The Ducks will kick off a three-game homestand tonight with an old friend on the other side, hosting defenseman Cam Fowler and the St. Louis Blues at Honda Center.
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Anaheim welcomes back one of the most accomplished players in Ducks history tonight, as Fowler visits Orange County as a member of the visiting team for the first time in his 15-year NHL career.
Originally selected by the Ducks in the first round of the 2010 NHL Draft, Fowler would go on to become the club’s all-time leader in games played, points, goals and assists by a defenseman. He also appeared in 62 playoff games as a Duck, helping the club to the 2015 and 2017 Western Conference Finals.
"It's going to be fun, emotional and I'll have some nerves about the whole thing, but overall it'll be a fun experience for me to get back to a place where I spent many years," Fowler said. "I played against [the Ducks] once (in January at Enterprise Center in St. Louis), but going back to Anaheim, I think there will be a lot of emotions with everything. I'm going to try to take it all in and handle it the best I can."
Fowler faces his old mates in the midst of a tight playoff battle for both sides, with the Ducks and Blues both within striking distance of a Western Conference Wild Card position. Anaheim returns to home ice tonight after splitting a divisional back-to-back, rolling to a 6-2 win in Edmonton before falling 3-2 in Vancouver the following night.
"We didn't have a lot of energy [in Vancouver]," Cronin said postgame. "I thought [the Canucks] came out and set the tone early. They had like 12 shots the first 10 minutes. Clearly they were charged up, they were waiting for us, and they dictated the pace of the game immediately. We couldn't collect passes. We had the puck inside the blue line, lost the puck inside the blue line multiple times. We just were sloppy. It was just a sloppy game for us.”
