The Anaheim Ducks returned to Honda Center on Friday, following a season-long, five-game road trip, to host the Detroit Red Wings in John Gibson’s return to Anaheim, where he spent the first 11 seasons of his career.

The Ducks went 3-1-1 on their first big road trip of the season, but lost the services of forward Mikael Granlund and captain Radko Gudas in the process. They’re expected to remain out of the lineup for at least a week or two, according to head coach Joel Quenneville, as is forward Ryan Strome, who has yet to make his season debut.

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They saw the return of Chris Kreider in this game, who was inserted on the wing of Leo Carlsson and opposite Troy Terry. Ryan Poehling played a third-line center role in this game, between Alex Killorn and Frank Vatrano. Nikita Nesterenko started at center for the first time in his NHL career, on the fourth line between Sam Colangelo and Ryan Johnston.

The Ducks’ defensive pairs started the same way they finished the road trip, but the coaching staff made an in-game adjustment, swapping Ian Moore, who finished the game paired with Olen Zellweger, and Jacob Trouba, who finished alongside Pavel Mintyukov.

The Red Wings entered play with an Atlantic Division-leading 8-3-0 record and a three-game winning streak they were hoping to extend. They were without forward Patrick Kane, who has missed the last two weeks and (now) seven games due to an upper-body injury.

The Ducks handed the crease to Lukas Dostal in this game, who stopped 28 of 30 shots he faced. He was opposed by the man from whom he took the starter’s spot in Anaheim, the aforementioned John Gibson, who saved 27 of 31.

Here are my notes from this game:

The Wings entered play with one of the best power plays in the NHL, converting nine of their first 33 chances (27.7%) on the 2025-26 season and a year removed from deploying the NHL’s fourth-best power play that boasted a 27% success rate. They aren’t a team to play undisciplined against, but the Ducks gave them seven chances with a man advantage in this one.

The Wings only converted on one and surrendered a shorthanded goal in the process. Through two periods, at 5v5, the two teams exchanged several rush opportunities, but were mostly stout in their defensive zone coverages. Ultimately, the Ducks proved a bit more opportunistic and held off a Detroit third-period push, coming away with a 5-2 victory.

Lukas Dostal-Dostal remains dialed in to start the 2025-26 season, and he seems to be gaining further comfort behind the Ducks’ new defensive zone coverage system. He saved 2.07 goals above expected in this game. When running as designed, it offers Dostal more predictability when it comes to movement and shot selection from opponents, allowing him to utilize his anticipation and tracking skills to their potential.

What has been standing out most from Dostal this season has been his game management skills. He’s refining his selection when it comes to playing pucks and is even finding ways to send outlet passes to teammates in the neutral zone to ignite rush chances.

Cycle-Over the last several seasons, the Ducks fell victim to teams running high weaves, switches, and activating defensemen in the offensive zone to generate looks against their man-on-man coverage. This season, with less emphasis on funneling pucks to the goal mouth, the Ducks are deploying that strategy themselves, offensively, as when pucks are worked from low to high, they send a forward to the blueline to support defensemen and afford them an option other than to simply throw it back down low or on net.

Mason McTavish’s goal represented this philosophy: he presented himself as an option, moved his feet in the offensive zone, forced defenders to switch, and found time and space to get a clean shot off.

Penalty Kill-As mentioned, the Ducks gave the Wings more opportunities with the man advantage than they would have preferred, but killed off six of seven opportunities. The duo of Carlsson and Terry connected for a shorthanded goal, as they were smart with their high challenges, and the defensemen underneath made quick reads to take away board options for high puck carriers under pressure.

When the Wings were able to work pucks from high to low, the strong side killers struggled to determine the optimal moments to pressure or protect the middle, which led to a handful of quality chances, including a goal. Reading these movements, however, is an area where Dostal shone in this game.

Beckett Sennecke-Sennecke played a bit too carelessly with the puck on his stick at the offensive blueline, leading to pucks knocked off and into neutral ice, ending zone pressure. He also took a bad penalty. However, his wall play was much improved, as he seems to be adapting, reading pressure, and finding ways to keep plays alive in the offensive zone.

He continues to involve himself in the neutral zone, finding lanes for outlets with speed, whereafter he flashed some of his trademark open ice skill, attempting to break down defenders, kept pucks moving north, and even found trailing teammates in the soft ice he created.

Pavel Mintyukov-The area of biggest concern for Mintyukov this season has been his puck retrievals. However, he cleaned that up to an encouraging degree in this game, as he utilized his edges more efficiently and evaded F1 pressure with far more conviction and consistency.

He featured on the second penalty kill unit, though the top unit took the bulk of those minutes, and he read plays more effectively and made use of his elevated anticipation skills off-puck to disrupt attacks.

The Ducks will next take on another team that came out of the gates hot this season on Sunday, when they’ll host the New Jersey Devils.

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