Ducks look to extend dramatic post-Olympic streak
The Ducks turned in a pair of thrillers, twice escaping from multiple multi-goal holes to topple last year’s Western Conference champs and Presidents’ Trophy winners in consecutive games.
Against the Calgary Flames on Sunday evening, they’d comfortably settle for a more mundane but equally favorable result as they seek their 12th win in 14 chances.
“We were fortunate the last two games that giving up those kinds of goals and the quantity [of chances] and pulling out two points said a lot about what we can do offensively, but I still think we want to cure that quality and quantity down the gut,” coach Joel Quenneville said.
The Ducks are the only team among the dozen in a non-wild-card playoff spot with a negative goal differential, and only Seattle is in the red among the four wild cards.
Quenneville looked to reconcile the various swathes of the season to date. They saw the Ducks outscore their problems early for the most part but then spin out during a nine-game losing streak before tightening up defensively to generate momentum before the Olympic break. Since returning, they are 2-0-0, but have given up nine goals in those two victories, the first of which saw them dominated territorially for much of the match.
“In the last couple of games, we were guilty of being a little generous, off-the-rush and D-zone coverage has been loose, and our opponents have had some high-quality opportunities,” Quenneville said. “We tightened that up from the way we started the year and we were in a better spot going into the break than in these two games. We have the ability to score goals and make plays, and we don’t want to take that away from our team, just [to] make that commitment of predictability in our own end and killing the rush game.”
Rallies are nothing new for the Ducks, as the initial part of Greg Cronin’s tenure was also defined by dramatic comebacks. But not only do the Ducks appear to have even more swagger, they have the firepower to flip the switch more effectively now.
On Friday against Winnipeg, Chris Kreider scored his 20th goal, Jacob Trouba scored his 10th, Ryan Poehling lit the lamp and Beckett Sennecke’s three assists signified that he’d overtaken the rookie points lead, already having topped all neophytes in goals.
Combined with the injured Mikael Granlund – he was banged up in the bronze-medal game at the Olympics and should be considered day to day along with last year’s most trusted line of Troy Terry, Frank Vatrano and Ryan Strome – those new additions have given Quenneville many more weapons and options than Cronin had.
“We can score goals and we have so many guys who can put the puck in the net, so it’s obviously huge to have, but we don’t want to be relying on that every game,” top defenseman Jackson LaCombe said. “We’ve got to find a way to win games in different ways.”
LaCombe and Trouba drew tough matchups coming out of the break, with the two Americans going nose-to-nose with trios centered by elite Canadians Connor McDavid and Mark Scheifele.
“It’s a heck of an assignment in back-to-back games against two premier, two top-10 lines in the game. It’s a lot of ice time and a lot of danger coming at you. They did a lot of good things,” Quenneville said. “That pair has been really solid, and we’ve been using them in a lot of quality and quantity minutes at special, important times.”
That pairing is likely to face Nazem Kadri’s line Sunday. Kadri paces the Flames in scoring but their tempo hasn’t been high. His 41 points entering the back-to-back set with the Kings and Ducks this weekend was the fourth lowest of any team leader.
Kadri and other Flames have been the subject of trade rumors. Calgary already dealt Rasmus Andersson to his preferred destination, Vegas, on Jan. 18.
Calgary at Ducks
When: 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Honda Center
TV: Victory+