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Souray on Anaheim being tough to play against: “They want to get back to that”

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James

In 2007, Anaheim bashed and banged its way to the Stanley Cup with the likes of Kent Huskins, Travis Moen, Brad May, Shawn Thornton and George Parros in the lineup.

Five years later, the Ducks want to rekindle that style of play.

That appears to be the case after Anaheim went out and got bigger in the early stages of free agency, signing a pair of large-bodied defensemen in Bryan Allen (6-foot-5, 226 pounds) and Sheldon Souray (6-foot-4, 233 pounds).

Mark Whicker of the OC Register figures the pair will “snatch some bodies from the front of Jonas Hiller’s net and to win the puck scrums they have lost for the past two years,” something Souray re-iterated in speaking with the Anaheim media on Monday.

“Their mantra is to be hard to play against,” Souray said. “I think they want to get back to that.”

While the Ducks did part ways with Parros -- he signed with the Panthers on July 1 -- their other recent acquisitions suggest a renewed emphasis on size and nastiness.

LW Patrick Maroon (6-4, 225), D Matt Smaby (6-6, 239) and RW Brad Staubitz (30 fights over the last two seasons) have all been brought aboard to make the Ducks tougher, which was one of GM Bob Murray’s goals this offseason.

''We attempted to get bigger and stronger on the back end, and I think we accomplished that,’' Murray said. ''We’ve added some character across the team.

“We’ve got a number of young defensemen on our team, and I don’t feel we’ve supported them with enough size and oomph. I said in the middle of last year it wasn’t going to happen again.’'