A busy opening weekend continues for the Ducks tonight back on home ice, as Anaheim welcomes the Carolina Hurricanes to Honda Center for the club's 30th Anniversary season home opener.
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The Ducks will celebrate the annual home opener by walking the Plum Carpet, starting at 1:30 p.m. For a full list of home opener festivities, click here.
Anaheim gets back to work tonight after a valiant effort in a season-opening loss last night in Vegas. Mason McTavish cut into a third-period deficit with his first goal of the season, but the Ducks could not get another to pull within one, ultimately falling 4-1.
"We played hard. I'm not disappointed with the effort," Greg Cronin said after his NHL head coaching debut. "The execution was sloppy, though. That was a game of inches with puck battles and [Vegas] won those battles...I'm proud of the way the guys played. They played hard. Now, we've got to package that up and go into Sunday."
Cronin was particularly impressed with the play of rookie defenseman Pavel Mintyukov, also in his NHL debut. Mintyukov, paired with fellow Russian blueliner Ilya Lyubushkin, tallied one shot, one hit and three blocked shots in over 18 minutes of ice-time.
"He was terrific," Cronin said. "He stood out. He was physical and jumping up the ice. He's fearless. He's got a bright future."
The Ducks now return to home ice to face another Stanley Cup contender in the Hurricanes, who last year finished second among all NHL clubs with 113 points.
"Carolina is a different animal," Cronin said. "They come at you with 1-on-1 battles and they skate. They try to grind you down. We have to match their pace. It'll be a good challenge for us."
Like the Ducks, the Hurricanes will be playing the second half of their first back-to-back of the season after a 6-5 shootout win over the Kings last night in Los Angeles. The Kings erased a 5-2 second period deficit in the game, but the 'Canes earned the second standings point in a nine-round shootout.
"I don't know if we've played a worse game, ever," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour bluntly told team reporter Walt Ruff. "I give [the Kings] credit, they outplayed us from start to finish. We just scored on every chance we had...It was a disgusting game, really. So we're going to trash it and move on. Thankfully, we get to play again [Sunday]."
