This is not good enough…

For the third time in a month, the Anaheim Ducks were once again “unacceptable” in a brutal 6–1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings, despite saying it wouldn’t happen again. A disastrous first period — including two Kings goals in 53 seconds — exposed the same defensive breakdowns, turnovers, and slow starts, with Joel Quenneville taking full responsibility postgame. Costly mistakes from Troy Terry, Radko Gudas, Drew Helleson, and Leo Carlsson highlighted a blue-line logjam that continues to raise questions about Pat Verbeek’s roster decisions, especially with Pavel Mintyukov, Tristan Luneau, and Stian Solberg in the mix. Mason McTavish scored on the power play, but it was short-lived as the Kings piled on, capped by a hat trick and relentless pressure that left Lukas Dostal with little chance. The Ducks now have a negative goal differential, and with losses like this becoming routine, it’s time to stop “flushing it” and start addressing real problems — starting Monday against the San Jose Sharks. #nhl #anaheimducks #lakings #hockey

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43 comments

  4. The sharks are going to destroy us tomorrow. I have no faith in this team at this point. They go as Leo goes and Leo is ice cold. Trade Gudas and make MacT the captain. Radko is a terrible leader. Also, can we end the Helleson experiment? How at this point are they figuring that he is more valuable than minty, solberg or Luneau?

  6. Something has to change. Cutter and Leo cant do it every night. Teams know you cover those two and you will shut down the ducks offense. At this point I would only consider Cutter and Leo as untouchable. It's trade time.

  7. After the Kings scored the 5th goal I stopped watching. Incredibly frustrating to watch. Seem to have lost all momentum from early on this season.

  11. I feel like they sabotaged themselves by changing out players, due to ooo XYZ person coming off injury and they are more a vet. They should have kept the lines as they were to maintain player momentum…
    That said it was inevitable for the opposing teams to develop counters to what was working for our lads. I expect that we'll see a return to form after the Olympics when the coaches can actually work with the players properly some.
    Also, ❤ that you are advocating for my defensemen. Pardon the language, but it's bullshit what they've done to those boys. There is competition to earn your place then there is just stupid demoralizing nonsense.

  15. Call me reactionary but dostal is scaring me a bit, he has such high flashes of brilliance but then he has moments he cant stop goals when we need him too. Maybe the injury yes the defense is bad but sometimes a goalie needs to stand on his head. And what are the coaches doing we can barely complete passes. Do get me started on the passes that bounce right off people sticks. The fundamentals just aren't there.

  16. I am so done with playing Helleson over Minty, it's the same every game, it doesn't get better. What's even worse is pairing him with Gudas, that's just a recipe for disaster. Anyway, Terry must have been working on his passing over christmas, cause now only ~70% is wrong which is an improvement.
    Maybe it's time to try out the line-up from the first week of the season? Some of these so called "vets" is actually sinking the ship. Or make a trade, idk.

  17. Helleson, gudas always giving up goals, strome, vatrano, Killorn are washed they have nothing to provide the team. They are slowing down the young guys down they can’t keep up and give turn overs then getting scored on. MacT also needs to step it up or be traded.

  20. To be fair, LA is a nightmare matchup for the Ducks.

    They're built to suffocate and grind down skilled speedy teams.

    Even moreso with the Ducks being a young team.

  22. This game was infuriating to watch. I almost went to the watch party the Ducks were having at Brewery X. Im glad i didnt as i would have been flipping tables. Our defense needs some serious attention. I think a lot of folks including yourself see the problems. It's one thing to lose but to get blown out for multiple games now and in such short a time is rough

  23. The rush game caught everyone off guard. The word is out on how to shut it down. Ducks hold the puck to long and passes are not good. Not even gonna get started on the defensive gaps that are being exposed and exploited

  25. Maybe they shouldn’t have hired a piece of shit coach who turned a blind eye to sexual assault just because his team was in the playoffs

  26. The puck chasing drives me crazy. Jumping at the puck carrier and not taking away the pass on a 2 on 1 or chasing behind the net when there's a clear pass setup to the front with a man open. But bad defense or not, it's tough to win only scoring 1 goal. I also think word has gotten out to the league that the Ducks don't like to play the beginning of games so if you can come out hard at them in the 1st you're likely to get the lead and the Ducks often lose when they don't score first. Easy strategy.

  28. am i the only one who is pissed about the lacombe massive contract too soon. like he is the slowest defensemen on our whole drop pass strat. Almost always coming close to turning it over due to super soft passes like its crazy if we are going to try and copy mcdavid in the oilers at least do it like them. Slam the puck back fast and have the guys coming up ice fast. It is literally so predictable how we will try to break out on the rush lol that literally in some games you have two people up ice on us its utterly disgusting. I am not jumping on the doom and gloom train quite yet but this is just irritating as a fan you go from mostly solid play the first quarter of the season to looking like they have all forgot how to play hockey except for our key stars and our upstart rookie who everyone counted out and expected to go to ahl. Like at this point if we are able to freaking send killorn vatrano strome to the ahl and bring up people like roger mcqueen the sad reality is that mcqueen would likely do better than all these so called veterans at this point. And for the love of all that is good and I say this with the utmost respect for the man I love gudas but hes too old and slow he needs to be the healthy scratch every game so that we can have our fast young defensemen out there not only doing better but also getting the development ice time they need.

  31. Hi, Ducks fans! My name is Max, I'm from Russia and I've been Ducks fan since 1994! I've seen almost all the games since 2000, which means I've seen everything: ups, downs, wins and losses, sadness in Giggy's eyes in 2003 and happiness and pride in 2007.

    What do I want to say? At first, Cronin's time was a living hell for the team, and I'm glad Quenneville brought positivity, energy, and self-confidence to the guys. But by constantly reshuffling the squad, the coaching staff kills this confidence with their own hands. There is an axiom: the winning team does not change, so why does the coaching staff do this all the time? I can understand that Joel is looking for maximum efficiency and trying different combinations, but why do it all the time? The players get nervous, give up and suffer on the ice. Second, where the f*ck is Woodcroft? Why do PP of us look like dough? It's sluggish, sticky, and barely moving. Nobody is afraid of us behind the goal, nobody is afraid that there will be a cannon throw from the blue line, nobody is afraid of the player in front of the goalkeeper, because he usually just isn't there! Then why did we take Krieder? Third, our veterans are no longer able to set a positive example for young players. They are slow, clumsy and have a downed sight. They are no longer able to pass on any of the winning traditions of the Stanley Cup winners. Pronger and Niedermayer were capable of this in 2007, but not Gudas and Killorn in 2025. Many questions for Verbeek.

  33. Helleson looks weaker than some of our AHL options. Gudas is too slow. Way too slow. Minty needs to play every game. Moore I feel like needs to be more physical. If Gudas could give his physicality to Moore I’d love that. But Solberg gives me so much hope in the A.

    Side note why is Nesty not playing? And Harkins? Our best line for over 2 weeks is Poehling-Johnston-Killorn. Why and how!!

    That Gauthier-McT-Senny line is so rough defensively for a period of time. It’s awful.

  35. I honestly have no clue why Gudas is the captain at this point really. There are younger guys who knows losing so many games in a blowout is not acceptable. Gudas words, "It won't happen again." It happened a couple times. The C needs to be stripped from him

  41. The freeway face off has lost its luster. We just don’t seem pumped up for these games. Love the quick time out but no response. Sennecke should have been sat down for awhile to watch the game….he was turning the puck over too many times when we had a full rush going and no shot or pass. The kid needs to realize you can’t try and juke every pro in this league…especially strong defensive teams. Very disappointing game…hope we can get back to the simple game – skate fast, quick pass, shoot and crash the net. go ducks 😕

  43. Until Carlsson and Dostal get it going again this team will keep spinning its wheels. Defense isn't able to get back to position fast enough so time to stop having them on the rush more often than not.

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