The Ducks\u2019 active three-game slide hasn\u2019t exactly screamed \u201cprepared for the playoffs\u201d and next they\u2019ll seek to hit the right notes when they host the St. Louis Blues on Friday.<\/p>\n
Their division lead has narrowed to just two points over the two-time defending Western Conference champions, the Edmonton Oilers, entering Thursday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
The Ducks didn\u2019t just falter in Edmonton<\/a> to start their inopportune slump. They then proceeded to blow a second-intermission lead for the first time all season<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done that all year. Now I know how it feels like it\u2019s coming to us,\u201d Coach Joel Quenneville told reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve given up something like that with the lead in the third. It was a terrible loss, back-to-back.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ducks\u2019 wounds against Toronto were largely self-inflicted, nearly falling in regulation before Leo Carlsson\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just feels like a different story each time, but at the end of the day, we can\u2019t be giving up leads in the third period like we are,\u201d winger Troy Terry told reporters.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n