The Ducks will open their 2024 slate tonight on home ice, hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs at Honda Center for the sixth of an eight-game homestand.
PUCK DROP: 6 P.M. | TV: BALLY SPORTS WEST | DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER | GET TICKETS
Tonight's game includes an earlier start time with puck drop set for 6 p.m.
Anaheim hopes the new year brings some new good fortune with it, as the Ducks enter play tonight with losses in four of their last five games. The latest of those setbacks came Sunday night, a 7-2 loss to the division rival Edmonton Oilers.
"I thought we were playing a pretty good game at the start," defenseman Radko Gudas said. "Unfortunate a couple bounces did not go our way but that should not be an excuse for us to play like that for the remainder of the game."
"We came out in the second period flat-footed and they came out flying," head coach Greg Cronin said. "We had a lack of execution...We didn't stop progress. We didn't get out into shooting lanes. We didn't stop their movement at the blue line. You can't play a team like that flat-footed."
The loss dropped Anaheim to 13-23-0 on the season, seventh in the Pacific Division.
"We are at different point of a rebuild, but I think we also have a pretty good group," Gudas said. "Enough to be able to play with [Edmonton] throughout the full 60 minutes. I don't think the score showed the chances but ultimately we have to find a way to keep the puck out of our net...Especially with John Gibson battling back there and we are just continuously sabotaging his play. It's just frustrating right now, but I think a lot of these things are very correctable. We just have to put two and two together."
On the other side, Toronto comes to town fresh off a therapeutic 3-0 win last night in LA. The victory snapped a three-game losing skid for the Leafs, who had also five of their last six, and moved them within five points of Florida for second in the Atlantic Division - with two games in hand.
“I felt right from the drop of the puck in the first period, our guys really showed that they were on a bit of a mission here tonight,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe told NHL.com's Dan Greenspan postgame. “That’s what we’re capable of. A terrific effort.”
On the blue line for Toronto, former Duck Simon Benoit will face his original NHL team for the first time. Once an unsigned development camp invite, Benoit played 137 games in Anaheim across three seasons. He's gone scoreless with a +1 rating in 21 games with Toronto this year.
