The Ducks (41-31-5) welcome the Predators (36-31-10) to Honda Center for the second of three meetings between the teams this regular season.<\/p>\n
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. PT and will air on KCOP-13 and Victory+.<\/p>\n
Anaheim dropped another game on Saturday to the Flames in a 5-3 loss.<\/p>\n
While the Ducks remain tied with the Oilers in points (87), the regular season is quickly coming to a close and head coach Joel Quenneville discussed what his team needs to home in on down the stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to play a solid game,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cI think that we\u2019ve got to earn our way into this playoff year. I think that whether we got a little bit expecting that it\u2019s already been achieved where we\u2019re at, we\u2019d all take where we\u2019re at today knowing we\u2019re tied for first place, and everybody\u2019s got five games to go. Anybody can win it.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s incentive ourselves and play this game like it\u2019s a playoff game and that\u2019s the meaning and the purpose \u2026 You\u2019ve gotta earn it in this business and in this situation as well. Let\u2019s go get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quenneville also provided numerous injury updates ahead of tonight\u2019s game. While the return of Cutter Gauthier will have to wait past this battle with the Preds, the head coach provided some optimism for No. 61\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
\u201cCutter skated today, very light like he did the other day,\u201d he said. \u201cBut progress \u2026 We\u2019re shooting [to see him] before the end of the homestand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Q additionally shared updates on Radko Gudas and Ross Johnston.<\/p>\n
Gudas is \u201cgetting better every day\u201d per Quenneville. While the coach won\u2019t put a timetable on the captain\u2019s return, he said \u201che\u2019s closer than he was before.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Johnston, who went down with a lower-body injury in mid-March with an estimated return of three to four weeks, Quenneville said the timeline remains the same but \u201che\u2019s doing pretty well\u201d and hopes to get him on the ice in the near future.<\/p>\n
The Predators are on the second game of a back-to-back after losing to the Kings in shootouts, 3-2, last night.<\/p>\n
The loss moved Los Angeles one point ahead of Nashville for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference proving this is a team that isn\u2019t going away any time soon knowing that final spot will be hotly contested until the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cA game is a game,” Filip Forsberg said. “I mean, it was an important game tonight, but the next one is important, too. The last one was, too.”<\/p>\n
Per Quenneville, Lukas Dostal will start in the net for Anaheim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ducks (41-31-5) welcome the Predators (36-31-10) to Honda Center for the second of three meetings between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,1739,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-546185","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-ducks","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116365354906301767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546185","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=546185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}