Recap: Ducks Begin Six-Game Homestand with 4-1 Defeat to Florida

ANAHEIM -- It's a story told far too often during this Ducks season, and it prevailed yet again tonight.
Lots of chances, not enough goals.

The Ducks threw 36 shots at Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky over 60 minutes tonight at Honda Center, only to convert just once in a 4-1 defeat. It was a third straight home loss for the Ducks, who were hammered 6-0 by the Flames last time they were here, before splitting two games in Vancouver and Calgary over the long weekend.
Tonight was the start of a six-game homestand that continues Friday vs. Colorado.
A mostly uneventful opening 13 minutes was broken up by a Florida goal from Mike Hoffman, who beat goalie John Gibson on the stick side from the slot. It appeared to give Florida the lead, until Anaheim claimed Florida was offside prior to the goal and won the challenge to keep things scoreless.
Instead it was Anaheim that took the first lead on a snipe from the right wing by rookie Max Jones that grazed Bobrovsky's shoulder before tickling the twine.

"The puck was just there for me," Jones said. "Great screen, great flip-out by Rico [Adam Henrique]. Everything aligned there."
Florida tied it back up with just 2.2 seconds left on a beautiful feed on the rush by Jonathan Huberdeau to Aleksander Barkov for the tap-in.
"There's a huge difference of playing a team like that with a lot of offense and being up 1-0 after that first period," said Ducks coach Dallas Eakins. "To give up that lead going into the intermission was deflating, to say the least. With that being said, you have to pick yourself up and get going again. I thought we were able to do that. Like I said before, we can't make those mistakes."
The Ducks spent a good amount of time in the Florida zone in the early part of the second but couldn't cash in one several scoring opportunities. Instead, Florida took the first lead on a beautiful goal in which Vincent Trocheck waited patiently for the puck to float to him from the end boards and batted it in out of mid-air.
Anaheim had a flurry of chances not long after falling behind and couldn't seem to finish. Then another nice bounce off the end boards allowed Aleksi Saarela to bury the first of his NHL career to make it 3-1.
"It's all about momentum," Jones said. "They scored one and it got called back. That shifted momentum our way, and then we score. Two seconds left, they score. It's all about momentum shifts. Coming out in the second period, we needed a little bit more puck management. I found myself turning the puck over at times at the blue line. It's all about getting it deep, especially in the second period with the long change. That was something we really needed to focus on tonight."
The Ducks sent Gibson to the bench for an extra attacker with just over three minutes left, and Florida's MacKenzie Weegar made them pay with a one-timer not long afterward to make it 4-1.
"There were some things we did well, but we shot ourselves in the foot again on a couple of mistakes," said Eakins. "Bad change on the first goal, and then on the third one, we iced the puck, were hemmed up in our zone and it's in our net. If you're not going to be able to score, then we certainly have to keep them out. We can't afford those kinds of mistakes."