Ryan Back to Wing

“It’s not that we’re throwing it out the window,” Carlyle told the OCR’s Curtis Zupke. “We put him back at left-wing for now and we’ll see how that develops.”

Let me translate this ‘Elmer.’ We don’t think it was working. It’s not like we’re throwing it out the window. We might come back to what we don’t think was working…

The only thing I didn’t like about the Ryan to center experiment is that our Ducks waited four years to do it. Now,  after finally trying the obvious they give up after less than two weeks.

Ryan was back on LW with Koivu/Selanne at practice yesterday.

Coach Randy ‘Elmer Fudd’ Carlyle insists the search for a third scoring line continues.  “There’s lots of options. We’re still not giving up on the fact that we want to create three lines of offense.” This comment initially reported by OCR’s Curtis Zupke and is edited for affect.

The immediate effect is our Ducks get smaller at center. This move isn’t supportive of one of Barstool Bob’s stated goals, “To not get pushed around in our own end.”

Regardless, of who moves to center, be it Jason Blake, Todd Marchant, Maxine MacEnauer or Ryan Carter, the job will be taken by a smaller man. Smaller men don’t dominate physically.

Our D will not be supported by the big body of Bobby Ryan in the low slot.

Giving up on Ryan to center also eliminates what was shaping up to be  a healthy competition between Getzlaf and Ryan. There’s no longer a ‘Getzlaf’ and a ‘Ryan’ line.

Ryan’s work on faceoffs wasn’t exactly stellar. Coach ‘Elmer’ didn’t even try using Selanne on right side faceoffs.

Other adaptations Carlyle mentioned Ryan needed to do in the transition process, such as not turning your back to the puck, just weren’t given enough time to work out.

Once again, Randy Carlyle shows himself slow to adapt in trying the ‘experiment’ in the first place. Once again, Randy Carlyle shows himself very eager to give up on Bobby Ryan.

Once again, our Ducks will pay a price for Randy Carlyle.