The Ducks (4-1-0) return home to Honda Center for a quick two-game stint as they take on the Flames (0-5-0) for the second time in four days.
Puck drop is set for 6:45 p.m. PT and will be broadcast Prime Video and FOXLA+.
Anaheim earned its third win in a row on Saturday with a 4-2 victory over Calgary, sweeping the team’s two-game Canadian road trip. The win also gave the Ducks their third-consecutive road victory to open the season marking the first time in franchise history that’s happened.
“The puck was bouncing all over the place for everybody,” head coach Joel Quenneville said. “Everybody was fighting for space. It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take the two points because we worked hard.”
Unfortunately, in the win, the team lost Cutter Gauthier and Ryan Poehling to injuries. Per Quenneville, Gauthier is day-to-day with an upper-body injury but will miss tonight’s contest.
Additionally, the team placed Poehling on Injured Reserve this morning as he’s expected to miss six to eight weeks with a lower-body injury. In a corresponding move, Anaheim recalled Roger McQueen from San Diego, and he is expected to make his NHL debut tonight. McQueen, the team’s 2025 first-round pick, led the Gulls in goals scored thus far this season a.
“It’s a big day, so very excited,” McQueen said. “I kind of waited for this moment for a while … [I’m] probably not trying to be too nervous or excited, which is obviously going to come, but just enjoy it and try to play my game and help the team out. You only get this once so it’s one of those things you want to enjoy.”
“I thought he got better in camp as it went along there,” Quenneville said of McQueen. “I thought he had a good start down in San Diego so I thought he was one of those guys that'd be pushing for a job at the start of camp. It didn't take him long to get here so it's an opportunity for him to play, give us a right-handed centerman, size in the middle, Roger's got some upside, to what could be a really nice career. So we're looking forward to him being used in different ways.”
The Ducks defense will get a boost tonight as Drew Helleson will be making his season debut after suffering a lower-body injury in the team’s first preseason game.
As for the Flames, they are still in search of their first win and point of the season after the defeat to the Ducks over the weekend.
"I think every game since then, we've taken steps in the right direction," head coach Ryan Huska said. "A lot of the areas that we asked the players to focus on, our last game here at home against Anaheim, we did some really good things. So it's about building on those things … It's getting them to understand that every shift matters in regards to how we want to play, and we want to keep building in the direction that we are going in and have another good effort in Anaheim."
Per Quenneville, Lukas Dostal will start tonight in net for Anaheim.
