The Ducks will visit Canada's capital tonight for the second of a four-game eastern road trip, facing off with the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.
PUCK DROP: 4 P.M. PT | TV: BALLY SPORTS SOCAL | DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER
Anaheim heads to Ottawa looking to turn the page on a disappointing start to the trip, a 5-0 loss Tuesday night in Montreal. The Ducks mustered just a season-low 13 shots on net in the defeat, including just four in the third period.
“They were the faster team,” defenseman Cam Fowler said. “They put us on our heels all night. We took penalties, gave them odd-man rushes, all the things that you can’t do against a team that has some high-end skill and some quickness. Credit to them, they did a great job, but we made things a lot harder on ourselves than we needed to.”
Added head coach Greg Cronin, "We were bad from the beginning...They came out flying, they sustained it and we didn't respond to it."
The loss, Anaheim's second in a row out of the All-Star Break and immediately following a four-game point streak, dropped the Ducks to 18-32-2 on the season.
"With a young team, there are going to be ups and downs," Fowler said. "It's up to us guys who have been around for a while to steady the ship and help each other. You can deal with wins and losses but when you go out there and perform like that as a team, that's when you have to look in the mirror and figure out how to help the team out.
"They did a great job and played hard. We didn't. That's why you see a result like that."
The Ducks now get a chance to bounce back tonight against the Sens, another young team looking to take a step forward in its rebuild and one currently riding a four-game winning streak.
“That’s a team that is coming together,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent told NHL.com after his team lost 6-3 to Ottawa Tuesday night.
Captain Brady Tkachuk had a hat trick in that win, which pushed the Senators to 8-2-2 in their last 10 games.
“Right off the bat, I thought he had a real good game,” Ottawa bench boss Jacques Martin added to NHL.com's Callum Fraser. “Two of the goals on the power play, he’s really very effective in front of the net. He’s played really good lately."
Ottawa (22-25-2, 46 points) sits eighth in the Atlantic Division, 14 points out of a Wild Card spot.
