A shaky third period and special teams struggles spoiled the Ducks' final dress rehearsal, overshadowing a dominant fourth-line performance as injuries continue to plague the opening-night roster.
The 2026 Preseason is now in the books for the Anaheim Ducks, who wrapped up their exhibition season on Saturday afternoon with a matinee matchup with their rival Los Angeles Kings.
The Ducks were coming off an embarrassing 10-0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, where they dressed a (projected) mostly AHL lineup against a (projected) mostly NHL one. Saturday’s game was to act more as a “dress rehearsal” for the participating clubs, as both teams iced more or less their opening night rosters.
The injury bug (and illness bug) has been active during Ducks camp ahead of the 2026-27 season. In this game, they were without Ian Moore (lower body), who is expected to be out for another 1-3 weeks; AJ Greer (upper body), who is listed as “day-to-day” and hopeful for an opening-night Ducks debut; Drew Helleson (lower body), whose status is the same as Greer’s; and Pavel Mintyukov (illness).
This is how the Ducks lined up to start this game:
Killorn-Carlsson-Gauthier
Sennecke-Granlund-Klepov
Myatovic-Poehling-Vatrano
Nesterenko-Washe-Caulfield
LaCombe-Hinds
Mitchell-Luneau
Solberg-Jensen
Lukas Dostal got the start for the Ducks and stopped just 14 of 20 shots. He was opposed by Darcy Kuemper, who saved 17 of 19.
Game Notes
At 5v5 and from a gameflow perspective, this matchup was fairly even throughout, with each team finding ways to create off the rush and cycle alike. The difference lay in special teams, where the Ducks were able to convert on one of two chances, while the Kings were able to score twice on four.
A special teams advantage was compounded by a few critical mistakes at critical times and in critical areas for the Ducks, and the game got away from them in the third period.
“It was a pretty even game,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game. “We were looking like we were in a pretty good spot there halfway through the game, and they got a couple on us. And then, I didn’t want to think about the other night (against San Jose), but certainly we gotta stem the tide there when we lose the momentum of the game like that.
“But, hey, it’s a preseason game. We tried a lot of things in lines again tonight. So, we’ve got a week to prepare on the lineup and getting set and prepared to start the season on a positive note.”
Though it’s wise to exercise caution when evaluating preseason games, there are still aspects to take away, and as this game had mostly opening-night rosters, more can be evaluated from this as opposed to the Ducks’ previous three.
Fourth Line: Though the Ducks’ fourth line only played together for seven minutes at 5v5 in this game, they won their minutes handily. They performed as one hopes a fourth line would and generated a handful of quality looks in the process.
As a group, they were disruptive on the forecheck, benefited from extended cycle sequences, won countless board battles, were heavy on opponents, and stifled the opposition defensively. Based on camp and his performance in this game, it’s safe to bet that Judd Caulfield may make the Ducks’ opening-night roster or even lineup.
Defensive Zone Coverage: As has become the case for the Ducks, and despite losing so many pieces from the previous iteration of the blueline, the Ducks are still having significant sorting, decision-making, and tenacity issues around the net front.
There continues to be a need, when pucks switch sides at the top of the zone and defensemen attack downhill, to challenge the puck carrier and leave the net-front forward uncovered. It’s what the system tells those defensemen to do in those situations, but if pucks get by them, Dostal is left vulnerable and outnumbered.
Power Play: For the first time in several years, the Ducks seem to be loading up their premium offensive talent on one top power play unit, and that unit plays the majority of the two-minute man-advantage. They are looking to utilize Mikael Granlund in the bumper to collapse the penalty kill structure and bounce the puck quickly back out to the perimeter, where their most talented young players (Jackson LaCombe, Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke) would have more time and space to operate.
Their breakout was also altered in this game, and they were utilizing more of a “five across” approach when moving pucks up ice, reminiscent of NHL power play breakouts of the early 2010s.
Final rosters are due on Sept. 28 at 2 pm PST, but since the Ducks don’t play until Oct. 2 in Las Vegas, they’ll have plenty of opportunity to alter their roster for opening night and/or get some players back from injury.
