IRVINE, Calif. \u2013 Confirming the Anaheim Ducks starting goaltender is normally a fairly rote exercise with Joel Quenneville.<\/p>\n
Media member simply says, \u201cstarter tonight?\u201d Quenneville usually gives a perfunctory \u201cDosty\u201d or \u201cHuss\u201d for No. 1 goalie Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l or back-up Ville Husso, and everyone goes on about their day.<\/p>\n
However, Saturday\u2019s confirmation at Ducks practice at Great Park Ice ahead of Sunday\u2019s homestand finale came with something extra, as the Anaheim bench boss sent a clear message across his goal crease and five-man defensive unit in front of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrossoit,\u201d Quenneville said with emphasis, signaling that called-up AHL San Diego goaltender Laurent Brossoit would start for the Ducks against the Ottawa Senators at Honda Center over Dost\u00e1l or Husso.<\/p>\n
When asked if there was an injury to either regular netminder or if he was looking for something more, Quenneville said affirmatively, \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anaheim has allowed 21 goals in its last four games, 29 goals in its last six games and 36 in the last eight games with a 1-6-1 record in that stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cPucks are going in too easily,\u201d Quenneville said after Thursday\u2019s loss. \u201cI think it\u2019s a group of five, with the puck, where we leave it, where we have to start to have to defend from it – we\u2019re at a disadvantage.”<\/p>\n
As Quenneville alluded to, this is a group issue that goes beyond the goaltenders, but even with the chances given up in front of them, it was a particularly tough week for the Ducks\u2019 pair.<\/p>\n
Against Vancouver, Dostal faced his second-highest expected goals against this season (4.74 xGA per Natural Stat Trick) with his most goals allowed (6) in nine starts making for his worst goals saved above expected (xGSA) so far. It was the fourth time in nine starts his xGSA exceeded one full goal.<\/p>\n
Dostal also saw his most high-danger area chances of the season (12) and allowed just one high-danger area goal, but that also means the other five goals came from distance. (Note: Public model analytics don\u2019t account for screens, turnovers\u2013like those on the Canucks two goals with the extra attacker\u2013or any other play data aside from shot location.)<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery play matters,\u201d Dost\u00e1l said. \u201cIt starts from the puck drop until the end, including me, including everyone. It\u2019s still the plays that’s just added up, if it’s the penalties, if it’s a bad save, if it’s a bad rebound, if it’s a bad pass, and all those little plays. It always adds up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against Buffalo, Husso also saw his second-highest expected goals against this season (4.19 xGA per Natural Stat Trick) with his most goals allowed (7). It was the second time in his four starts that his xGSA was in the negative. Husso allowed five high-danger area goals on 11 high-danger area attempts.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery goal had a different flavor to it,\u201d Quenneville said Saturday. \u201cSometimes the one night was penalties. The other night off the rush. I think our rush defending was poor, and I think that might have been the one flavor\u2013we got to be better off the rush defending.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the trick of it.<\/p>\n
Yes, some nights you just need a save, especially in crunch time and particularly when you\u2019ve held a multi-goal lead and need to stop the bleeding. (Anaheim is 1-4-1 at home, with four of the five losses coming with a blown multi-goal lead.)<\/p>\n
On the other hand, just how many saves should your goaltenders be expected to make, particularly in the quantity, quality and duration of zone time the Ducks have been allowing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust can\u2019t happen,\u201d Leo Carlsson said Thursday. \u201cSeven goals is obviously terrible. Have to help out Husso more.\u201d<\/p>\n
At five-on-five per Natural Stat Trick, Anaheim is eighth-worst in shot attempts allowed per 60 minutes, sixth-worst in goals against per 60 minutes, fourth-worst in expected goals against per 60 minutes and third-worst in high-danger chances allowed per 60 minutes.<\/p>\n
What those descending stats boil down to is, the Ducks are constantly behind the eight ball defensively due to the quality of chances allowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re a little disconnected right now,\u201d Cutter Gauthier said Thursday. \u201cI think the biggest thing right now is just simplifying things, playing a very predictable game so everyone can read off each other really well. I think it\u2019s just a little bit disconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why benching the top two goalies in Dost\u00e1l and Husso in favor of the third-string AHL starter Brossoit is far beyond a shot at the goaltenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is a wake-up call to a defensive group that if it doesn\u2019t clean up its operation\u2013back door defense, zone exits, rush defense\u2013 the Ducks could be in for an even rougher result against Ottawa on Sunday and in the weeks to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that everybody\u2019s part of it,\u201d Quenneville said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRVINE, Calif. \u2013 Confirming the Anaheim Ducks starting goaltender is normally a fairly rote exercise with Joel Quenneville.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2210,233,5292,511,4794,1739,5,1709,1552,493,3040,3041,2711,285,40,4,5695,8173],"class_list":["post-701042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheimducks","tag-cutter-gauthier","tag-defense","tag-ducks","tag-hockey","tag-jackson-lacombe","tag-joel-quenneville","tag-laurent-brossoit","tag-leo-carlsson","tag-lukas-dostal","tag-mighty-ducks","tag-national-hockey-league","tag-news","tag-nhl","tag-tst-los-angeles","tag-ville-husso"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117542965972290295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701042","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=701042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}