A controversial hit shifted momentum. The Ducks dominated possession but faltered on special teams, ultimately falling to the Maple Leafs.
For their second game on their four-game Canadian road trip, the Anaheim Ducks headed to the center of the hockey world to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday evening.
The Ducks were coming off one of their most complete 60-minute, 200-foot efforts of the season on Tuesday in a 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets, and were looking to extend their Pacific Division lead against a Toronto team in a tailspin, having gone winlessnin their previous eight games (0-6-2).
Ducks forward Ross Johnston sustained an undisclosed injury during Tuesday’s game against the Jets, rendering him unavailable for this matchup. Defenseman Ian Moore was inserted on the fourth line, Drew Helleson returned to the lineup on the bottom defense pair next to Pavel Mintyukov, and Frank Vatrano served as a healthy scratch for the second straight game in this one.
Here’s how the Ducks’ lineup looked:
Kreider-Carlsson-Gauthier
Granlund-McTavish-Sennecke
Killorn-Poehling-Viel
Harkins-Washe-Moore
LaCombe-Trouba
Zellweger-Gudas
Mintyukov-Helleson
Lukas Dostal got the start for the Ducks for the second straight game and saved 22 of 27 shots. He was opposed by Joseph Woll in the Toronto crease, who stopped 36 of 40.
Game Notes
The overshadowing narrative to come out of this game will be Radko Gudas’ knee-on-knee collision delivered on Leafs’ captain Auston Matthews with 4:13 remaining in the second period. With the Ducks leading 3-2, the hit forced Matthews out of the game, and Gudas was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
The Ducks allowed two goals on Toronto’s ensuing power play, turning the tide of a game the Ducks were entirely in control of at that point. Gudas will have a telephone hearing with the Department of Player Safety on Friday, meaning he could receive a suspension of a maximum of five games.
With that penalty and several more on both sides, the Ducks played a season-low 34:34 TOI at 5v5 and handily won the possession battle during that time. They accounted for 64.29% of the shots on goal share, 67.9% of the shot attempts share, and 67.97% of the expected goals share. For the Ducks, this game was lost entirely on special teams, as they went 0-5 on the power play, allowed a shorthanded goal, and killed just 4-7 penalties.
Radko Gudas: Justification for Gudas’ knee-on-knee hit on Matthews is nonexistent. He sprinted from the corner to the far interior hashmark and led with his knee bent at a 90-degree angle. Were he to successfully make contact with Matthews’ shoulder or chest, as he seemingly intended, the best-case scenario would have resulted in a charging penalty.
The Ducks had the slimmest lead of any division-leading team in the NHL heading into Thursday, so for the captain of said team to put his team down for five minutes in a tight game, forcing the defense corps to deploy just five skaters, and injure an opposing captain, one of the best players in the sport, is regrettable on every level, to say the least.
Power Play: The Ducks’ man-advantage failed to convert on any of their five chances, but the team’s top unit has become as cohesive a unit as the Ducks have deployed throughout the course of their rebuild, at least, and has clear directives on how they can best generate high-quality looks from every situation and location in the offensive zone.
Sennecke and Carlsson read off of each other and have correctly determined who will assume the flank position depending on how the puck is moved throughout the zone. Krieder has mastered finding soft ice when the puck is on that left flank and efficiently slides to the net front when it changes sides. When a bumper pass isn’t available, Lacombe, Carlsson, Sennecke, and Kreider have each manifested ways to move pucks to Gauthier at the right flank, so he can unleash his elite shot.
The Ducks’ power play opportunities were mostly positive, with the exception being the shorthanded goal they allowed to former Ducks’ center Bo Groulx. F’s 1, 2, and 3 failed to pressure the puck below the Toronto goal line on a retrieval, and Kreider failed to recognize two Leafs forwards behind him in the neutral zone, which led to a 2v1 the other way. That goal was the dagger and would become the game-winner at a time when the Ducks could have wrestled back control of a meaningful game.
Penalty Kill: Toronto drifted their bumper (typically Matthew Knies) high in the offensive zone, which drew one of the two Ducks’ low defenders toward the blueline and left the lowest defenseman outnumbered around the crease, an area where the Ducks have struggled all season. Those three high penalty killers left seams open to the most dangerous areas of the ice from the perimeter. A less aggressive approach would be a proper adjustment to make if a team were to attempt to exploit the Ducks’ PK in this way in the future.
The Ducks may be without captain Radko Gudas for their upcoming weekend back-to-back against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and Montreal Canadiens on Sunday. However, John Carlson is expected to make his Ducks debut in one of those games in what would be a timely addition to the blueline.