{"id":557726,"date":"2026-04-22T05:57:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557726\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:57:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:57:38","slug":"gudas-needs-to-retire-anaheim-hockey-mob-rip-to-shreds-ducks-veterans-after-loss-to-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/557726\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Gudas needs to retire’: Anaheim hockey mob rip to shreds Ducks veterans after loss to Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the build-up to the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>-Anaheim Ducks series, one of the hidden strengths of the young Anaheim team was said to be their veteran leaders, Jacob Trouba, 32, Radko Gudas, 35, and Chris Kreider, 34. Between them, they had decades of NHL experience and no shortage of playoff games under their collective belts, Trouba 74 games Gudas, 58 games, and Kreider, 124 games.<\/p>\n

After Game 1, however, with Edmonton winning and Trouba, Gudas and Kreider all making glaring mistakes on goals against, their names are dirt among Ducks fans and commentators, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Mainstream and social media aggressively turned on them as the game unfolded and afterwards.<\/p>\n

The criticism picked up late in the first period with the Ducks already down by one after Jake Walman hit Jason Dickinson with a breakaway pass, Dickinson flying by two younger Ducks players Ryan Poehling, 26, and Tyson Hinds, 22, to score.<\/p>\n

Kapanen\u2019s first goal, Kreider blamed<\/p>\n

A minute later Anaheim was breaking out with the puck, with the head-man pass sent to Kreider at centre ice. Kreider evidently sensed a Ducks player was going to close on his left, so he made a quick, no-look back pass to his left, the problem being that no Ducks player had moved up into the rush. Instead, Oilers winger Vasily Podkolzin won a battle for the puck with 22-year-old Ducks d-man Pavel Mintyukov. Podz passed to Leon Draisaitl who took a pass as he moved into the Ducks end, then quickly passed back into the high slot, through 21-year-old Ducks forward Leo Carlsson, to Kasperi Kapanen, who took one shot, then hammered in the rebound, beating Mintyukov\u2019s partner, 36-year-old John Carlson, to the loose puck.<\/p>\n

Said Anaheim hockey podcaster\u00a0 F\u00e9lix Sicard: \u201cWay too casual of a blind backhand by Kreider in the neutral zone, and it\u2019s 2-0 Edmonton. The Ducks simply cannot shoot themselves in the foot like that to have any chance in this series. Especially not from their veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickinson\u2019s second goal, Gudas blamed<\/p>\n

Next came Dickinson\u2019s second goal of the game to tie it 3-3 in the third, with Mattias Ekholm roaring up ice,\u00a0 Gudas falling down on his butt to the ice as he attempted a backwards pivot, Ekholm hammering a slapper on net and Dickinson roaring by a flat-footed 19-year-old Beckett Sennecke in the neutral zone and pouncing on the rebound to score.<\/p>\n

Said the California-based Empty Netters podcast: \u201c3 depth goals for the Oilers in game 1 of the playoffs. That\u2019s bad news for everyone else. Also sick D by Gudas on that goal \ud83d\ude02\u201d<\/p>\n

And Anaheim podcaster F\u00e9lix Sicard @Felix_Sicard: \u201cDucks sat back for roughly 12 minutes, was bound to bite them eventually. Gudas trips on thin air, giving Dickinson room to walk in and tee off.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan Anaheim Calling @anacalling_fhf: \u201cRadko, what the hell\u201d<\/p>\n

And Sportsnet\u2019s Mike Johnson of the Gudas wipe-out. \u201cRadko Gudas, that is some kind of blown tire right here. Whoa, that is a nasty heel pick at the worst possible time. That\u2019s an ACL blow-out right there somewhere else. And Auston Matthews is saying, \u2018See, that\u2019s what you get for taking on guys\u2019 knees.\u2019 But that one is tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kapanen\u2019s second goal, Trouba blamed<\/p>\n

It got even worse for the Anaheim vets when Draisaitl fought his way past two young Ducks defenders, Leo Carlsson and Jackson LaCombe, bulled his way around the net, reversed the puck down low to Podkolzin, who put a pass by Carlsson into the slot, where Kapanen had moved past Trouba to get shooting position and score the winning 4-3 goal.<\/p>\n

After the game, on the Crash the Pond podcast, podcaster Felix Sicard blasted Trouba\u2019s lost battle. \u201cI think that what\u2019s doubly frustrating is that Trouba was attached to Kapanen. He knew that that\u2019s where the play was going, but he was just a step behind him and he didn\u2019t do anything proactively to mess with Kapanen\u2019s stick or to give him a little whack or just anything. It was just unfettered access to the slot. I mean, I\u2019m just going to say it. There\u2019s a lot of people that told us we were super wrong about being down in the Truba trade and, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s a veteran and he\u2019s this experienced, solid defenceman.\u2019 And he does sh*t like this all the time. <\/p>\n

Sicard continued: \u201cNobody seems to call him out for it. Here we are now in the playoffs and it arguably just cost the Ducks a game. I wish that there was a little more accountability when it came to the veterans because I\u2019m seeing that a lot in the chat and I\u2019ve seen it on my Twitter replies is that, \u2018Yeah, this game, I don\u2019t think the kids were the problem in this game.\u2019 There are a lot of the issues\u201d<\/p>\n

Even careful commentator Eric Stephens of The Athletic, a long-time California hockey writer, singled out<\/a> the vet for criticism: \u201cChris Kreider had an assist but also committed a costly turnover that ultimately resulted in Kapanen\u2019s first goal. John Carlson couldn\u2019t bat away the rebound that Kapanen\u2019s first shot created after failing to block the first attempt. Radko Gudas fell as he retreated into his zone, giving Mattias Ekholm a clean shot that created the rebound for Dickinson to bury in the third period. Alex Killorn took both Ducks penalties, which they killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Anaheim hockey writer Zach Cavanaugh the Sporting Tribune highlighted<\/a> Kreider, Gudas and Trouba for their mistakes. \u201cWhere the Ducks playoff rookies led the second-period surge, it was some of Anaheim\u2019s most experienced players that factored in their fall\u2026 When the Ducks gave the Oilers any bit of air, they took it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ducks fans were withering in their social media commentary:<\/p>\n

Said Ducks fan Trevor Zebras @ZegrasTrevor: \u201cI wish Gudas was still suspended\u2026 Radko Gudas had the lowest TOI among all Ducks players last night, playing just 9:40. Maybe his injury is getting to him, maybe it\u2019s not, but he needs to be a true captain and accept the fact that he is negatively impacting the team, and sit out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Ducks fan Alex Burch @AlexBurch__; \u201cHope Chris Kreider retires. Guy is a zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan Chris @LAPCJK: \u201cJust a terrible play from Kreider\u2026that\u2019s what you don\u2019t want to see from veteran players jfc.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan Steven Panepinto @pushead2; \u201cQ needs to change the lines. 20 (Kreider) & 17 (Killorn) are liabilities and slow as sh*t. Stack. The. Lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan matt @gelsDucks: \u201cGudas needs to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan Bosh @Boshwizzle: \u201cGet Gudas, Killorn, and Kreider off this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan Jesse Leonard (The Beard) @JesseLeonard11: \u201cGudas is a liability. Gotta trade him.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan Chuck Detz @ChuckDetz830: \u201cGudas needs to be a Vancouver Canuck! What a total loser playing from his back.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan Ryan Besaw @Beezkneez97: \u201cCrazy how our captain does the least amount of good for this team. And 4 goals now allowed by shitty lazy defense. We just love leaving our goalies out to dry. It\u2019s been that way for 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ducks fan MK @mkton35: \u201cThe veterans are really leading the way in shooting this team in the foot\u2026Kreider and Gudas absolutely gave that game away.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Anaheim\u2019s\u00a0Locked On Anaheim Ducks podcast: \u201cChris Kreider lost us that game. That\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

My take<\/p>\n

1. There\u2019s not much online commentary and discussion around the Anaheim Ducks, certainly not compared to the constant roar of noise around the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>, but when things go wrong, Ducks fans are every bit as nasty and upset as Oilers, Leafs, Flames or Habs fans, with Canucks fans in their own category, of course.<\/p>\n

2. I note that on all the goals against both young and old Ducks players made mistakes, but it\u2019s the old players who are getting singled out. I don\u2019t watch Anaheim enough to know why exactly that is. But I note a general trend for some fans to fall in love with the potential of younger players and tend to overlook their mistakes, while at the same time they get tired of the same old mistakes by veterans, even if those veterans are no more blameworthy on a particular play than a rookie.<\/p>\n

3. Finally, it\u2019s the lot of any pro athlete to a bum one minute, a hero the next. Kreider, Trouba and Gudas have plenty of runway left in this series to redeem themselves, as do the Oilers player who performed poorly in Game 1, a game that the Ducks were had significantly more and better shot quality than the Oilers.<\/p>\n

At the Cult of Hockey<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019ve got good options\u2019: Veteran Edmonton Oilers forward out injured, but who will replace him?<\/a><\/p>\n

The monster play that saved the Oilers against Anaheim that nobody noticed at the time<\/a><\/p>\n

Player grades: Edmonton Oilers goal rush too much for Ducks in 4-3 win<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the build-up to the Edmonton Oilers-Anaheim Ducks series, one of the hidden strengths of the young Anaheim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[10954,233,532,1199,894,1542,155,1739,59784,198,146,5300,2656,5,1709,3124,3144,4446,281,4812,3040,370,868,4,24,4181,9464,13110,1554,1588],"class_list":{"0":"post-557726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-alex-killorn","9":"tag-anaheim-ducks","10":"tag-auston-matthews","11":"tag-beckett-sennecke","12":"tag-canucks","13":"tag-chris-kreider","14":"tag-connor-mcdavid","15":"tag-ducks","16":"tag-ducks-fans","17":"tag-edmonton","18":"tag-edmonton-oilers","19":"tag-edmontonoilers","20":"tag-habs","21":"tag-hockey","22":"tag-jackson-lacombe","23":"tag-jacob-trouba","24":"tag-jake-walman","25":"tag-jason-dickinson","26":"tag-john-carlson","27":"tag-kasperi-kapanen","28":"tag-leo-carlsson","29":"tag-leon-draisaitl","30":"tag-mattias-ekholm","31":"tag-nhl","32":"tag-oilers","33":"tag-pavel-mintyukov","34":"tag-radko-gudas","35":"tag-ryan-poehling","36":"tag-the-ducks","37":"tag-vasily-podkolzin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116446828236509382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557726","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=557726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}