VIDEO: Ducks Get Blanked By The Leafs

Photo: USA Today

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks continued their road trip in Toronto. They were scheduled to go with a 12-6 lineup, but Max Jones couldn’t go after warm-ups. As a result Nathan Beaulieu drew into the lineup and the Ducks went with the 11-7 lineup. John Gibson got the start against Ilya Samsonov.

Recap

Adam Henrique took a puck to the face 11 seconds into the game and had to go to the locker room.

Toronto scored just under two minutes into the game. Alexander Kerfoot beat Gibson down low to give the Leafs an early 1-0 lead.

The Ducks got a power play as Rasmus Sandin was called for interference. Anaheim created some chances, but couldn’t score.

John Tavares would then make it a 2-0 game. He would tap in a shot for an easy score.

The Leafs would get a power play in the final seconds of the opening period that would carry over to the second period. Toronto was up 2-0 at the end of the opening frame.

Henrique returned to the game and the Ducks were able to kill off the penalty in the beginning of the second period. Anaheim would also kill off another penalty halfway through the period, but Gibson would come out of the game with just over nine minutes left in the second period.

Lukas Dostal was in net, but it didn’t matter. T.J. Brodie would score with a shot that went off Simon Benoit‘s skate. About four minutes later, Michael Bunting would score to make it 4-0.

Early in the third period, Alexander Kerfoot would score stick side over Dostal’s shoulder to make it 5-0. Pierre Engvall would score about three minutes later to increase the lead to 6-0. Joey Andersson would add one more goal with less than two minutes to go to make it a 7-0 final.

Analysis

The Ducks have had some bad games this season, but this one probably takes the cake. Anaheim was shorthanded to start the game when Jones was unable to play after warmups and then they lost Henrique for the opening period. Things went downhill as they got down 2-0 in the opening period. In the second period when Gibson went out and Dostal came in there might have been some hope for the Ducks, but the Leafs scored two quick goals and they were suddenly down 4-0. Toronto never looked back after that.

The puck possession numbers were not good for Anaheim as Toronto posted a 60% CF and 56.1% at 5-on-5. The Ducks had 28 shots on goal to 42 for the Leafs. Toronto also won the face-off circle battle winning 58% of the draws. No goals were scored during special teams play, which weren’t a factor in this game.

Team Stats/Notes:

This was John Gibson‘s 400 game played in the NHL.

The Ducks haven’t scored a goal in just over 150 minutes play.

What’s Next?

The Ducks head to Montreal on Thursday to take on the Canadiens at 4 PM.

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December 13th, 2022