More Physical Players Grow on Farm Team

When Bryan Murray took over as the Mighty Ducks’ general manager, his priorities leaned heavily to bigger, more physical players.

“We are out of small jerseys,” he said at the time.

Now in his second season, some of that has panned out. Murray was able to send to Cincinnati last week for defenseman Chris Armstrong and forward Casey Hankinson, two career minor leaguers Murray signed as free agents last summer.

The Colorado Avalanche felt their presence in a 4-3 Duck victory Friday. Armstrong, Hankinson and Chris Kunitz, another free agent who was called up two weeks ago, were hardly shy about throwing their bodies around.

“We got three new players from our farm club and they are physical,” center Sergei Fedorov said.

That created offensive opportunities for the Ducks and helped contain the plethora of talent the Avalanche possesses.

“We are able to play a fast-paced game,” Fedorov said. “We were matching up well against their top lines.”

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Armstrong, Hankinson and Kunitz are part of what has been an active Cincinnati-to-Anaheim shuttle. The Ducks have called up six players from Cincinnati in the last month, which does not include Joffrey Lupul and Lance Ward, who were sent to Cincinnati and then recalled.

Murray, though, said this was not the Ducks’ writing off this season and evaluating talent for the future.

That would mean there was little chance that Ilya Bryzgalov, the organization’s talented 23-year-old goaltender, would be recalled for a look-see.

Asked about bringing up Bryzgalov, Murray said, “Then you’re saying, ‘Let’s have a look at this guy,’ and then you are putting up the flag. He’s been winning just about every night with Cincinnati. At some point, we’ve got to figure out if he can win some games with the veteran guys [with the Ducks]. If you look at it like the team is not going to be there [in the playoff race], then we’d give him a few games. At least, I would hope we would.”

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Site -- Pengrowth Saddledome.

Radio -- XTRA (690, 1150).

Records -- Ducks 16-22-8-6, Flames 25-19-4-3.

Record vs. Flames -- 0-1.

Update -- Something has to give. The Flames have killed 30 of their last 31 power plays. The Ducks have scored eight power-play goals in their last 17 chances.