The Ducks will reach the end of their 2023 slate tonight, hosting the division rival Edmonton Oilers at Honda Center for the fifth of an eight-game holiday homestand.
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Anaheim looks to end the calendar year on a high note and bounce back from a disappointing 2-0 loss Friday night to Arizona. The Ducks directed 28 shots on net that night, including a slew of scoring chances in the third period, but could get nothing over the line in their fourth shutout defeat of the season.
“They just outworked us,” head coach Greg Cronin said. “Every zone, they outworked us. They won puck battles. You can package that game any way you want. At the end of the day, they outworked us.”
“Collectively, it wasn’t a sharp game for us,” Cam Fowler added. “I don’t think we put enough pressure on them defensively and made things hard for them. You could say it was one-on-one play but I think it was just five guys on the ice at one time not being totally synced up. Those guys worked hard and I just felt like we were a little bit behind all game.”
A bright spot for Anaheim in the setback was yet another strong performance in net for John Gibson, who stopped 30-of-32 shots for the second consecutive game. Gibson’s .909 save percentage (SV%) and 2.77 goals against average (GAA) are his best marks over the last five seasons.
“He played great,” Fowler said. “Just like he always does. Night in and night out he competes. He gives us opportunities to win games and stay in games. It sucks, not putting any on the board for him. As players, we feel that. We win as a team and we lose as a team. Gibby did his part Friday and, as players, we didn’t do ours. We’ll just have to keep working, figure out some ways to score more goals and give our goalies some more support.”
The loss dropped Anaheim to 13-22-0 on the season and 6-13-0 at home.
“The other [recent] games we’ve played well and Friday we did not,” Cronin said. “They won, I would say, 70 percent of the one-on-one puck battles. We couldn’t make a pass. To me, it looked like they came out to win a hockey game and we came out to play hockey.”
The Ducks now turns their attention to one of the NHL’s most high-powered offenses in the Oilers, hoping to keep Edmonton from a five-game winning streak. The Oilers pushed that streak to four last night in Los Angeles with a shootout win over the Kings, jumping the rival Flames for fifth place in the Pacific Division.
With the win, Edmonton improved to 14-6-0 under new head coach Kris Knoblauch, who replaced Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 13.
“Obviously, it was a tough start, no question about that, but we felt like our game was getting there,” Edmonton captain Connor McDavid told NHL.com’s Dan Greenspan last night. “We felt like it was right at the cusp there when we made the coaching change, and obviously we’ve been able to play some good hockey and string some games together.”
Edmonton (17-15-1, 35 points) sits five points back of the Western Conference’s second Wild Card spot.