The Anaheim Ducks embarked on a three-game road trip to face the St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars, and Nashville Predators, three teams sitting in vastly different positions in the Western Conference Standings. The Ducks entered the trip with a 29-30-7 record and came away with a 1-1-1 result.

Game #67: Ducks vs. Blues Gameday Preview

St. Louis was fighting for their playoff lives as a bubble wild card team in the West and thoroughly outplayed Anaheim for the entire 60 minutes of their game on Sunday and came away with a result of 7-2.

Game #68: Ducks vs. Stars Gameday Preview

The Ducks responded well against a Stanley Cup hopeful in the form of the Dallas Stars. They were outplayed again in the first period but were advantageous in the second period and entered the third with a 3-2 lead. Dallas was able to tie it up and, ultimately, win in overtime 4-3.

Game #69: Ducks vs. Predators Gameday Preview

Thursday’s game in Nashville was one of the Ducks’ better 60-minute efforts in the 2024-25 season. They were dictating tempo from the opening puck drop and came away with a 4-1 win over an underachieving team at the bottom of the NHL standings.

Lukas Dostal got the first two starts against the Blues and Stars. He was pulled after the second period of the Blues game. He saved 36 of 45 shots in five periods in the Ducks’ crease.

Ville Husso entered in relief of Dostal for the third period against St. Louis and saved 10 of 12 shots.

John Gibson returned from injury to face the Preds. He was sensational, stopping 33 of 34 shots.

Ducks head coach Greg Cronin tinkered with lines a bit throughout the road trip, both out of necessity, as Nikita Nesterenko was forced out of the Nashville game with illness, and in an attempt to generate offense with new combinations. Cutter Gauthier ended the trip on the wing of Leo Carlsson (where he started the season) and opposite Alex Killorn. Trevor Zegras finished on the wing of Mason McTavish, also in the position where he started the season.

Here are my on-ice notes from these games:

Cycle-The Ducks have been relying on crowding the home plate area of the offensive zone in attempts to generate offense, taking away goaltenders’ eyes and hoping for positive bounces. As a result, they’ve been one of the poorest offensive teams at 5v5 in 2024-25.

They seemed to make some adjustments as the road trip wore on, and in the Nashville game, they were more reliant on perimeter movement, defensemen activating, and cuts into the slot area for needed traffic. They were able to dictate possession time and create more dangerous opportunities. They can strike up a potent balance between rush and cycle offense and attack in a myriad of ways if they continue with this philosophy.

Power Play-The Ducks’ power play went just 1-10 on the trip, but they experimented with a variety of structures when they set up. They seemed to mandate more movement on and off the puck with Carlsson and Zegras’ unit and utilized the area below the goal line more frequently.

Troy Terry may have been the largest benefactor of this new scheme, as he had been too keen to rip distance shots from the flank. He now can keep his feet moving more and utilize his natural manipulation and deception abilities to create far more dangerous looks. The next phase of his evolution will be to increase his effectiveness as a net-front presence, timing cuts and getting tips on perimeter shots.

Regroups/Breakouts-The Ducks did well in the latter two games to absorb oncoming forechecks and defensemen did well to handle opposing high-flips out of the defensive zone to maintain possession and quickly move pucks back up ice to generate rush chances.

The Ducks began to utilize a low, swinging forward to better support retrieving defensemen and activated weak-side defensemen to join rushes. This spread the ice out more and ignited more dangerous rush looks.

The Ducks will now return home to Anaheim for a five-game home stand where they will look to return their record to at least that of a .500 team.

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