Ducks hope season 'could be the start of something' going forward

ANAHEIM -- It was difficult for the Anaheim Ducks to think about the future, moments after their most disappointing loss of the season.

Yet, their elimination following a 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of the Western Conference Second Round at Honda Center on Thursday represents more of a starting point than a finish line for the Ducks.

“Yeah, but at the same time, you can’t take it for granted,” Anaheim forward Troy Terry said. “I’m well aware of how hard it is to make the playoffs. I do hope that this springboards in the way we look at other teams and the way we look at ourselves and just the confidence that we’re bringing into next year, and how we stack up and just the hunger that hopefully it gives us.

“I know it gave me a new energy, and I just want to play in these games again. I think it does feel that it could be the start of something, but there’s a lot of work to be done.”

Terry has a special appreciation for how difficult it is to make the playoffs and to be one of the last eight teams standing. The 28-year-old's first seven full NHL seasons were spent rebuilding as Anaheim turned its roster over following its last playoff appearance in 2018.

That roster, which featured 15 players who had never experienced playoff hockey prior to this season, Terry included, has now paved the way for what the Ducks hope the future looks like.

“In the regular season, I thought we proved that we were a really good team and we proved that we were a little inconsistent at times with all the highs and the lows,” Terry said. “Then you get into playoffs and you get a taste of it and just what it takes at this level, and I think our team, myself included, learned how to play in those games, and that’s kind of the difference in some for the games in the regular season.

“You look at a team like Vegas, and learning how to manage those close games and just experience that and the confidence moving into next year. It stings right now, but I think I speak for everyone that we’ll be hungry going into the summer because this created a spark.”

The lack of experience may have caught up to the Ducks against the playoff-savvy Golden Knights, who have 12 Stanley Cup champions on their roster and seven players with at least 100 games of playoff experience.

Anaheim did hang in there, though, and had the puck bounced its way in a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 5 on Tuesday, things might have been different.

“I do really think we had a chance to beat that team, and we were playing a really good team,” Ducks forward Mikael Granlund said. “It was a really tight series, and we all know next season we want to get better and we want to get further. But at the same time, it’s really tough to think about that right now. It’s disappointing.”

In part because it was the little things that ended up making a big difference in the series.

“I’m proud of the group,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “This was a good experience. Our younger guys got better and better and our older guys helped them out. We had a strong locker room, and I thought we were competitive in a lot of ways.

“Obviously, Vegas got better every single game. They played well, they checked well and they deserved to win.”

The Golden Knights are still in their championship window, which essentially opened in 2017-18, when they joined the League as an expansion team and advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

Anaheim is just prying its window open, one that has the potential to extend over the next decade because of a young, talented core, which includes forwards Beckett Sennecke, 20; Leo Carlsson, 21; Cutter Gauthier, 22; and Mason McTavish, 23; defensemen Jackson LaCombe, 25; Pavel Mintyukov, 22; and Olen Zellweger, 22; and goalie Lukas Dostal, 25.

“I’m sure this team is going to be very good for a long time, that’s for sure,” Granlund said. “But now we have to wait for the next season, and we wanted to do something in this season. At the same time, there’s a lot of good teams in this League as we’ve seen, and it’s not easy.”

Quenneville feels the young group in Anaheim is comparable to the team he took over with the Chicago Blackhawks, who he guided to three Stanley Cup championships (2010, 2013, 2015).

Now it’s a case of building on the foundation laid this season.

“We have a lot of young skill. We have some guys that have some upside and will be good players, and hopefully they can get to another level,” Quenneville said. “I think we have some depth in the young department organizationally. We have some young guys that could be good players.

“With our team right now, there’s some balance in our needs and we’re filling all our needs. At the end of the year, we’re probably disappointed in a couple of things, but at the same time, we have a lot of things going for us going forward.”

For LaCombe, the 2026 playoffs was a coming out party. He was impressive in the way he contained Oilers superstar Connor McDavid in the first round and drew all the tough matchups against the Golden Knights in the second.

While disappointed in the loss, LaCombe does see the long game in Anaheim.

“Definitely it’s nice to get some momentum (in the playoffs),” he said. “You always want to win as many games as you can no matter where you’re at in that sense. There were a lot of ups and downs this season, but we just stuck together through the whole process, and I think that’s huge for our team in the next coming years.”