Dominating possession, the Ducks faced a hot goalie and flaws were exposed in a shutout loss.
Suddenly somewhat desperate, the Anaheim Ducks hosted the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night at Honda Center.
The Ducks entered this game on the back of a five-game losing streak and had seen their five-point lead in the Pacific Division evaporate. As of Tuesday, they were tied with the Edmonton Oilers for first place and just one point ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights in third. A win in this one would have gone a long way in relieving unexpected tension at this point in the season.
Their opponent, the Predators, came into this game on their second leg of a back-to-back, having lost in a shootout to the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Monday. The Preds came into this game one point behind LA and one point ahead of the San Jose Sharks, but still on the outside looking in at the playoff picture.
Cutter Gauthier (upper body) and Radko Gudas (lower body) remained out of the Ducks’ lineup in this game. Ian Moore seems locked in as a fourth-line winger for the foreseeable future, and was joined by Olen Zellweger. Frank Vatrano acted as the team’s healthy scratch in this game, and Pavel Mintyukov returned to the lineup after missing the last three games with a lower-body injury. Tyson Hinds received his second career start in this game.
Here’s how the Ducks lined up to start this game:
Granlund-Carlsson-Terry
Kreider-Poehling-Sennecke Killorn-McTavish-Viel
Zellweger-Washe-Moore
LaCombe-Trouba
Mintyukov-Carlson
Hinds-Helleson
Lukas Dostal got the start in this game and saved 20 of 25 shots. He was opposed by Justus Annunen for Nashville, who stopped all 43 shots he faced in this game, earning himself his third career shutout and first this season.
Game Notes
Game flow and analytics will reveal that the Ducks dominated this game and got “goalied.” Some of that may be true; they faced a dialed goaltender, they controlled possession, and they weren’t on the receiving end of any puck luck. However, the aspects of their game that they’ve been able to paper over for the majority of the season all came to light in this game.
“We started doing exactly what we wanted to do,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game. “We started to sag a bit after they scored the first goal, and they got life. We played the period we wanted. Didn’t get any action around the net with second opportunities, and their goalie played well.”
Two of the biggest ingredients to the Ducks’ winning recipe this season have been outscoring problems and above-average goaltending in the environment provided. In this game, they couldn’t buy a goal, and Dostal was merely human.
“In the last couple of games, there was parts in it where it’s exactly how we wanted to play,” Quenneville continued. “We were seeing teams that have to win the game. We have to win games here. That’s where we’re at.”
Net Front Defending: Whether at 5v5 or on the penalty kill, the Ducks have struggled to box out net front forwards and have struggled to deny cutting forwards access to the front of the crease all season. Typically, when pucks make their way to the point, the strong-side defender will attempt to cut down on an angle and block the shot before it gets to their goaltender. However, if that shot can get through that layer of their defense, there’s typically an open forward at the goal mouth, screening, deflecting, or picking up a rebound.
Their aggressive style also lends way to puck watching from the far side. If the weak-side defender loses focus for a split second, talented puck carriers will easily find an uncovered teammate on their way to a dangerous locale.
Rush Defense: The Ducks have been remarkably susceptible to giving up odd-man rushes, stemming from overaggressiveness in the offensive and neutral zones. When they do have numbers tracking back energetically, they have an unfortunate tendency to over-pursue or fail to pick up their assignments.
These rush and net-front defending issues have plagued the Ducks all season, despite their success, and all came to fruition in this game on each of Nashville’s five goals.
Power Play: Nashville’s penalty kill did well to pressure Anaheim along the wall and at the offensive blueline. Seams were non-existent, and shots were challenged. The only aspect, an aspect they failed to reproduce, was player and puck movement through the middle of the ice, utilizing their bumper and switching along the perimeter.
Beckett Sennecke: Sennecke was one of the Ducks’ more consistent offensive drivers in this game, sparking chances from all three zones. What stood out most in this game, playing on the right side of Leo Carlsson and opposite Mikael Granlund, was his ability to make smart, effective second touches out of the zone on the breakout.
Sennecke consistently scanned before getting to spots and before pucks arrived, reading flow, coverage, and teammates with speed. He made clever one-touches to Carlsson, made crisp cross-ice stretch passes to Granlund in the neutral zone, utilized defensemen for regroups, and when he had a fraction of a second, he even pulled pucks off the wall himself, skating to the middle of the ice and starting a rush.
The Ducks will look to snap their six-game winless streak at the most dire juncture of the season, on Thursday, when they’ll host Macklin Celebrini and his hungry San Jose Sharks squad, vying for a playoff spot.