There should have been no expectation of recreating last season this year. We came out of the gate screaming and were near the top of the pacific at the allstar break, then we gutted our D core because Verbeek was not comfortable giving guys max extensions, and I agree with him on that decision, it was time to rip the bandaid off and stop trying to extend that window.

Yes, we got off to a frustratingly bad start to the season, but there are positives to look at. We have a lot more scoring across the team now, that hasn't been the case in the past. A few seasons back, the Ducks I swear had a 70% to win the game if they started the 3rd period down by 2 or less, because they would go ape for 20 minutes and end up winning the game, and that was maddening to watch night in and night out, 40 minutes of dump and chase, and then 20 minutes of showing us what the team could actually do.

We're not as bad as the team was at the start of the season. We didn't look like a last place team against the Jets and the Redwings, and in our rematch with the blues, we showed that we can dominate the play for stretches of time. Of our last 5 games, the only one that really got away from us was round 1 against the Blues. It's going to be a slow build, and all the injuries on the blue line haven't helped, but we are getting better as the season goes on.

But Terry is going to be an RFA, not a UFA.

The ducks xGF% is barely better than AZ this year. They’re awful. And the “we traded Lindholm and Manson last year” doesn’t hold water when it comes to major step back this team has taken. No one expected them to be in the playoffs but they should at least be able to win a game in regulation.

The players holding a closed door meeting shows the frustration this team has already.

Yep. And?

I can understand the team is frustrated, they got speed bagged to start the season, and its clear they are not gelling as a team yet, knowing from the start of the season that we will be sellers at the TDL I'm sure isn't helping the morale in the room either, now go ahead and throw season ending injuries to key young players into the mix, i'm sure things have kind of gone to ****, and its clear that Stoic Eakins is the wrong coach for that locker room. Maybe Vancouver will swap Barbecue Boudreau with us and see if that works for either team.

We were 8-21-5 last year after the all star break, which is presumably when it became apparent that we were shipping guys out. We went 4-11-3 from the TDL to seasons end. We are 5-13-1 this season, and we didn't come close to replacing Manson/Lindholm with Klingberg/Kulikov, so where exactly is the "major step back"? We have had a bumpy start, and an obvious leadership void that is hurting us, but chalk it up to growing pains and hope that a captain emerges from that players only meeting.

This start to the season has been disappointing, but hardly unexpected.

I’m sure the players went into the season expecting to have zero regulation wins almost a quarter of the way thru.

A win is a win, they don't ask how, they ask how many. I don't disagree that we are underperforming, I just don't think where we are vs where we expected to be is all that large.

You posit that Verbeek made a mistake by not extending Terry during last offseason. Terry is an RFA, in this situation, the team has the advantage. There are few teams with enough cap space and draft capital (it would take 2 1sts, 1 2nd, and a 3rd) to offer sheet Terry if his next contract comes in anywhere near $8.5 million.

And surely he hates losing, but the reality is he was 5th round pick and the Ducks gave him plenty of time, patience and opportunity for him to develop into the player he is now, it's only right he do the same. If that doesn't build goodwill between player and organization, then it would make sense to trade him.

Verbeek has shown him nothing to build goodwill. But I was mostly talking about Verbeek allowing Eakins to stay and continue his ways when he’s clearly not an NHL coach as being the mistake.

Being dead last in the league and looking the way they look vs somewhere around 22 and at least looking capable is a very drastic difference.

Again, the only reason we were 22nd in the league was because of how well we performed before Febuary, when we had Manson, Lindholm, Rakell, and Getzlaf.

Our pacing without the guys we traded off was just as bad as it is now, you're going to need to let go of last year as a benchmark, its not relevant to this year.

You’re acting like they didn’t sign Strome Vatrano or Klingberg.

You're acting like those guys were supposed to be the saviors of this team.

Strome and Vatrano were good signings, but they don't replace Getzlaf and Rakell.

Klingberg and Kulikov are likewise not Lindholm and Manson, add to that both our second pairing defenseman both appear to be missing the entire season with injury.

We're running 4 NHL caliber defensemen and one of them could be considered defensively sound, and of those 4 one has already been out with injury this season, and one of the better tweeners is also out with injury. Our problem is defense, and its showing.