Anaheim’s early season spiral continues with loss at Wild
The Bruce Boudreau coaching hot seat got warmer Saturday in a 3-0 Anaheim Ducks loss at the Minnesota Wild.
The defeat for the Ducks dropped Anaheim to 1-5-1 to start the season. The game itself was completely uninspiring for Boudreau’s group. They were out-shot 30-15 and found themselves in the familiar spot of looking for answers to a large amount of questions about how a contending team could fall so flat at the beginning of the year.
“When you do have chances and you don’t score, it’s even magnified more. You’re holding the stick so tight and you can’t make plays and see pucks bouncing off of guys’ sticks. You see them wanting to make the perfect play for the goal,” Boudreau said in his postgame news conference. “When things go bad you just have to shoot everything at the net and go to the net and hope one bounces off your butt or something and gets in the net and that’s a lot of time what starts things. “
Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf continued his poor play. He was held pointless and took two minor penalties, one was an interference call drawn by Ryan Carter as well as a hook on Wild forward Zach Parise.
[Play Yahoo Daily Fantasy and get a 100% deposit bonus with your first deposit]
The Ducks entered the second period down 1-0 and had four straight penalties. By the end of the period they were down 3-0. One of the Wild’s goals – by Carter – was a shorthanded score.
Getzlaf and Corey Perry have two points combined through seven games. Anaheim has a three-way tie for the team’s scoring lead between Mike Santorelli, Rickard Rakell and Hampus Lindholm. All three have two points each.
“It’s hard to explain other than we had a lot of changes and we don’t seem to be able to get together as a group fast enough here to start the season and we have to do that,” Getzlaf said.
According to Sportsnet, the Ducks are the first team to score fewer than seven goals in the first seven games since the 1997-98 Chicago Blackhawks.
Through seven games the Ducks have been shut out four times. That matches their total in 82 games the previous season.
“Obviously the talent’s in the room. We’re a little bit off right now. I think everyone can admit that,” Anaheim defenseman Kevin Bieksa said in a postgame interview with Fox Sports West. “But at times like this, difficult times, I think you go back to basics, you go back to putting pucks deep, throwing everything not net and tonight again, not enough shots on net I think.”
A year ago the Ducks were the comeback kings. This season they’ve struggled to mount any sort of challenge after they’ve gotten down, which is most disconcerting for the group. In the 2014-15 regular season, the Ducks outscored their opponents 93-73 in the third period and overtime. This season they’ve been outscored 4-3.
“I don’t know the answer of why they haven’t responded or haven’t been able to come back or tie the game once we get down. It’s something for us as coaches we rack our brains over,” Boudreau said. “Not being able to mount a comeback or put pressure on for sustained periods of time is … it’s not good.”
– – – – – – –
Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY
