stampeded on Saturday by the Calgary Flames<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe\u2019re missing a lot of different guys, that not necessarily are the scorers, but they were guys that were playing a real solid team game,\u201d Coach Joel Quenneville said. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing we\u2019ve got to tighten up, no matter who\u2019s in the lineup, that we\u2019re positionally aware and we don\u2019t want to get scored on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shuffling on the Ducks\u2019 blue line opened up a spot for 23-year-old Tyson Hinds, the former Kevin Lowe Trophy winner as the top defensive defenseman in the QMJHL, to make his NHL debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a heck of a game,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cHe did everything you\u2019d want him to do in his first start. (He played) big minutes, and he was very effective in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Ducks would have to crumble completely to outright miss the playoffs, their once comfortable perch has given way to a battle for seeding. Entering the week, they were six points ahead of the Kings, who had a game in hand, with five and six games to play, respectively.<\/p>\n
They appeared to be in a position to not only qualify for the playoffs for the first time in eight years with home-ice advantage in a best-of-seven first-round series but also begin Round 2 at home if they were to advance. They now face a much broader array of possibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gotta figure it out, like, now,\u201d said center Leo Carlsson, who has three goals during the Ducks\u2019 slump.<\/p>\n
In the past month, Nashville has ranked in among the NHL\u2019s Top 10 in points percentage, goals for and goals against, in addition to having the league\u2019s top-ranked penalty kill during that span.<\/p>\n
PREDATORS AT DUCKS<\/p>\n
When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Where: Honda Center<\/p>\n
How to watch: Victory+, KCOP (Ch. 13)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Ducks seek to keep pace in the Pacific Division race, they\u2019ll host a team that\u2019s part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,2617,1739,5,4,2651,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-544669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim-ducks","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-anaheimducks","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-ducks","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-orange-county","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116360780277369890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}