The Hockey News' Derek Lee previews the Ducks' matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
ANAHEIM, Irvine - The Ducks return home after an up-and-down road trip along the east coast. They'll face the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight, beginning a stretch of nine straight games that do not require them to leave California, seven of which are home games.
The Blue Jackets come into town having faced the Los Angeles Kings last night, falling 4-1. Adam Boqvist scored the lone Columbus goal. They are 3-5-1 in their last 10 games.
The Ducks are coming off a nice comeback win on Monday against the Buffalo Sabres, erasing a one-goal deficit twice en route to a 4-3 victory.
The season series so far favors the Ducks, who took down the Blue Jackets in overtime back in October.
“I watched the game (last night). They’re physical,” said Ducks head coach Greg Cronin of the Blue Jackets. “They’ve got some really burner players in terms of speed. They’re big, they’re strong, they’re heavy.”
“We’re going to have to defend really well against them. They’re opportunistic. They get up into the play and they’re not going to sit back. So our key is going to be to get the puck into their zone and trying to keep it and do a really good job defending.”
Fast Facts:
-The Ducks are 2-7-1 against opponents on the second game of a back-to-back (SEGABABA).
-The Blue Jackets are 3-for-31 on the power play in their last 10 games. They went 0-for-3 against the Kings last night.
-The Ducks have given up 12 power-play goals on 35 opportunities in their last 10 games, although they did give up four of those on five opportunities against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Saturday's 9-2 drubbing.
-Frank Vatrano set a new career high for goals in a season (26), tallying a pair against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday. He also has a new career high for points in a season, currently sitting at 44.
-Third-overall pick Adam Fantilli will not face second-overall pick Leo Carlsson this season after the former suffered a calf laceration right before the beginning of February. He is expected to be out for eight weeks.
Ducks Projected Lines
Alex Killorn-Leo Carlsson-Ryan Strome
Frank Vatrano-Mason McTavish-Troy Terry
Isac Lundeström-Adam Henrique-Jakob Silfverberg
Ross Johnston-Sam Carrick-Max Jones
Jackson LaCombe-Cam Fowler
Urho Vaakanainen-Radko Gudas
Pavel Mintyukov-Ilya Lyubushkin
John Gibson
Blue Jackets Projected Lines
Johnny Gaudreau–Boone Jenner-Jack Roslovic
Yegor Chinakov-Dmitri Voronkov-Kirill Marchenko
Kent Johnson-Cole Sillinger-Justin Danforth
Alexandre Texier-Sean Kuraly-Mathieu Olivier
Zach Werenski-Adam Boqvist
Ivan Provorov- Damon Severson
Jake Bean-Erik Gudbranson
Daniil Tarasov