With Teemu Selanne in his final season the Ducks must go all in

All the Ducks are lining up in a row in Californiathis year (pun intended). It's Anaheim's final kick at the can with the face of the franchise still in tow. Owner of 678 goals and 1,437 points in the regular season, Teemu Selanne is clearly being paced for a deep spring run in 2014.

The announcement that the Finnish Flash would sit in one of all 12 back to back instances this season, was designed by Boudreau to mitigate the grind on the 43-year-old in an Olympic year. Teemu might have been looking at almost 100 games heading into the playoffs including the Sochi games and pre-season had he not been given this rest plan. “I’d rather have 60 great games from Teemu than 82 when a lot of them could be mediocre because he’s tired,” Boudreau said.

For the second straight year Teemu's numbers have really dropped off, while Anaheimhas had a successful regular season, to date. However, there's no denying that this ageless wonder has all the ability in the world to still pull out a few rabbits out of his hat in crunch time. He's gotten off to a slow start (prolonged further by the facial injury he's been playing through). However, it's not been for a lack of trying, as he's upped his shot attempts (2.35 per game) over last season (2.08) so far, despite being awarded less TOI these days. He's only been sent out there for 14:36 per game this season after skating at a clip of 17:52 each night in the last full season (2011-12).

Meanwhile, the sniper in Corey Perry seems to have been revitalized after two years of declining production. Since winning the Maurice 'Rocket' Richard trophy in 2010-11, Perry went from a 50-goal marvel to a (pro-rated) 27-goal fringe All-Star Game worthy selection. In fact, his lock on reprising his role with TeamCanada forSochi was very much in doubt heading into this season despite entering his prime years. Moreover, the season prior, it was Getzlaf who struggled mightily with a laughable 11 goals to his name and a mediocre 57 points. A 41-year-old Selanne actually led the team in scoring!

Corey Perry's recent declining production prior to this season

However, after the duo traded forgettable campaigns for the past few years, it appears their famous chemistry has nearly returned to former glory. Perry is on pace for 45 goals and 86 points this season, while Getzlaf is producing at a 100 point projection, which would assuredly be a career year! The pair of 28-year-olds are doing wonders for keepingAnaheimat the top of the Pacific for the second straight year.

Boudreau has tried a handful of left wingers this season already to slot in with them. Dustin Penner has had the most opportunity to play with the talented pair, sticking with them for a quarter of the time so far.

Frozen Pools' Most Frequent Linemate Generator

Patrick Maroon has been just as successful as Penner on a per game basis. Everyone else has sputtered on the top line, as seen by this linemate-based production chart, by Frozen Pools.

Mathieu Perreault has seemingly come into his own inAnaheimafter being very much on the periphery of importance for much of his time inWashington. After Bruce Boudreau pushed for upper brass to bring his former disciple back to him in the off-season, Perreault has really thrived in the Ducks' top six. He's already a goal and two assists back from last season's total output in half the number of games. He should have no problem crushing his 2011-12 career high of 30 points.

Mathieu Perreault's recent career snapshot

The other and much more high-profile off-season deal involving Anaheim, which saw Bobby Ryan dealt for Jakob Silfverberg from Ottawa has also paid dividends (prior to the latter going on the shelf). Along with Teemu and Perreault, Jakob helped form a very imposing second line. Teemu has been slumping ever since he went down and Jakob's impending return to the lineup might just be the perfect recipe to get him back on track.

The blueline core has seen a massive improvement in their own end from the still very young Cam Fowler, since the lockout shortened campaign. Fowler began his pro career with a horrendous minus-53 plus/minus rating by the end of his sophomore campaign. He was only a minus-4 in 2012-13 and is now finally out of the red, with a plus-2 rating thus far. Meanwhile, Francois Beauchemin leads the NHL with a fantastic plus-17 clip, while teenage rookie, Hampus Lindholm is already impressing the masses with the NHL's third best mark of plus-14

The Duck Pond has never been a better place to play in (aside from the 2007 Stanley Cup Championship run of course). The Honda Centre faithful has yet to witness hometown defeat, asAnaheimremains a perfect 8-0-0 thus far at home.

However, the biggest story of them all this year in DuckLand has been the continued rise of Anaheim's organizational goaltending depth to epic proportions. In 2011-12, we saw the rise to prospect gold of junior netminder, John Gibson, who dominated the Ontario League. While still quite raw, Gibson has since sprung to the minor-pro ranks, dominating over there too. He currently leads the AHL with a .940% save percentage, and sports a sub-two GAA.

In 2012-13, we saw Viktor Fasth rise to prominence, giving Jonas Hiller a legitimate run for his money for top dog status. With a gaudy 2.18 GAA and a decent .921% save percentage, Fasth forced a season-long split of the cage.

Fast-forward to 2013-14, and enter yet another move and shaker inAnaheim's incredibly crowded and talented crease, Frederik Andersen. The 24-year-old Dane burst onto the scene posting an unbelievable 1.66 GAA and .943% save percentage in his three-week cup of coffee with the big club.Andersencertainly isn't a shock addition to the Ducks elite goaltending hierarchy either, excelling to the upmost degree at literally every level he's ever been tested at in his very young career.

Frederik Andersen's recent career snapshot

This goalie factory can continue to run four deep, spread out over two excellent tandems at both the NHL or AHL levels. However, that would be a wasteful use of resources in what is The Great Teemu Selanne's swan song. They owe it to him and the fan base to stack this team more and really go after a second franchise Cup win.

Consequently, the Ducks really need to look at flipping one of these great goaltending assets for more scoring help or veteran defensive expertise. I'd think Anderson and Gibson are the true long-term future of this team and Hiller is the only really experienced goaltender of the lot. So, we're left with Fasth as the best candidate to be moved. It's imperative that they do so, to best exploit and facilitate the Selanne window while he's still around.

~~~ Follow Anthony Lancione on Twitter @ANTHISDAMAN ~~~

Recent Wild West: