Nearly three months passed between the start of the Ducks’ first seven-game winning streak and the end of their second, with those two surges buoying them in the standings by accounting for half their wins this season.
In between, they won consecutive games just twice – jolts of two and three straight victories, respectively – something they’ll look to correct down the stretch.
For now, after dropping the final two decisions of their five-game road trip, they’ll seek to pick up some critical points ahead of the Olympic break. They’ll host the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday before wrapping their pre-Olympic schedule against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
Those games are part of a span where they’ll have played seven straight intradivisional opponents and 10 of 13 games within the Pacific overall. Thus far, they’ve gone 4-2-0 ahead of a clash with the division-leading Golden Knights.
That’s been largely or entirely without their top offensive players. Troy Terry missed the entire seven-game tear, having last played Jan. 6. Mason McTavish was there for four of the wins, but sustained an upper-body injury ahead of the Ducks’ massive upset at Colorado on Jan. 21. Leo Carlsson (thigh surgery) hasn’t played since the end of a nine-game plummet that preceded the offsetting outburst of seven wins, and Frank Vatrano hasn’t played since breaking his shoulder Dec. 27. Neither is expected back until after the pause.
That paucity of punch up front finally caught up with them, as after trading blows with the high-octane Oilers in a loss at Edmonton, the Ducks ended their journey with a whimper, being shut out by the lowly Vancouver Canucks.
McTavish and Terry were touted as possibilities for that game and, per multiple reports from Irvine on Saturday, they were full participants in practice ahead of the Vegas game.
In the absence of what were the Ducks’ two leading producers, Carlsson and Terry, as well as their No. 2 center McTavish and top goal-scorer over the past three seasons in Vatrano, Beckett Sennecke, Mikael Granlund and Cutter Gauthier kept the ship afloat offensively. Sennecke, 19, had nine points in nine games, including his first NHL hat trick at Calgary on Jan. 25.
The trip also featured momentous occasions for the two next most prolific Ducks in that stint. Jackson LaCombe was named to the U.S. Olympic team and Alex Killorn played in his 1,000th game on the same day the Ducks upended the Avalanche in Denver.
Vegas had its own seven-game January rampage, its longest chain of victories this season, but has since stumbled in five of its past six matchups and three straight.
Despite pacing the Pacific, the Golden Knights have three more losses than wins. They are tied with the Kings and Minnesota Wild for the most games gone beyond 60 minutes this season with 21, but have won only seven of those contests. Their past two defeats came in overtime and a shootout, respectively.
Marquee addition Mitch Marner has maintained a point-per-game pace but has been overshadowed by fellow two-way standouts Jack Eichel, Vegas’ leading scorer, and Mark Stone, its top producer on a per-game basis.
Vegas at Ducks
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Honda Center
TV: ESPN