Puckdoku Recap: 4/15
Welcome to the Puckdoku Recap, a recap breaking down the Puckdoku board. For today’s board we were tasked with matching the Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers and the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Vancouver Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins and a Stanley Cup winner. Let’s break down my answers in addition to some common and sneakier answer choices as well.
We started with matching the Vancouver Canucks with the Anaheim Ducks and my answer was Luca Sbisa (4.9%), who spent five seasons with the Anaheim Ducks and three seasons with Vancouver. Sbisa was traded from Anaheim to Vancouver in the deal that sent Ryan Kesler to Anaheim. Some of the easier options include Ryan Kesler (27.5%), Kevin Bieksa (24.3%) and Ryan Miller (10%). For those interested in a challenge, we could’ve gone with Michael Del Zotto (1.6%), Luke Schenn (1.5%) or Erik Gudbranson (1.4%). Del Zotto played two seasons with both the Canucks and Ducks, racking up 105 and 61 games with the clubs respectively. Luke Schenn appeared in just 8 games for the Ducks during the 2018-2019 season before having two separate stints with the Vancouver Canucks during the 2018-2019 season in addition to 21-22 and 22-23 seasons. Erik Gudbranson was a Canuck for three seasons from 2016-2019 and was acquired by Anaheim from Pittsburgh during the 2019-2020 season in which Gudbranson played in 44 games for the team.
As we continue on down the board, we are then tasked with matching the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. For this one I went with current Washington Capitals defenseman Ethan Bear, who began his career in Edmonton and spent all of last season with the Vancouver Canucks. The most glaring choice was Mark Messier (29%), who began his career in Edmonton for 12 seasons before joining the Canucks for two seasons in the back end of his career. This was a square that contains a lot of options under 5%, making it a very difficult one to complete if you want a low rarity score. Some options include: Anson Carter (3%), who spent three seasons with the Oilers and one season with the Canucks, Troy Stecher (2%), who spent his first four years with Vancouver and appeared in five games this season with the Oilers and lastly Raffi Torres (2%), who spent four seasons in Edmonton and just one season in Vancouver.
Our final task of finishing the left side of the board is to find a Western Hockey League (WHL) player who also played for the Vancouver Canucks. With this being such a broad square, a ton of options will help you achieve a low rarity score. I went with Tyler Myers (9%) as he spent his junior hockey career playing with the Kelowna Rockets. Other options that were in the 3% range or below included Noah Juulsen (Everett Silvertips), Cam Neely (Portland Winter Hawks), and Dan Hamhuis (Prince George Cougars).
Next up is matching the Anaheim Ducks and Pittsburgh Penguins. For this one, the glaring choice would be Rickard Rakell (22%), who was traded to the Penguins during the 2021-2022 season. I steered away from the obvious choice and went with Marcus Pettersson (2%), who was traded from Anaheim to Pittsburgh back in 2018 for Daniel Sprong. Other options for this square include Daniel Sprong (1.8%), Zach Aston-Reese (1.2%), and Danton Heinen (2%). Zach Aston-Reese was in the Rakell trade and Heinen was in the trade that sent Nick Ritchie to Boston back in 2020.
Our next task is to match the Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers. For this one, I went with Ryan Whitney (8%), avoiding the easy choice of Paul Coffey (22%). Other great options include James Neal (5%), David Perron (4%), and Jeff Petry (4%). James Neal spent the earlier stages of his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, playing four seasons with them, before numerous stops that saw him wind up in Edmonton close to the end of his career. David Perron spent two seasons in Pittsburgh from 2014-2016, after getting traded midseason from Edmonton in exchange for Rob Klinkhammer and a first round pick. Jeff Petry began his NHL career with five seasons in Edmonton, before eventually winding up in Pittsburgh 2022 where he would just play one season for the team.
The last square needed for the middle is matching a WHL player with the Pittsburgh Penguins. As someone who knows very little about the Penguins, I went with the easiest choice this time and answered Tristan Jarry (18%), as he spent four seasons with the Edmonton Oil Kings. For Pittsburgh Penguin enthusiasts, some sneakier answers under 3% include Ty Smith (Spokane Chiefs), Brandon Sutter (Red Deer Rebels), and Ryan Reaves (Brandon Wheat Kings).
For our third and final column, our first mission is to find a Stanley Cup winner who played for the Anaheim Ducks. The most popular answer was Ryan Getzlaf (12%), but I went a little bit off the board and chose Dustin Penner (3%), who not many know spent his first two NHL seasons with the Ducks. With the Ducks only winning one Stanley Cup, it makes the square that much more difficult, but you could still find some notable names such as George Parros (1%), Sean O’Donnell (1%), and Ilya Bryzgalov (2%).
Next up is finding a Stanley Cup champion from the Edmonton Oilers, which isn’t too hard of a task given the fact they’ve won it five times. For this one I went with Paul Coffey (4%), bypassing “The Great One” (17%). I was surprised to see that Coffey was only 4% given the impact he had on the Oilers, but with such a storied franchise there are going to be an abundance of options. Some under the radar options include Dave Semenko (3%), Bill Ranford (2%), and Jeff Beukeboom (1%).
Our final square of the day presents us with finding a WHL player who also won a Stanley Cup. My pick for this square was Logan Thompson (0.3%), who won a Stanley Cup with the Vegas Golden Knights and played his junior hockey with the Brandon Wheat Kings. With such a wide range of options, there are a ton of names that can help you low the rarity scores on the final push. Some names under 3% include Duncan Keith (Kelowna Rockets), Bowen Byram (Vancouver Giants), and Brent Seabrook (Lethbridge Hurricanes).
That’ll do it for today’s edition of Puckdoku, but make sure to check out the new board tomorrow so you can continuously test your hockey knowledge. We will be back tomorrow to break down the board and see which names potentially flew under the radar of some of the most passionate hockey fans.
