Preview: Ducks Visit Vancouver, Complete Pacific Northwest Back-to-Back

The Ducks have made the short flight over the U.S. - Canada border from Seattle to Vancouver, tonight set to finish a Pacific Northwest back-to-back in a battle with the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.
PUCK DROP: 7 P.M. | TV: TNT | DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER

Anaheim gets right back to work after opening the three-game trip with a 5-2 loss last night in Seattle. The Ducks fell behind early, trailing 2-0 after the initial period and got back within one on Trevor Zegras' highlight-reel tally in the second, but could not complete the comeback against the surging Kraken.
"The game comes down to what we call 'A' chances," head coach Dallas Eakins said postgame. "I thought we had more 'A' chances than them, we just didn't bury them. Their goaltender played very, very well. I think the thing that really hurt us tonight was our power play. We didn't get many good looks there, especially when we really needed it."
The Ducks went 0-3 on the power play just three days after converting twice in a 3-2 win over Montreal.
"Looking back on it, I don't think it was a bad effort by our group," Cam Fowler said. "I thought we were right in it. Just those lapses that we did have, it seemed like it was in the back of the net. And we didn't do a good enough job on our power play, and that's kind of why you end up with a result like that."
Zegras' goal put Anaheim on the board in the first minute of the second period, just the latest absurdly talented play by one of the NHL's most gifted puck-handlers.

"I saw that our defense had some room with the puck and [Ryan Strome] was kind of stretched out so I tried to get up the ice to support him," Zegras told ESPN's Linda Cohn during an intermission interview. "He made a great pass over the guy's stick and uh, I don't know (laughs). I tried to make a play and it worked out. I'm happy it went in."
Anaheim's leading scorer has points in three straight games (2-2=4) and 2-4=6 points in his last five appearances. He paces the Ducks in points (54), goals (21) and assists (33) this season.
The Ducks will visit Vancouver for the second time this season, kicking off a stretch of three games in just over a month against the Canucks. Vancouver won the lone meeting between the teams thus far, way back in November on home ice, in a game Anaheim conceded a season-high eight goals. The Ducks trailed by just one heading to the third that night, but a dominant final 20 minutes by the Canucks put the eventual final score far out of reach.
Since then, the Canucks have made changes behind the bench and to their roster, replacing longtime NHL veteran and former Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau with Rick Tocchet and trading away captain Bo Horvat.
Tocchet, the former Arizona head coach who had been working as a studio analyst for TNT after parting ways with the Coyotes in 2021, owns a 8-7-2 record since taking over in Vancouver.
Horvat scored twice in Vancouver's win over Anaheim earlier this season, part of his career-best 36-goal season. A pending unrestricted free agent, he was dealt to the Islanders for a first-round pick, winger Anthony Beauvillier and prospect Aatu Raty on Jan. 30.
The Canucks have earned consecutive wins over the Maple Leafs and Predators, tonight reaching the halfway point of a six-game homestand.
Vancouver sits sixth in the Pacific Division, 18 points out of the Western Conference's second Wild Card spot.