How Much have the Ducks Missed Ryan Poehling?

To break a 2-2 game against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 10, with 15 minutes remaining in the third period and on the penalty kill, Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Poehling pounced on a broken pass deep in the defensive zone, which sparked a shorthanded 2v1, with Ducks forward Nikita Nesterenko on the opposite wing and Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh defending. 

Poehling looked off Nesterenko, Parekh slid to take the passing lane away, and Poehling notched the go-ahead goal, but after the shot was taken, Poehling was tripped by the sliding Parekh, and the former careened into the near post and sustained a lower-body injury that cost him the remainder of the contest. 

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Poehling has since been diagnosed with a sprained MCL and is projected to miss 6-8 weeks from the time of injury. 

“He’s a huge part of the room, especially because he scores that big goal,” Ducks forward Alex Killorn said of Poehling. “He’s a big part of the team, PK, really liked. So, it’s tough to see a guy like that go down, especially when he needs to get helped off the ice. It’s always tough.”

Ducks prospect Roger McQueen has since been inserted into the Ducks lineup in his designated third-line center spot. 

In the four games since Poehling’s injury, the Ducks’ record is 0-4-0, they’ve been outscored by their opponents by a total of 16-8, and their penalty kill is killing at a 66.6% clip (10 for 15) during that time, down from 88.9% in the first five games of the season with Poehling in the lineup (16 for 18).

Poehling’s absence isn’t the sole reason or even the largest contributing factor to the Ducks’ current losing streak, poor team defense, or lack of offensive generation. However, he’s an overlooked piece in what the front office, coaching staff, and roster are trying to accomplish from on-ice and depth chart deployment perspectives. 

On the ice, among the four centers on the Ducks’ opening night roster (Leo Carlsson, Mikael Granlund, Ryan Poehling, Tim Washe), Poehling is the one best-suited for head coach Joel Quenneville and assistant coach Ryan McGill’s pressure-zone defensive zone coverage system, along with breakout/exit schemes. 

His skating allows him to eliminate time and space for attackers who have established a cycle, his active stick and defensive reads lead to numerous disrupted plays per game, and his positioning allows him to quickly assist his defensemen in puck battles or provide an out. In the year-plus he’s been in Anaheim, his understanding of how plays develop has consistently ignited transition chances or, at the very least, led to change-of-possession and easy exits. 

He translates those abilities to offensive and neutral zone forechecks, from all three forward positions (F1, F2, F3), and through his intelligent and diligent backcheck, he can single-handedly kill opposing rushes and odd-man opportunities, significantly alleviating responsibilities for his young teammates on the blueline. 

Those abilities have also made Poehling Anaheim’s best penalty-killing forward. As a team, through nine games this season, the Ducks have allowed 6.28 expected goals per 60 minutes at 4v5 (per moneypuck.com). When Poehling is on the ice at 4v5, the Ducks have allowed just 2.48.

Put plainly, Poehling is such an impactful defensive forward that the Ducks don’t spend much time defending when he’s on the ice. The team doesn’t get hemmed in the defensive zone as regularly, which leads to more pucks finding their way into the neutral and offensive zones, which leads to shifts for the remaining three lines starting further up ice.

In his absence, the remaining top-nine centers on the roster will have to adopt some of the habits that make Poehling successful. Carlsson will have to display a higher defensive motor, and Granlund will have to find clever ways to mitigate his lack of explosion. McQueen has the tools to one day become an impressively impactful defensive center, but as he’s only four games into his NHL career, he’ll need reps to develop the habits and reads necessary to make said impact on a consistent basis. 

Wingers and defensemen will also need to shoulder some of the load on the defensive side of the puck as well. Wingers will have to quell the instinct to fly the zone as quickly to shorten the distance needed for outlet passes from the previously mentioned young blueline. The defensemen will need to improve their outlet quality by either evading oncoming forechecks with greater frequency, making more properly weighted rims, or resorting to chips and/or high flips into the neutral zone to “punt” pucks further up ice. If they elect for more chips and high flips, forwards can fly the zone with regularity, but will need to win more ensuing puck battles in those locations. 

The season is still long, Poehling’s recovery time is now down to 4-6 weeks, and the Ducks are expected to get veteran forward Troy Terry back in the fold at some point in the coming weeks/months, which will boost the team’s overall 200-foot game. In the meantime, the Ducks, with the youngest roster in the NHL, may need to simplify their habits in order to tread water and get back in the win column to keep their playoff hopes alive. 

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