Getzlaf, Ducks hope trades help end 12-game losing streak

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Ryan Getzlaf said he hopes the four trades made by the Anaheim Ducks this week will help turn their season around.

The Ducks, on a 12-game losing streak (0-8-4), the longest in their history, visit the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N, PRIME, NHL.TV.). Anaheim has not won since a 4-2 victory at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 17.
"We knew something was going to give at some point here, so we're excited to have some fresh guys in the lineup that haven't been grinding through all this," Getzlaf, the Ducks captain, said after the morning skate Thursday. "Hopefully that can help spark our group and turn this around.
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"When you bring that many different bodies that haven't been here through this whole grind, they don't know how much of the struggle it's been. Hopefully they can come in and create some life in our lineup and allow us to get where we need to be."
After acquiring forward Devin Shore in a trade with the Dallas Stars for forward Andrew Cogliano on Monday, Anaheim made three more trades Wednesday: It acquired defenseman Michael Del Zotto from the Vancouver Canucks for defenseman Luke Schenn and a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft; forward Derek Grant from the Penguins for forward Joseph Blandisi; and forward Justin Kloos from the Wild for forward Pontus Aberg.
Anaheim also recalled forwards Troy Terry and Max Jones and defenseman Andrej Sustr from San Diego of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
The Ducks sent defenseman Jake Dotchin and forward Kiefer Sherwood to San Diego, as well as veteran forward Patrick Eaves on a conditioning stint; Eaves has not played since fracturing a rib during a 5-1 loss to the Wild on Nov. 9.
Terry and Jones will play against the Wild; it will be Terry's seventh NHL game this season, and Jones will make his NHL debut.

"This is [the game] you focus on since you were a little kid," said Jones, who has 24 points (12 goals, 12 assists) in 32 AHL games this season. "The mood's a little different with things not going the way they'd like it to here [in Anaheim], but I've got to stay the same. I've got to play the way I've been playing in San Diego and have to carry that here and hopefully help get a win."
Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said he expects Grant, who has 36 points (14 goals, 22 assists) in 177 NHL games, to be in the lineup at Minnesota.
Del Zotto, who had four points (one goal, three assists) and was plus-3 in 23 games with the Canucks, likely won't join Anaheim until the conclusion of its five-game road trip, which ends at the New York Islanders on Sunday. Kloos is expected to be a healthy scratch Thursday.
Shore will play his second game with the Ducks on Thursday after debuting with them in a 3-1 loss at the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday.
"With the transactions that took place, we'll have a different look in our lineup," Carlyle said. "We're looking at some kids who are having good years in the American Hockey League …and an older face we had last year in Derek Grant coming over from Pittsburgh. ... and speed and energy from Kloos."
Getzlaf, who has three points (one goal, two assists) in his past 11 games, said he hopes a turning point comes quickly.
"It's hard," he said. "You're grinding through this and we've never been through anything like this. … There are a lot of cliches you can use, but it's a matter of us going out and working and trying to get our mindset where we know our abilities and we know what we can do as a group. We just have to try and find those things, and we've got to win one."