Did You Ever Think The Ducks Might Lack Toughness?

from Eric Stephens of Ducks Blog, Here’s a question about the Ducks that once would ordinarily have been unfathomable to ponder. Are they tough enough? Those who witnessed their 5-0 loss to St. Louis on Saturday night may have had that thought cross their minds after watching the Ducks mostly get pushed around by a youthful, energetic squad. Would that have ever had happened over the past four seasons? Not likely. The fact is these aren’t the same old big, bad Ducks anymore, especially without rough-and-occasionally reckless defenseman Chris Pronger. But the players are starting to wonder why they aren’t forcing the issue in a physical sense at the outset of games. “The chippiness should be there right off the bat,” center Ryan Getzlaf said following the loss. “The frustration level can’t cause that stuff. It’s something that we need to play [to] and that’s got to be an attitude in our room. I think those are things we need to address and we need to go forward with them. continued