The Ducks will take the ice somewhere other than Honda Center for the first time since Dec. 20 in Los Angeles, now two days removed from completing the longest homestand in franchise history at 3-6-1 with a 6-2 setback vs. New Jersey.
"I think it's really easy to hang your head and feel sorry for yourself, but this is not a league where anyone cares, really," Ryan Strome said. "You have to come prepared to play 82 games and try to show some fight. Right now it just feels like everything we are doing is just going against us, so it's even more important now to show that fight."
Anaheim will look for a better start tonight than it got in the final few games of the homestand, when the Ducks allowed a combined nine goals in the first period against Boston, Edmonton and New Jersey.
"It's hard for anybody in this league to play from behind," head coach Dallas Eakins said. "That first goal, if you look at the odds of winning the game, as soon as you score the first goal it moves drastically in your favor."
"Right now, it's hard to look too far ahead, just [Friday] and the last few games have been really difficult," Strome acknowledged. "I can't sit here and lie to you that it's been easy. To come to the rink every day and try to dust yourself off is difficult after performances that we've had, and it's everyone. It's looking in the mirror at yourself, a total look in the mirror. These are tough times, but I think that tough times make tough people. Obviously, now is not the time for cliches and feel-good things, but I think these are moments you can build from and hopefully we are doing that."
The Ducks will battle a Pittsburgh squad currently in a tight playoff race. The Penguins (21-15-6, 48 points) sit seven points back of the third-place Rangers for the Metropolitan Division's final automatic playoff berth, but just one point shy of the Islanders for the Eastern Conference's second Wild Card position.
"We're going to have to go into Pittsburgh and play a good Pittsburgh team," Strome said. "We have to be ready to go. This is how you learn. You have to go through hard times to see what you are made of and to see what everyone is worth."
Part of that tough test in Pittsburgh will include a matchup against former Duck winger Rickard Rakell, who signed a six-year contract with the Penguins in the offseason after a deadline trade from Anaheim last March.
Rakell, selected with the final pick of the 2012 draft's first round, became one of the most decorated forwards in Ducks history, currently fifth among club all-time leaders in goals (154), seventh in points (339) and eighth in assists (185). The Swedish winger also helped author one of the greatest moments in Ducks history,
