The Ducks get right back to work on Sunday night, continuing a weekend back-to-back with a matchup against the Nashville Predators at Honda Center.
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Anaheim is back in action after a shootout loss last night to the rival Kings in downtown Los Angeles. The Ducks grabbed a pair of one-goal leads with a couple of special teams goals, but could not find the late difference maker or the shootout winner in the season's second Freeway Face-Off.
“Even though it has been a while since we've played them this year, that rivalry is always there,” Sam Carrick said. “We would have liked to beat them tonight here in their own building. I thought it was a pretty good effort overall by our guys, and we'll build on it.”
Added head coach Greg Cronin, "The first two periods had strong play from both teams. We had zone time and they had zone time. In the third, I thought they picked it up and had more energy than we did."
Between the pipes, it was another big night for John Gibson, who turned aside 48-of-50 LA shots.
"He's always that good, he's so big for our team," Carrick said. "He's a professional. He comes in every day and you know what you're going to get, 100 percent effort. He gives us a lot of confidence in games...He's always making saves he shouldn't make."
Despite collecting the standings point, the Ducks fell to 20-34-3 on the season and 2-4-1 since returning from the NHL All-Star Break.
"We're a fairly young team and we're finding our way a little bit," Carrick said. "At a certain point though, you have to take responsibilities for your actions and bring [your best] every day. We're professionals. This is our job. It's a long season but we're not the only team who goes through adversity.
"Any adversity is going to be good for us. We need to keep rolling and keep going in the right direction."
That next chance for a step in the right direction comes against the Preds, who visit Orange County looking to avoid a season sweep after Anaheim claimed 3-2 and 5-2 victories in Nashville already this season.
“I thought we were just playing simple,” defenseman Jackson LaCombe said of the 5-2 win back in January. “I thought we were playing our game really well. I think we were moving pucks up quick and just moving forward with the puck. It was really good by us.”
That home-ice loss for Nashville came in the middle of a difficult January that saw the club going 6-7-1. Since then though, the Preds have bounced back and have now taken the first four legs of a five-game road trip to climb into a Western Conference playoff position.
"The most important thing is getting the win right now," Preds winger and former Duck Kiefer Sherwood told NHL.com's Chelena Goldman of last night's win in San Jose. "There are ups and downs, but we stuck to our script. It’s not always going to be the best start with all these games coming in, but we finished strong and that's what matters."
Nashville (31-25-2, 64 points) sits fourth in the Central Division, currently holding the west's second Wild Card berth.
