Carolina's relentless pressure exposed Ducks' puck management. Despite offensive flashes from McTavish and Carlsson, turnovers proved costly in the 4-1 defeat.
The Anaheim Ducks wrapped up their brief, two-game opening home stint on Thursday, when they hosted the Carolina Hurricanes. The Ducks were coming off an emotional home-opener when they beat the Pittsburgh Penguins in the dying minutes by a score of 4-3.
The Hurricanes entered play undefeated on the young season, outscoring opponents 15-7. The Canes were missing top defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who remains sidelined with a lower-body injury.
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Ryan Strome remains out of the Ducks' lineup (upper-body), a lineup that went unchanged from Tuesday.
Lukas Dostal got the start for the Ducks in goal and stopped 27 of 31 shots.
Dostal was opposed by former Ducks goaltender Frederik Andersen, who saved 23 of 24 shots.
"They're a good hockey team," Joel Quenneville said of the Canes after the game. "I don't know if I've seen better sticks in a game. I don't know how many times they took the puck away from us cleanly, but that was a relentless performance on how to play with your stick in the puck area, in the battle areas. That's what we want to get to, but that was a demonstration of how to do it correctly."
Here are my notes on this game:
Puck Management-The Hurricanes thrive on creating turnovers and capitalizing as their opponent attempts to recover. The Ducks fell victim to that on two of Carolina’s four goals in this game.
On Carolina’s first goal, Mikael Granlund attempted a somewhat lazy outlet pass to Troy Terry that got picked off. Jackson LaCombe found the other side of the poise vs casual tightrope on Carolina’s fourth goal, getting stripped of the puck deep in the defensive zone by a relentless Seth Jarvis.
Defensive Zone Coverage-The likeliest outcome from this game was always that the Hurricanes would dominate possession numbers, and they did. However, for the most part, the Ducks did well to keep chances to the perimeter and block shots with their second wave of pressure.
Rookie Beckett Sennecke made his first critical mistake of the season on Carolina’s third goal, when he left his assignment to pressure Sebastian Aho on the wall, who found an activated Alexander Nikishin in the slot.
Mason McTavish-McTavish has evolved into a true line-driver, connecting plays in every zone and has elevated his playmaking to new heights, creating chances from seemingly dead plays and difficult locations on the ice.
His progress has the potential to make it extremely difficult for teams to match up against the Ducks in the present and future. His play is especially impressive considering his linemates are a 19-year-old rookie (Sennecke) and a 21-year-old sophomore (Cutter Gauthier).
Cycle-In the past, the Ducks fell victim to opposing teams generating prime offensive chances with the use of switches and weaves against a man-to-man defensive zone coverage. In this game, they were able to flip the script on the Canes on several occasions, most often when Olen Zellweger was on the ice.
Zellweger diagnosed developing plays adeptly and chose optimal times to involve himself and generate some of the Ducks’ best chances on the night.
The Ducks will now take to the road for a five-game road trip with a mixed bag of opponents, starting with the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday at 4 pm PST.
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