The Ducks’ active three-game slide hasn’t exactly screamed “prepared for the playoffs” and next they’ll seek to hit the right notes when they host the St. Louis Blues on Friday.
Their division lead has narrowed to just two points over the two-time defending Western Conference champions, the Edmonton Oilers, entering Thursday’s action. On that slate of games, the Oilers face the perpetually rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks with a chance to move into first place (they own the first tiebreaker with the Ducks) and extend their season-long, four-game win streak.
The Ducks didn’t just falter in Edmonton to start their inopportune slump. They then proceeded to blow a second-intermission lead for the first time all season against the struggling, Auston Matthews-less Toronto Maple Leafs, and then a second time against Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks. Celebrini factored into all four San Jose goals, including the two they scored in the dying embers to alchemize a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 win.
“We’ve done that all year. Now I know how it feels like it’s coming to us,” Coach Joel Quenneville told reporters. “It’s the first time they’ve given up something like that with the lead in the third. It was a terrible loss, back-to-back.”
The Ducks’ wounds against Toronto were largely self-inflicted, nearly falling in regulation before Leo Carlsson’s last-gasp goal salvaged a point. They were without Cutter Gauthier (upper-body injury) for much of that match and all of the loss in San Jose, where Celebrini bolstered his case for the Hart Trophy as league MVP with another impressive display.
“It just feels like a different story each time, but at the end of the day, we can’t be giving up leads in the third period like we are,” winger Troy Terry told reporters.
Against St. Louis, the Ducks will also welcome back longtime rearguard Cam Fowler, who was sent through the Gateway Arch last year in an early-season trade. Since joining the Blues, Fowler has five assists in as many appearances against his former cohorts with St. Louis going 4-1-0 in those matchups.
The Blues have soared since the Olympic break, but were grounded by the scraping-and-clawing Kings on Wednesday in a 2-1 overtime loss.
St. Louis and the Ducks have split two meetings this season, with the Ducks winning 4-1 on Dec. 1 but losing 4-0 on March 8 in a dominant effort by the Blues.
“They have the five-guys-go mentality and they stretch the ice more. We’ve got to make sure we keep them in front of us,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “Last time we played in Anaheim was a real good game by us. It probably wasn’t their best, but that being said, we’ve got to mimic that game plan.”
St. Louis at Ducks
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Honda Center
TV: Victory+, KCOP (Ch. 13)