BY GABRIEL JOHN OSTLER

Friday night, the Anaheim Ducks were flayed by the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 7-4 showing that wasn’t as close as the score indicates, but was a microcosm of Anaheim’s season so far.

Hosting one of the East’s most dangerous teams, who had won eight of its last nine, the Ducks managed to put three goals past Pittsbugh goalie Matt Murray in – to put it charitably – not the most replicable of circumstances. Nick Ritchie got credit for one tally that really should have gone to the unassuming skate of Adam Johnson; Ryan Getzlaf chalked up a softy that trickled through Murray’s five-hole; the same spot stayed open for Daniel Sprong off some even-strength movement and just like that, the first period came to a close with Anaheim holding a 3-0 lead.

Then, the dam broke — or reality set in, depending on your level of pessimism. Pittsburgh roared back to tie the game in the second, and though Jakob Silfverberg would briefly give Anaheim the lead once more near the end of the period, it was short-lived.

The Penguins took 36 shots for the game, while the Ducks took 25. Jake Guentzel threw in a hat-trick for Pittsburgh. Anaheim’s Vezina candidate John Gibson eventually collapsed under the deluge of Penguin pressure.

It’s a familiar story for the Ducks, who have lost their last ten games and seem to be regressing into the narrative borne out by advanced stats, which is that their tremendously poor goal differential is more true to their caliber as a team than is their positioning in the league standings.

Incredibly, though, Anaheim is only a point removed from the West’s second wild card spot and a resultant playoff berth. While the Eastern Conference, outside of the dominant Tampa Bay Lightning, lack the Western Conference’s top-end firepower, there’s consistency throughout the occupied postseason spots and just-outside bubble teams. Nine squads in the East have over 50 points, and 10th place Carolina is surging up to their 47 points with seven wins in their last 10 games.

Meanwhile, the West has two of the league’s Top-Three teams (Calgary and San Jose) and five clubs with 58 points or more – before the cliff approaches, where sixth place Dallas hangs on to 50 and no team after that has more than 48. Which is to say: there’s nothing that suggests Dallas, Minnesota, or Colorado are going to kick into spectacular gear and solidify their playoff spots. Anaheim still has plenty of time to right the ship and play into the spring. The question is if they both want to and are able to given their current state of affairs. Here are the people to keep an eye on as the Ducks creep up on the February 25th trade deadline.

Randy Carlyle

Kendrick Lamar once said, “Everybody gon’ respect the shooter / But the one in front of the gun lives forever.” That doesn’t have a whole lot of bearing when it comes to professional hockey, but it does allude to the fact that even legends sometimes have to stare down the barrel of their own demise.

Head Coach Randy Carlyle will always be treasured by Ducks fans for delivering the franchise’s first (and only) Stanley Cup in 2007. But Carlyle was fired early into the ’11-’12 season as his squad had slipped measurably since that massive achievement. This is his third year back at the helm in Anaheim, and although he qualified for the playoffs in the past two seasons, a ten-game losing streak is enough to make anyone look critically at the man in charge.

Carlyle hasn’t exactly responded with grace to the temperature turning up beneath his seat, as he truncated a press conference after being confronted with inquiries about his job security. Apparently those questions are “dumb” and anyone who asks them is a “jerk.” Who knew? Ah, but journalism is a touchy thing these days.

Midseason coaching changes can happen for a myriad of reasons, but if Carlyle meets the axe, don’t be surprised if the Ducks go shopping for Joel Quenneville or someone else management believes has the acumen to right this ship in time for playoff contention. Carlyle should know after his previous tenure in Anaheim – it go Halle Berry or Hallelujah. Shit, that one doesn’t work either.

Jakob Silfverberg

Like many teams with Stanley Cup success and high-powered stars, the Ducks have a top-heavy squad with many names that aren’t budging anytime soon. On the current active roster, only four players will be unrestricted free agents at the end of the season, and for both brevity and sanity’s sake, the only one who matters is winger Jakob Silfverberg, whose $3.75 million deal is drawing to a close.

Silfverberg is good. He became a full-fledged contributor to the Ducks since ’14-’15 and has been Raconteurs-level Steady As She Goes ever since. Point totals: 39, 39, 49, 40, and 19 in 40 games this year – on track for another right in that pocket. He’s 28 and doesn’t turn 29 until October. Nobody would bat an eye if the Ducks re-upped Silfverberg when the campaign was through.

That being said, Silfverberg is not a foundational piece. We’ve likely seen the best his game has to offer and, at this stage in his career, he’s looking at his one real chance to command a decent payday. Also, the sound of a depth scorer on a team-friendly, expiring contract is music to a deadline-buying contender’s ears.

It’s not inconceivable that Silfverberg will ask for somewhere in the range of $5 million-$6 million in the offseason and it’s even more conceivable that Anaheim would rather scald their own tongues with boiling cat piss than shell that out, given their current cap situation. Silfverberg’s movement – or lack thereof – will be a key indicator as to Anaheim’s aims for the rest of the campaign.

If the Ducks ship him off for a couple of picks and or/prospects, the sticks are already being sacked and shoved in the van. If they hang on to him and risk losing him in the offseason to a team that’s willing to possibly overpay for a young veteran with the chance to expand in a larger role (hi, Carolina), then you can be pretty well assured that Anaheim is pushing for the playoffs.

Corey Perry

There’s a lot that catches you off guard about winger and Alternate Captain Corey Perry if you stop and consider the apparent facts. This motherfucker is a Hart Trophy winner, former 50-goal scorer, and is just 33 years old. He’s also only got two more years left on his contract.

There is a theoretical Corey Perry that surges back into the Ducks’ lineup this season and solidifies his place as a franchise icon while reminding the league at large that they’re looking at a likely Hall of Famer as he boosts his previously moribund team into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There’s also the current reality Corey Perry, who never quite recaptured the magic of that Hart (and Rocket Richard) Trophy-winning season and spent the past two years looking like a decrepit relic before abdicating to MCL and meniscus repair way back in September.

Which timeline emerges victorious in the causal battle will almost certainly decide the fate of Anaheim’s back half. If all holds in his recovery, Perry should be back on the ice soon after the All-Star Break.

From there, either of the stated possibilities could come to fruition. Perry could come out rejuvenated, looking like a replica of his former teammate Teemu Selanne after knee surgery, moving like he hasn’t in years and putting up numbers worthy of his massive paycheck. Ryan Getzlaf might wear the “C” on his sweater, but the offense still derives a great chunk of its identity and production from No. 10.

Or, it could be a band-aid on a decapitation, as Perry could remain uninspired and sluggish and play out his contract on a slowly sinking ship. Assuming Perry does return to game action in February, the way he looks in initial appearances will go a long way for Anaheim in determining their course of action.

It’s easy to point to the 10th loss in a losing streak and pick apart a team based on that one result. But when you have a team with as many peccadilloes and moving parts as the Anaheim Ducks, especially in a sport as fickle as hockey, it’s not so simple to write an obituary.

The fact remains Anaheim is nothing more than a two-game win streak and a couple bad bounces for Dallas, Colorado or Minnesota away from a playoff berth. At the same time, it’s tempting to see the precarious balancing act going on within the Ducks’ roster construction and pull the trigger on the detonation sooner rather than later.

Only the Anaheim brass can decide what the best way forward is for the franchise. The rest of us will watch the calendar tick down to the do-or-die day in the NHL regular season and see what happens with Randy Carlyle, Jakob Silfverberg, and Corey Perry. The way that those three are handled in the coming month will tell you what breed of Duck you’ll be getting for the rest of 2019.