The Ducks will look for a bounce back win tonight in a hostile rink, taking on the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.
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Anaheim looks to turn the page on a disappointing performance in a 6-2 loss to St. Louis in Thursday's road trip opener. The Ducks fell behind early, allowing three goals in the first seven minutes of the opening period and digging much too deep a hole to spark another late comeback effort.
"We had no jump," head coach Greg Cronin said. "We had no response. St. Louis played it like a playoff game and we didn't...We have to learn and grow from it. We have to get better. [Thursday] was a beat down. We have to respond to it in Philadelphia."
“I think we didn’t come out ready to play," added forward Sam Colangelo, who scored his first goal of the season after being recalled Wednesday. "When you get down by a couple goals that early, it’s really hard to win a hockey game."
The loss dropped Anaheim to 17-19-5 on the season, seven points back of a Western Conference Wild Card position.
The Ducks remain without forwards Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras on the road trip. Zegras continues to rehab from a torn meniscus, and is skating with Ducks trainers back in Orange County. Terry and his wife, Dani, welcomed the couple's second child earlier this week.
Anaheim now heads to the City of Brotherly Love, but arrives not expecting the warmest reception with rookie winger Cutter Gauthier in the visiting black and orange. Gauthier, a first-round pick by the Flyers traded to the Ducks just over a year ago, will play his first career game in Philadelphia and said Friday he's ready for what that will entail.
"I'm anticipating probably a lot of boos for sure," Gauthier said. "They're probably not the happiest fans with me. I'm excited for tomorrow, and just building our team game. We didn't have our best game last game, so it's an opportunity for us to build and try to get a win."
Gauthier has shifted to the wing in his rookie NHL season after playing the bulk of his collegiate career at center, and owns 18 points in 41 games.
"I feel like every month I've been growing my game," Gauthier said. "At the start, it was a little bit of a struggle with the adjustment to the NHL level. It's the best players in the whole world and not an easy league to play in. It was a big adjustment for me coming from college. Each game now, I'm just trying to grow and become a full 200-foot player."
Gauthier's former friends claimed a 3-1 victory over the Ducks in the season's first meeting, two weeks ago at Honda Center, taking a third-period lead on a centering attempt by winger Morgan Frost that bounced in off Anaheim goaltender Lukas Dostal.
"We wanted to get back to a more defensive game, just try to limit their chances," Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim said that night. "I thought we played pretty well defensively and you get rewarded offensively off those good plays, so I thought it was a good effort."
Philly has struggled to 1-4-1 mark since that visit to Orange County though, slipping to the periphery of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
"We don't play many bad games, even though our record is what it is," Flyers coach John Tortorella told NHL.com's Adam Kimelman after Thursday's loss to Dallas. "We have not played many bad games. We played bad tonight."
Added Frost, "I thought for the last stretch of games, even thought we haven't been winning or getting points, I felt we've been playing pretty good. Good enough to get a point out of a game or win the game. [Thursday] wasn't the same. Just lacked energy throughout the game and couldn't string plays together. We've just got to refresh the mind and come back next game and hopefully we can go on a streak here."
Philadelphia (17-20-5, 39 points) sits eighth in the Metropolitan Division, but just five points back of a Wild Card position.
