Nestled cozily within half-dozen road games lies the Ducks’ confrontation with the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday at Honda Center, where the hosts will need to find a spark offensively.
They became the 13th of the NHL’s 32 franchises to be shut out multiple times this season with a 1-0 loss in Chicago on Thursday. Only Colorado, Washington, Vegas and San Jose have been blanked more often than the Ducks, with just San Jose and Seattle producing more single-goal showings.
“We’ve got to score more goals. We’re 1-10 in the last 11, and I think eight of them have been one-goal games,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin told Bally Sports. “We don’t give the goalies run support, and when you’re not not scoring goals, you’ve got to do blue-collar things.”
Indeed in eight of those 10 losses, the Ducks have produced a solitary goal, and they have gone 0-13-0 in games in which they’ve scored two or fewer goals. They have scored three or more goals across the other half of their schedule, over which they posted a 10-3-0 mark. Their potpourri of victories included wins over defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas, reigning Presidents’ Trophy winner Boston and Carolina, the class of the Metropolitan Division.
“We’ve played with [top teams] and beaten a lot of them. The frustrating part is that we’ve seen what we can be as a team,” Ducks winger Troy Terry told reporters. “It’s not that we’re not playing to that standard, it’s just a few mental mistakes and not putting the puck in the net.”
Terry led the Ducks in pucks put into the net last season, and while he flashed that scoring touch with a hat trick that was part of a four-point outing on Nov. 1, he has produced just two goals and eight assists in his other 25 appearances this season. An awakening would be timely for Terry given that the Ducks were missing Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish, Jamie Drysdale, Isac Lundeström and Max Jones against Chicago.
Per Derek Lee of the Sporting Tribune, Zegras, Drysdale and Jones all practiced with the group Saturday. Drysdale has played just 10 of a possible 108 games over the past two seasons due to two separate injuries and Zegras has been limited to 12 of 26 contests this year after leading the Ducks in points last season.
“(Being injured) is just as hard mentally as it is physically. It sucks when your teammates go out there and you’re not playing,” Drysdale told Lee. “It’s just more having a sense of purpose. When you’re not playing, there’s a pretty big lack of that.”
While some of their top players may be on the mend, the Ducks will be without Tristan Luneau as he joined Team Canada for the upcoming World Junior Championships, which will take place in Sweden. Luneau will be one of four players in the Ducks’ system to potentially represent his country (fellow Canadian Noah Warren, U.S.-born but Swiss-raised Rodwin Dionicio and American Carey Terrance are the others) and the only one that had been up with the parent club.
The Jets recently got one of their own core players back from injury, former Kings forward Gabe Vilardi, who notched a point in his return but none in two games since. Connor Hellebuyck has remained a pillar of strength between the pipes, ranking third in the NHL in wins entering Saturday’s slate of games, while Kyle Connor has led Winnipeg in scoring.
Winnipeg at Ducks
When: 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Honda Center
How to watch: Bally Sports SoCal
