The Ducks will head north of the border for the first time this season, tonight facing off with the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.
PUCK DROP: 6 P.M. PT | TV: BALLY SPORTS SOCAL | DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER
The Ducks hope hitting the road is just what they need to scratch the current five-game losing skid, which persisted through a 5-2 loss to the rival Kings in Anaheim's annual Black Friday matinee.
"Everything is going to be okay, this is a process," head coach Greg Cronin said. "I said it before when we won those six games in a row, and I was excited too, that we knew there were some that we shouldn't have won.
The last five games - we got steam rolled in Colorado and Friday got out of hand early, which I didn't like because of the power-play goals they got. The other games are winnable. We're fighting and clawing to get points, and you have to take the long view of what's going on. I told them after the game, 'You learn from experience,' right? So you go through these games and we've got to just keep finding ways to improve and build on things. That's the only way you can dissect it."
The loss to LA continued Anaheim's slow starts of late, as the Ducks have now allowed the opening goal in six straight games. Anaheim is 5-2-0 this season when scoring first but just 4-9-0 after trailing 1-0.
"We didn't have our best start again and it cost us the game," defenseman Radko Gudas told NHL.com's Dan Arritt. "I think we battled our way back, we played hard through the whole game, but sometimes we do a little mistake that ends up costing us so far, so we need to clean those things up."
"The first one it's just, too many men on the ice, guy jumped on the ice, and it puts us down too, and they score," Cronin said. "Two of them were too many men on the ice, it's just bad decisions. It's on us as coaches, and what looked like a pretty clean, even period, turned sideways on the next two power plays for them."
A bright spot for Anaheim in the setback was the first goal as a Duck for winger Alex Killorn, who buried a power-play chance from the side of the net after a setup feed by Mason McTavish cutting across the low slot.
"I typically don't start the season like that, 10 or 9 games without a goal," Killorn said. "I've been getting my chances, so I've been trying to stick to the process. I had another good flow of chances [Friday], so when you do that consistently you're going to score. It's tough to do at the start of the year, when you're really gripping the stick tight with a new team. So, it felt good."
Killorn and the Ducks now fly north to the Alberta capital, squaring off with an Oilers team that's had quite the eventful first month of the season. After a difficult start to the campaign, which included just three wins in their first 13 games (3-9-1), the Oilers elected to make a coaching change - replacing Jay Woodcroft with the head coach of the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, Kris Knoblauch.
Knoblauch has guided the Oilers to a 2-3-0 record in his first five games, most recently downing the Washington Capitals 5-0 on Friday in the finale of a four-game eastern road trip.
“We've played a lot of really good 20-minute hockey games this year, but in this league, that's unfortunately not enough,” Leon Draisaitl said to NHL.com's Harvey Valentine. “I thought tonight all around was really good.”
The win was an especially good sign for the Oilers as its superstar duo of Draisaitl and Connor McDavid led the way offensively. Off to a slow start to the season by their lofty standards, the 1-2 punch totalled seven points in their visit to the District of Columbia.
“You need your top players performing if you're going to win on a regular basis,” Knoblauch said. “Obviously, you want your third and fourth lines chipping in, helping with the offense. They can do it periodically and help you win games, but in the long run, you need your top guys going, and they certainly played really well.”
