The Ducks (11-5-1) close out their three-game road trip with a visit to Minnesota to take on the Wild (7-7-4). Puck drop is set for 3:00 p.m. PT and will air exclusively on Victory+.
Anaheim lost its second in a row, falling to the Red Wings, 6-3, on Thursday. Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville called it a “pretty intense game” but added the team “competed hard, but situationally, we need to be smarter.
“We kept digging ourselves out of a hole, but then we would dig ourselves a deep hole,”Quenneville said. “We had some self-inflicted mistakes on their goals; we have to clean that up.”
Two bright spots in the loss were the returns of Ryan Strome and Mikael Granlund. Granlund had one of the Ducks’ three goals with the assist courtesy of Strome.
“I thought Strome had a really good game, he did a lot of good things,” Quenneville reflected. “[Granlund] had some nice shifts and a couple nice plays with the puck.”
Minnesota hasn’t taken to the ice since Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Sharks. Matt Boldy had the team’s lone goal in the win and is second on the team with 18 points. Kirill Kaprizovpaces the club with 22 points (10G, 12A).
Marco Rossi was placed on injured reserve on Friday with a lower body injury.
Despite the Ducks dropping two straight, Wild head coach John Hynes is still wary of Anaheim and most notably, the team’s speed.
“They’re a fast-skating team,” Hynes said. “They have a lot of young, quick players [and] a lot of high-end offense. Just naturally talented. We really need to make sure that we’re ready to play a skating game. I think our ability to play with the puck and beat some pressure is going to be key.”
Today’s game is a homecoming for Minnesota natives Jackson Lacombe and Drew Helleson. Lacombe described coming back as “special” but noted the Wild are a “hard team to play against.”
“They’re big and they’re fast, too,” Lacombe said. “I think we’ve just got to be ready to go from the start and it’s going to be a good challenge.”
As for Helleson, who grew up attending Wild games and will have family in attendance today, he said the focus of the Ducks will be “getting back to how we were playing before.”
“Stay out of the box, don’t take dumb penalties,” Helleson reflected. “Let us play four lines all 60 [minutes] and once we get back to that, we’ll be good.”
