a team and compete well together, we’re not going to make it. At the same time, we realize if we put little pieces together and we start playing well as a team, we have enough talent to finish strong this season. It’s really up to us to find that team chemistry and play well as a team defensively."

Adding to the chemistry will be Dan Sexton.  Sexton was sent back to Bakersfield briefly but received the call back to Anaheim after Evgeny Artyukhin was traded to Atlanta.  That made room on the roster for the diminutive winger, who was more than happy to be back in Anaheim.

GM Bob Murray made a couple other minor tweaks as well.  He traded defensive prospect, Steven Kampfer, to Boston for a draft pick.  Murray said that it was nothing against Kampfer, but the depth chart for defense left no room for him in the system.

Defenseman Nick Boynton also was traded to Chicago for "future considerations."  Boynton had been playing with Manitoba in the AHL after being waived earlier in the season.

The trade deadline looms at noon on Wednesday.  By the time the Ducks hit the ice against Colorado, personnel will be set in stone.  Just in time for the team photo on Thursday.  The question remains - who will not be in the picture?

The Olympians are headed home and the NHL trade deadline is looming.  Thus the Ducks begin their moves.

In order to make room on the roster for those players returning from Vancouver (only Jonas Hiller is back with the team), the Ducks re-assigned Brendan Mikkelson to Toronto.  They also sent Dan Sexton and Timo Pielmeier to Bakersfield.  Sexton had been in Manitoba, so it is interesting to see what happens over the next couple of days.  Was Sexton moved to the closer affiliate so that he could be recalled more easily?

The Ducks have already made one move to eliminate a forward-laden roster.  Evgeny Artyukhin was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for defenseman Nathan Oystrick.  Oystrick has spent the entire season with the Chicago Wolves, the AHL affiliate of the Thrashers, but played 53 games in Atlanta last season.

Artyukhin was acquired from Tampa Bay last summer in exchange for Drew Miller and a draft pick.  Artyukhin seemed to make more errors than stellar moves and spent a good portion of his time as a healthy scratch for the Ducks.  Big body, amazing speed, but some really doofus penalties.

With other forwards stepping up and making a difference, including Sexton when he was here, GM Bob Murray was likely to get rid of some of his extras.  It is unknown what other moves he may make, but if Murray trades away other spare parts, there could be space on the roster to call up Sexton, who more than deserves a spot in the line-up.

The trade deadline is noon Pacific on Wednesday, so more activity is expected prior to that.  In the case of the Ducks, they won't be aggressive buyers for help in the playoffs, nor will they be aggressive sellers, as they still have playoff hopes.  It is more likely that there will be a tweak here and a tweak there rather than any major moves.  One thing is certain, based on Murray's history, he isn't done yet.

The hockey part of the Vancouver Olympics are over and the Anaheim Ducks will have seven medals of varying colors making their way back to California shortly.   Seven medals are the most of any NHL team.

After a very compressed men's tournament, Team Finland took the bronze medal by defeating Slovakia, 5-3.  That gave Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu another medal to add to the ones already accumulated.  This was obviously Selanne's final game of Olympic competition.  He left the games the all-time scorer, but never was able to add a gold medal to the silver and bronze medals he had at home.

The final game between Canada and Team USA was to determine the color of medal that would go around their necks.  As bright and shiny as silver is, it isn't gold.

In a hard fought and well-played game that ended in a 3-2 overtime victory for the Canadians, as a Ducks fan you had to feel a little ambivalent about who to cheer for.

Scott Niedermayer added a gold medal to his burgeoning championship collection.  Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf got their first gold medals.  Perry nearly had that game-winning goal until Zach Parise tied up the game with just :25 seconds left.  It was Perry's 4th goal of the tournament and he and Getzlaf produced as well for Canada as they do for Anaheim.

Both Bobby Ryan and Ryan Whitney had to get the consolation prize of silver medals when Sidney Crosby put the puck on net in overtime and beat the MVP of the tournament, Ryan Miller.  It was a hard pill to swallow for the American team, who had been undefeated in the entire tournament, never even going to overtime or a shootout.

The only Duck not to get a medal was Jonas Hiller, as well as prospect Luca Sbisa.  Switzerland was knocked out by the US team earlier in the week in the quarterfinals.  Hiller may not have any medal around his neck, but he has the respect of every single team that he played against.  Hiller gave his team a chance and performed above and beyond the call of duty.

Hiller will be called upon in the final 20 games to be equally strong as he was for his Swiss team.  Hiller will have to give his team a chance to win, as they need to realistically win 3 of every 4 games in the last six weeks of the season.

Now the national enemies will go back to being teammates.  One can only hope that the experience and excitement of playing in the Olympics will give them the boost to finish off the season with a bang.  The Ducks are close to a playoff spot, but close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes.   Maybe curling as well.  In the NHL, you are in or you are not and there is no in between.  When the playoffs roll around, the Ducks want to be on the inside and playing til the end.

Now that the hockey teams in the Olympics are down to the final four, it is time for the NHL to get back to practice.  For the Ducks, not everyone is home yet and only Jonas Hiller has been eliminated in the tournament.

Hiller will be getting a few more days rest and is expected to rejoin the team on Sunday.  With seven other players still in Vancouver duking it out, the Ducks recalled four players from minor league affiliates.

The Ducks recalled goaltender Timo Pielmeier to join Vesa Toskala in net.  They also brought back up defensemen Brett Festerling and Brendan Mikkelson.  Finally, Dan Sexton was called back up.

Sexton was sent to Manitoba after the Jean-Sebastien Giguere trade to make room for Jason Blake in the line-up.  GM Bob Murray said that Sexton would definitely be recalled at some point.  Sexton had 9 goals and 9 assists in 28 games and not only made an impact on the Ducks, but also had instant chemistry with Saku Koivu and Bobby Ryan.  This time Sexton wants to stay, but that depends on personnel and the NHL trade deadline (more on that later.)

“The thing about that is they don’t have to say that,” said Sexton after practice. “They can do whatever they want. I’m a first-year guy. They can send me down and bring me back up as they please. They don’t owe you an answer or an excuse, so for them to think enough of me to maybe give me a reason why I didn’t really maybe deserve it or not, it definitely gave me confidence going back to Manitoba to say,  ‘Hey, let me just keep working hard here and hope to go back.'  Hopefully they want me back and hopefully I can earn my way back here.”

Players will start to be sent back as soon as teams are eliminated in the Olympics.  The final four teams still have two more games.  Every single one of them - USA, Finland, Canada and Slovakia - want the final game to be for the gold medal, not the consolation game.

Olympians are not the only ones who will affect personnel.  On Monday, March 1, the trade freeze is lifted and there are only three short days for GM's to make their final moves of the year. March 3 at 3:00pm eastern is it.  Not much time to evaluate what is needed to be done for the final stretch.

Fortunately the Ducks were able to do well prior to the Olympic break and they are within two points of a playoff spot.  Having already moved Giguere, what other tweaks will Murray come up with prior to March 3?  Will he bolster the defense corps that could use a little more depth?  Will he make moves based on potential unrestricted free agents and whether or not he can or will sign them after July 1?  He certainly did that last year.  Will he make any surprise moves that no one rumored or expected?

Stay tuned.  This next week won't be dull, that's for sure.

Watching all the Olympic hockey has me pondering about various rule differences between international competition and the NHL.  One of the biggest differences that pops out is visors.  Unless you are over the age of 35, visors are mandatory.  Chris Pronger is one of the few old guys who is choosing to leave off the visor.  Many younger players are now required to put the visor that they used to wear in the AHL back on.

And there is not one single word of complaint about having to do so in order to compete for their country in the Olympics.  Not one word.

Suggest that visors become mandatory in the NHL and you might as well be suggesting that they outlaw fighting and all physical contact.

After Anaheim Ducks defensive prospect, Jordan Smith, lost the sight in his left eye due to a fluke puck deflection on February 24, 2006, the AHL responded by making visors mandatory.  Smith was happy to endorse that rule change, especially as a visor, in that particular case, would have made the difference in protecting his eyesight and future career.

Not all injuries can be prevented by visors, but a lot of them can.  And as Smith can attest, once lost, you cannot get back your eyesight.  Is it really worth it not to wear a visor?

More recently Ryan Getzlaf, who took off his visor after leaving the AHL for good, caught a stick to the forehead in the January 19 game against Buffalo.  It left a huge gash near his right eye that required him to leave the game to get stitches.  Getzlaf returned to the game, but had the stick hit any lower, he could have missed much more time.  When questioned about the use of a visor, his response was "you sound like my mother!"

Getzlaf, who is under 35, is wearing a visor while playing for Team Canada in the Olympics.  No whining about that visor now and I will bet his mother is a lot happier.

The Hockey News addressed visors in their February 1, 2009, issue, reporting that 59% of players are wearing them.  The magazine has been tracking numbers since 1998, when only 15% of players wore visors.

To counter the argument that visors impede your vision on the ice, THN further cites evidence that 29 of the 30 top goal-scorers (at time of printing) wore visors.

It works in international competition.  Nothing has been lost in these Olympic games by having players don visors.   It works in the AHL.  Why not in the NHL as well?

Eventually, one can only hope that common sense prevails and mothers everywhere will be proven right in their safety concerns.

Now will anyone in the NHL deal with head shots in the same way that the IIHF does? An automatic 5 minute major seems to be a good deterrant during the Olympics and guys are much more cautious.

I guess one can only hope for baby steps of progress.  Wanting both of those things to change is probably unrealistic.  It shouldn't be.