ANAHEIM, Calif. – Statistic after statistic backs it up but if there was any question left about who the worst team in the NHL is, the Ducks’ Black Friday matinee performance answered that in a brutally definitive manner.
Ottawa carried into town a three-game losing streak and a wholly disappointing 6-12-1 record considering the moves it made in the offseason to boost its roster. The Senators left Honda Center feeling healthier about their present state after a breezy 5-1 win over an Anaheim club that made its own adjustments over the summer as it moved out of the Ryan Getzlaf era into the Trevor Zegras era.
Advertisement
Theoretically, the Ducks were thought to be more competitive after going 31-37-14 last season. Not a playoff team, mind you, but competitive in the idea that their best young players would continue to improve, there would be some motivated veterans to support them, and their games in the spring months might have something more at stake than just crossing each one off the calendar as it’s played.
The Ducks fell to 6-14-1 in a meeting of teams with the league’s two worst records. And they were embarrassing in their execution, physically and mentally. They didn’t score on six power plays, took nine minor penalties and didn’t break the shutout until just 2:50 was left in garbage time. Goalie Anthony Stolarz was pedestrian in his start. Killing off a five-on-three Ottawa power play was the only positive but that had no meaning because they couldn’t take care of three other Senators’ advantages.
It was the kind of showing that can get a coach on shaky ground fired. But as his team preceded him when coming out for the third period and staring at a four-goal deficit, Dallas Eakins took his usual place behind the Anaheim bench. General manager Pat Verbeek, in picking up Eakins’s option year in his contract, cited his big trade deadline sell-off as one key reason not to make a change in the offseason.
You can’t help but wonder if he’s sticking with letting Eakins ride out the year or rethinking the need for a different voice right now after Friday’s awful display. Verbeek’s roster is still quite deficient in a few areas but it’s not like he did nothing over the summer. Veterans Ryan Strome, John Klingberg, Frank Vatrano and Dmitry Kulikov were acquired to give his fourth-year coach more of a fighting chance.
The fighting chance they have right now is a shot at the best odds in the 2023 draft lottery. Not all lotteries are alike and a team will want to win this one more than other years. It’s where the Ducks are headed. Those four veterans haven’t been difference makers and the new core that’s now being led by Zegras and Troy Terry is finding it harder to get things done on the ice when you’re treated like front-like players.
Advertisement
“It’s hard,” Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “We’re a young team but we have a lot of guys in here just are starting to realize how hard it is to win in this league. You come off a win against a team like the Rangers that you feel is a big win for your team to maybe get you sparked. Come the next night against Ottawa, it shouldn’t matter where a team is in the standings or what you might think the team is like based on their past two or three years.
“That’s where we have to realize that every night is going to be hard to get a ‘W’ in this league. We’ve seen that the entire first quarter of the season.”
There is no area of the Ducks’ game where they can stack up among the league’s best. It’s the worst or near that in many categories. Last on the power play (11.3 percent), next to last in penalty killing (65.8 percent), next to last in offense (2.48 goals per game), last in defense (4.16 goals against), last in goal differential (minus-35). Things that they’re the most in aren’t the place you want to be.
Let’s not get into their woeful metrics in the stats beyond the basics. But with the way they kept burning a trail to the penalty box Friday knowing full well how much they’re struggling in killing them off, it does raise thoughts as to whether Eakins’s message is still resonating within their room. Never mind the terrible record they have. When asked if Eakins’s voice is still being heard, Shattenkirk said, “Definitely.”
“Absolutely,” he continued. “He hasn’t lost his message. And I think he’s probably been the best thing for us this year because he’s been able to keep us — we probably would be in a much deeper hole mentally if it weren’t for him. He has that ability to kind of refresh the locker room. Set what happened in the past, in the past, and move on and focus on today.
Advertisement
“His voice has not been lost on us by any means. He knows how to motivate us. Again, when you look at these games and the close ones we’re losing and the ones like tonight that we’re losing, it’s just big mistakes that are coming at really inopportune times and putting us down by two goals instead of one or three goals instead of two. That’s on us. It’s not on him.”
If the message of simpler play is what Eakins is trying to get across, Zegras didn’t apply that after Brady Tkachuk got Ottawa on the board in the first period. Creativity is always flowing through the Anaheim center, but risk also comes with his playmaking. As he hit the Senators’ blue line, Zegras flung the puck to his left trying to hit Terry instead of throwing the puck deeper into their zone behind their defense. Jake Sanderson picked it off and Ottawa had a three-on-two break that Derick Brassard would complete for a two-goal lead.
It was a terrible play, especially when the team doesn’t have the basic stuff mastered night to night. “Ill-advised” was what Eakins called it. But that’s not going to change where the Ducks sit this season. Eakins has talked of Zegras making improvements in some of the game’s finer details beyond the fantastic he can pull off. What will matter this season is whether Zegras does improve with Eakins still directing the cast.
“We’ve talked about it a million times, how important it is to play deep at the end of your shift,” Eakins said. “I thought that changed the complexity of the game. But then in the end, that game came down to special teams. Five-on-five, there wasn’t a whole lot going on for either group. But their power play got it done. Ours did not. Their penalty kill got it done. Ours did not.”
It isn’t just Zegras. Eakins is also being trusted to guide Mason McTavish in his rookie season. Terry has arrived as a first-line right wing and Jamie Drysdale would also be in this bit of important groundwork being laid for Anaheim’s future. His development, however, is halted on the ice with a shoulder injury that has basically wrecked his season.
If the Ducks were in a different place with higher expectations, Friday’s bad loss might have pushed Verbeek to do the deed and cut Eakins loose. But when it’s clear this franchise is still deep in its rebuild, Eakins could stay on with the bigger goal of growing that new core until the next coach is tabbed. Wins and losses have quickly become secondary in the grand picture.
The way things are going, though, this could be a season where the Ducks take on the most losses of any team in their history. And both Verbeek and Eakins must be mindful of their bright young talents being raised in that atmosphere. As Shattenkirk said, “Unfortunately, a lot of them have been a part of that for the last few years.”
Advertisement
“You certainly want to try to develop in a winning atmosphere except for that’s really hard to do in this league,” Eakins said. “This is not a developmental league. It is a cruel league. When you talk about hard lessons, hard lessons, well at some point you’ve got to really take those to heart.
“We certainly want to be creating great habits for our young players. We do see some growth in a number of areas there. But I don’t discount the point (where) you don’t want to be walking out there every night losing hockey games. Because that’s just a hard way to keep your spirits up.”
It can be hard to see the light when you’re at the bottom of the NHL well. The Ducks are piecing together their next wave, with Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov eventually joining Drysdale as the heart of a defense that will move out much of today’s current patchwork group. If they’re still residing in the basement and the lottery goes their way, they could add another game-breaker up front. There is hope.
The job for Eakins is to show his boss there is progress being made where belief can walk hand in hand with hope. Even if the next coach may reap the benefits.
“It’s hard to learn on the fly in this league,” Ducks center Ryan Strome said. “It really is. And it’s hard every night. Ottawa’s been a team that’s been struggling the last few years and now they’re kind of on the upswing. You saw the hunger level from them tonight.
“It’s tough. I really think things are going in the right direction. Tonight wasn’t a great result for us. But I think in terms of the attitude of the guys, the commitment and the buy-in isn’t an issue. It’s just a matter of the execution.”
Bad teams are going to show their badness at some point to some level on most nights. It’s been that way for the Ducks and it’s probably going to stay that way throughout. This season might be about how much Verbeek will put up with as Eakins holds the keys while the rebuild trudges on.
“We are working,” Shattenkirk said. “We’re working hard for it and guys are giving it their best out there without a doubt. But we’re just still making a lot of mistakes that are costing us some games. And I think that’s the next hurdle for us to get over.”
(Photo: Jayne Kamin Oncea / USA Today)