Ducks Get Back to Work Before Heading to Winnipeg

After coming out of Scotiabank Saddledome with a 4-0 victory last night, the Ducks got back to work this afternoon in Calgary before their flight to Winnipeg.

Not on the ice today were several players, including Andrew Cogliano and Ryan Kesler, both taking maintenance days. Cogliano opened the scoring last night with a tremendous individual effort on the penalty kill, which served as a huge momentum boost for the club, John Gibson said in his postgame interview. "We knew they were going to come out hard," he said. "When he got that, it gave us the momentum and kind of took them down a little bit. That was a big moment in the game for us."

Maintenance days have been a regular occurrence for Kesler, who continues to recover from offseason hip surgery. The veteran center finished the game last night with 18:58 TOI and won nine of 16 faceoffs (56%).
Josh Manson did not practice today as he continues to recover from an upper-body injury suffered in Sunday's game against the New Jersey Devils. Manson was the lone Duck to appear in every game this season until last night. Filling his spot alongside Hampus Lindholm last night was rookie Marcus Pettersson.
After practice today, Rickard Rakell said the closeness of the playoff race (
which you can see here
) has kept the team in a playoff-type mindset entering each game. "We need every point we can get," he said. "Even though we put together a streak here, not much has changed. It's still a matter of one point here and one point there and we could be out of it. We have to fight all the way in."
The Ducks will face a Jets team tomorrow without 19-year-old Patrik Laine, who blocked a shot with his foot on Tuesday against the LA Kings. With 43 goals on the season, Laine sits just one goal behind Washington's Alex Ovechkin for the league lead. Jets head coach Paul Maurice said earlier today the recovery timeline could be
anywhere from four to 14 days
.
Defenseman Jacob Trouba is listed as day to day after suffering a concussion in Sunday's game against the Dallas Stars. Trouba was playing in just his second game back from a lower-body injury that kept him out of the lineup for 20 games. Fellow blueliner Dmitry Kulikov is also out of the lineup with a back injury and elected to not have surgery, according to the team's official website.