ANAHEIM, Calif. – For the second time in two homestands this month, the Anaheim Ducks opened a three-game home set with a self-described “unacceptable” performance, and make no mistake, Friday night was ugly at Honda Center.
The Dallas Stars scored four goals on their first seven shots and scored six unanswered through the middle portion of the game, as the Ducks were clobbered, 8-3, on home ice.
It’s only the fourth time in franchise history the team has allowed eight or more goals at home, and the first time since Feb. 15, 2009 against the Atlanta Thrashers.
Ryan Poehling knotted up the score at 1-1 by crashing the net, and after six unanswered Dallas goals, Beckett Sennecke opened the third period with a one-timer off the rush to make it 7-2.
Dallas pounced on Ducks turnovers behind their own net, at center ice and along the walls and wide-open center lanes on defensive miscommunications to blow open the lead.
The Stars led 4-1 after the first period, chasing Ducks starter Lukáš Dostál with four goals on seven shots. Petr Mrázek stopped 14 of 18 shots in relief.
The Ducks (20-13-2, 42 points) remain tied for first place in the Pacific Division, but Vegas (16-6-9, 41 points) has three games in hand on Anaheim.
Anaheim hosts Columbus on the second half of a home back-to-back tomorrow night. The Ducks lost in overtime at Columbus on the second half of a road back-to-back on Tuesday.
After the worst home loss in franchise history–a 7-0 defeat to Utah on Dec. 4–Ducks captain Radko Gudas called that game “unacceptable,” and assured the local media that “I’m pretty confident that this will not happen again this year.”
It took just 15 days to happen again.
“Thanks for taking my words,” Gudas said. “We don’t like those games. We’re back from the road trip. We want to start the home stand on the right note, and this wasn’t it. They have a very good team, and I feel like they’re winning all the battles. They were heavier on the sticks, and we kept losing those, and we turned pucks over that we don’t usually do, so that was a big reason why.”
Since a seven-game winning streak opened up an 11-3-1 record for Anaheim on Nov. 9, the Ducks have struggled with consistency, going 9-10-1 in the 20 games since those opening 15.
“It was ugly. I give (Dallas) credit,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “They can make plays, and they certainly had their way with us all night long… We got a game tomorrow night, and basically have something to prove tomorrow, knowing that this one was unacceptable.”
In the last two weeks alone, the Ducks have had massive swings from game to game.
Following that franchise-worst Utah home loss, Anaheim responded with a fiery win over Washington and an all-time dominant performance over Chicago. Those pushback games were responded with less than stellar efforts on a 2-2-1 road trip, where Anaheim salvaged the opener in Pittsburgh on a game-tying goal with 0.1 seconds remaining and escaped with a point in the closing overtime loss in Columbus.
“We didn’t play any good hockey,” Cutter Gauthier said of the trip on Friday morning. “Thought we had a really good game in New York (a 4-1 win over the Rangers), a good comeback effort in Pittsburgh, but when we played the Islanders, Devils and Columbus, it wasn’t our best.”
Where do these wild swings come from? It’s hard to put a finger on for a team that has still managed to maintain a partial foothold on top of the Pacific Division.
“I don’t know. It’s tough to say,” Gudas said. “I thought we’re trying to maybe push too much. It’s hard to say. I really don’t know. If I knew it wouldn’t happen again, you know?”
Luckily for Anaheim, there is a chance for another response in less than 24 hours, when the Ducks host the Blue Jackets.
“It’s the beauty of this league,” Gudas said. “Sometimes you get to flush these games pretty quickly and you have to focus on the next one. We’re gonna do that today, and obviously, learn from our mistakes, but some were really uncharacteristic. Unfortunately, those games happen. We would like to limit those, but that happened a little too quick for us.”
A new wrinkle to the defensive corps showed up in the Ducks line-up, as the team returned home from its road trip.
At various points over the course of the five-game trip, Pavel Mintyukov, Ian Moore and Drew Helleson all found their name on the healthy scratch list, as the Ducks maneuver their seven NHL-capable defensemen through six roster spots.
On Friday, Olen Zellweger was a healthy scratch for the first time this season, cementing a rotation among the four young defensemen.
“It’s not punishment,” Quenneville said Friday morning. “It’s basically, we’re just moving around, keeping everybody ready to go and part of it. We got numbers. We’re in a healthy position to do that, but making sure everybody’s keeping part of the team, and being ready to play. And part of the decision is performance, but at the same time, we want to make sure that everybody gets a turn.”
Under the watch of former head coach Greg Cronin last season, the Ducks had a similar but more acrimonious defensive carousel, as Zellweger, Mintyukov and Helleson fought for ice time. That was more of a self-made problem, as Jackson LaCombe was also in that competitive mix while the Ducks sorted out their veterans with trades of Jacob Trouba, Cam Fowler and Brian Dumoulin.
This season, Anaheim was set with its top-six defensemen to open the season, but when Radko Gudas went down with an injury, Ian Moore stepped up into the line-up and proved his worth.
Now, Quenneville is trying to manage a fierce competition for ice time among players that have all shown they’re capable of handling it.
“I think everybody wants to play in the worst way, and everybody expects to play,” Quenneville said. “At the same time, we’re in a fortunate situation where we have to make hard decisions, and we let them know that this is part of the position we’re in right now. You’re not out for a long time, just be ready when you’re not playing, keep yourself prepared to come back in, and play like it’s not gonna happen again.”
“We’re in a fortunate position to be able to do that. Nobody wants to be that guy. But right now, there’s four of them right now that are in that position right now, so it’s not punishment either.”
Quenneville has usually made line-up changes following losses, and especially following eye-catching losses. Zellweger could be right back into the line-up on Saturday, and someone else’s time will come up.
Beckett Sennecke regained the outright rookie goal-scoring lead with his 11th of the season. He leads all rookies in points (28) and is second in assists (17).
Anaheim is scoreless on its last seven power plays, including an 0-for-3 night on Friday. The Ducks have gone 1-for-13 on the power play over the last six games and are 3-for-34 over the last 11 games.