Here is the Oct. 28 edition of Dan Rosen's weekly mailbag, which will run every Wednesday in the Over the Boards blog during the 2015-16 NHL season. If you have a question, tweet it to @drosennhl and use #OvertheBoards.

Let's get to it:

How do you see Bruce Boudreau turning the season around for the Ducks? -- @Johnaubert97

I'm not sure that I do, which is unfortunate because Boudreau is a quality NHL coach who deserves better than he's getting right now from his team.

Part of the Ducks' issues are on Boudreau, of course. They appear disjointed, with gaps that are too wide between the forwards and defense. They don't appear to have much of a plan of attack for when they have the puck in the offensive zone. Their top players are not performing up to their capabilities. They've looked slow to me. That falls on coaching, even though the coach isn't the one playing. Heavy lies the crown, so to speak.

NEW YORK -- The Calgary Flames had no problems finding positives after their 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Finding answers that lead to positive results has been a far more difficult challenge for the Flames this season.

Calgary is 2-6-0 going into Barclays Center to play the New York Islanders on Monday. It has allowed at least four goals in five of the losses. The Flames have already waived and demoted one goalie (Karri Ramo), and Jonas Hiller got pulled Sunday after allowing four goals on 21 shots.

Worse yet, the Flames have not held a lead at the second intermission this season largely because they've been outscored 13-2 in the second period. They have trailed after two periods in seven of their eight games.

Playing catchup after poor second periods with suspect goaltending isn't exactly the recipe for a struggling team to find answers.

NEW YORK -- The New York Rangers will try to extend their point streak to four games with goalie Antti Raanta in net against the Calgary Flames at Madison Square Garden on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN-US, TVA Sports 1, SN, SN1, MSG).

Raanta is expected to get his second start of the season. He had a 22-save shutout in a 4-0 win against the San Jose Sharks on Monday.

The Rangers (5-2-2) are coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. Henrik Lundqvist made 46 saves. The Rangers defeated the Sharks and Arizona Coyotes earlier in the week by a combined score of 8-1.

The Rangers will be without left wing Viktor Stalberg, who sustained a head injury Saturday on a hit by Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas in the final minute of the second period.

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said Stalberg is day-to-day.

NEW YORK -- New York Rangers defenseman Keith Yandle and Arizona Coyotes rookie forward Anthony Duclair have been looking forward to the Coyotes game against the Rangers on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-A, MSG) at Madison Square Garden since the NHL released the 2015-16 schedule in June.

It's the first time they'll get to face their former teams since they were the big pieces crossing the country as part of a trade between the Coyotes and Rangers on March 1.

"It's obviously going to be a little different," Yandle said. "It's one of those games that when you see it on the schedule I was happy it was in the beginning of the year, get it over with and get going on from there. But I think it will be a lot of fun."

NEW YORK -- One of San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer's messages to his players at the start of training camp was that their slates were wiped clean and they had an opportunity to impress him without any prejudices.

One could make a case that nobody on the roster took that message to heart more than center Tomas Hertl, who is getting to play the position he prefers and is feeling as though his career in San Jose has begun anew.

"Last season, it was a little bit tough for me, I messed up," said Hertl, who has two goals and an assist through six games. "Now, it's a new season, a new start, I start at center. I think I'm better at center and I like it more too. I feel great now."

Here is the Oct. 21 edition of Dan Rosen's weekly mailbag, which will run every Wednesday in the Over the Boards blog during the 2015-16 NHL season. If you have a question, tweet it to @drosennhl and use #OvertheBoards.

Let's get to it:

What is the most noticeable change about the Montreal Canadiens thus far? -- @Zack_THW

How they're doing a better job stopping the opposition from generating shot quantity and shot quality. Of course, I say that knowing they allowed 38 shots on goal to the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday and still won 3-0. That's Carey Price. He's that good. He needs to be because the Canadiens are far from perfect, even though their 7-0-0 record suggests they are.

However, entering their game Tuesday, the Canadiens were allowing 26.5 shots on goal per game, which was seventh in the NHL. They allowed 30.1 shots on goal per game last season, which was 21st. They were allowing 38 total shot attempts at even strength (5-on-5 SAT) per game after giving up 45.9 SAT per game last season.

NEWARK, N.J. -- Winning the Stanley Cup last season with the Chicago Blackhawks gave Arizona Coyotes center Antoine Vermette the peace of mind to do something on July 1 that would make everyone around him happy.

Vermette put his family first when considering the next move in his NHL career.

Instead of uprooting his wife and two young daughters from their Scottsdale, Ariz., home to a new locale, Vermette decided his best course of action was to re-sign with Arizona on a two-year, $7.5 million contract.

The Coyotes traded Vermette to the Blackhawks on Feb. 28. He scored three game-winning goals and had seven points in 20 games in Chicago's run to the Stanley Cup.

NEW YORK -- New York Rangers forward Emerson Etem has a plan for the next time he gets into a game.

"You're trying to crack the lineup and you definitely have to make smart decisions, but at the same time maybe you have to step out of your comfort zone, step out of the boundaries, try something new to get that kind of attention," Etem said. "It's not to put pressure on myself or anything like that, but the time is going to come and I have to build off of my last performance. That's all I can control.

Etem's only performance this season came in a 3-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens last Thursday. He played 7:09 and was a minus-1; a result of his failure to cleanly win a 50-50 puck battle along the wall against Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban.

Etem has been a healthy scratch in New York's six other games. He said his problems winning 50-50 puck battles is a big reason why that's the case. He said it was a struggle for him in his four preseason games as well.

NEW YORK -- Goalie Antti Raanta is expected to make his debut for the New York Rangers on Monday against the San Jose Sharks at Madison Square Garden (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN1, TVA Sports). Raanta has been the backup to Henrik Lundqvist for the first six games of the season.

The Rangers acquired Raanta in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on June 27.

The Rangers have lost three straight games (0-2-1), including a 2-1 overtime defeat against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday. Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said starting Raanta was planned for this game and he didn't consider changing things just because of the losing streak.

Lundqvist is expected to start Thursday when the Rangers play at home against the Arizona Coyotes.

"I told the goaltenders at the beginning of [last week]," Vigneault said. "I told Antti to get ready for San Jose."

NEW YORK -- New Jersey Devils center Travis Zajac will be in the lineup Sunday against the New York Rangers (1 p.m. ET; SN, MSG+, MSG) after missing the previous game with a lower-body injury. Zajac will replace Tuomo Ruutu, who has an unspecified injury.

"He's ready to go," Devils coach John Hynes said of Zajac.

In addition, the Devils have two other lineup changes from their 2-1 shootout loss to the San Jose Sharks on Friday.

Defenseman Eric Gelinas will replace Jon Merrill, who Hynes said is not available because of a sickness. Forward Stefan Matteau will replacing Brian O'Neill.