Game 24: Anaheim At Colorado

Anaheim(6-12-5) at Colorado(12-7-1)

Pregame Show: DucksNPucks Podcast

TV: 6:00 PM PT/9:00 PM ET, Fox Sports West

Radio & Post Game Show: KLAA AM 830

Anaheim Outlook

The Ducks losing streak continued this week against the St. Louis Blues. Monday’s game started well for Anaheim with Isac Lundestrom scoring in the opening minutes of the contest. The Blues would then score four in a row to take a 4-1 lead into the third period. Lundestrom would bring the Ducks back within one by scoring a hat trick, but eventually Anaheim lost 5-4.

In Wednesday’s contest the Ducks were down by two goals at two separate times in the game. The Ducks rallied each time pulling within one goal, but could never tie the game. Anaheim played a better 5-on-5 contest, but special teams did them in as the Blues scored all three of their goals on the power play. Blues won 3-2.

Zegras has looked good so far and finally earned an NHL point, but many question Dallas Eakins’ ice management of him and some of his other lineup choices. For more discussion on that visit: Zegras Era Begins?

Poor starts, inconsistent play, and scoring have been issues for the Ducks this season. The Ducks average 2.04 goals a game, which ranks last in the league. They give up 2.91 against per game, which is 17th in the NHL. The power play is only 10.9% efficient, which ranks 29th in the NHL. The penalty kill is ranked 11th in the league at 81.0%.

The most telling stat is Anaheim is 0-12-5 when their opponents score two or more goals.

Max Comtois leads the team in scoring with nine goals.

Team News:

Last night it was announced that Darryl Sutter was hired by the Calgary Flames as their head coach. Sutter had been an advisor with the Anaheim Ducks since July of 2019.

Brendan Guhle was placed on waivers yesterday morning and he cleared them today.

Max Jones was added back to the roster. He suffered a laceration to the face in Monday’s game against St. Louis and sat out the game on Wednesday.

David Backes, Chase Del Leo, Jamie Drysdale, Vinni Lettieri, and Anthony Stolarz were sent to the Taxi Squad.

Lukas Dostal, Hunter Drew, Maxim Golod were reassigned to the Gulls.

Injury Updates

Hampus Lindholm will be out about 6 weeks with a fractured wrist. The Ducks report it occurred on February 27th in the game against Vegas.

Sonny Milano was placed on the IR yesterday. He was out before with an upper-body injury.

Carter Rowney(lower body) was injured in a collision last week and was placed on the IR.

Josh Manson was activated off the IR.

Taxi Squad:

David Backes
Jamie Drysdale
Chase De Leo
Vinni Lettieri
Anthony Stolarz
Andy Welinski

Projected Lineup

Offense:
Max Comtois – Ryan Getzlaf – Troy Terry
Trevor Zegras  – Isac Lundestrom – Rickard Rakell
Max Jones – Adam Henrique – Jakob Silfverberg
Derek Grant – Sam Steel

Defense:
Cam Fowler – Jani Hakanpaa
Josh Mahura – Kevin Shattenkirk
Ben Hutton – Jacob Larsson
Josh Manson

In Net:
John Gibson 5-10-4 GAA 2.78, SV% .903 (Confirmed)

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Colorado Avalanche 

The Avalanche are in a battle for the top spot in the West Division. They are currently tied with the Minnesota Wild at 3rd place with 25 points. Colorado is coming off a 4-0 win over the San Jose Sharks. The Avalanche are 6-4-0 in their last 10 games.

The Avalanche average 3.05 goals per game, which ranks 14th in the league. They give up 2.40 goals against per game, which ranks them as 5th in the NHL. Their power play is ranked 12th at 24.1% efficiency. The penalty is 88.9% efficient, which is tied for best in the NHL.

Cale Makar will not play tonight per Colorado Hockey Now. Nathan MacKinnon is expected to play if his morning skate goes well.

Mikko Rantanen leads the team in scoring with 10 goals.

Projected Lineup 

Offense
Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Saad – Nazem Kadri – Andre Burakovsky
Valeri Nichushkin – J.T. Compher – Joonas Donskoi
Tyson Jost – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Logan O’Connor

Defense
Ryan Graves – Samuel Girard
Devon Toews – Jacob MacDonald
Dan Renouf – Conor Timmins

Goalie
Philipp Grubauer 11-6-0, GAA 2.07, SV% .920 (Confirmed)

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March 5th, 2021