The Ducks will dive head-first into the stretch run as they’ll resume play after the 4 Nations Face-Off break with back-to-back games that’ll begin Saturday where that tournament ended, in Boston, before sending them to Detroit on Sunday.
Their trip to Boston will be a return to the old stomping grounds of many Ducks. Coach Greg Cronin grew up in the area and coached at Northeastern University, where he also had deep familial connections. Alex Killorn was a Harvard man. Brian Dumoulin, Drew Helleson, Nikita Nesterenko and Cutter Gauthier all attended Boston College, while Trevor Zegras played at rival Boston University. Sam Colangelo hailed from Stoneham, Mass., and was a Junior Bruin.
It’ll be a familiar setting to get the ball rolling on an unfamiliar situation for many of the Ducks: a competitive one.
Their final sprint of 28 games gives the Ducks at least a puncher’s chance at their first playoff berth since 2018. As play resumed around the league, they sat nine points back of Vancouver for the final wild-card berth in the West.
“The last two years at this point in the season, we’ve just been pretty much out of it,” veteran forward Ryan Strome told Derek Lee of The Hockey News.”We have to really understand the games are going to tighten up.”
Strome is in his third season with the club and had played 37 career postseason games before his arrival. Killorn, who signed with the Ducks before last season after playing his entire career to that point in Tampa Bay, leads the Ducks with 140 playoff appearances, followed by Dumoulin, another two-time Stanley Cup champion who’s played in 81 spring matches, all with Pittsburgh.
“It’s going to be good for our team to kind of experience the challenge over the next 28 games as a group,” Strome continued. “There’s some guys that have played in the playoffs and have felt that intensity, but, as a group, we haven’t really experienced that.”
The Bruins have a team with no shortage of playoff and other big-game experience, including Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy, whose respective countries squared off in the 4 Nations final. Marchand and Canada prevailed, and McAvoy had sustained a shoulder injury before Team USA reached the championship game.
McAvoy joined former Duck Hampus Lindholm (lower body) in Boston’s triage unit, leaving the Bruins short two vital defensemen. Lindholm last played Nov. 12 and had been targeting a return sometime after the 4 Nations break. Both players will miss Saturday’s contest, with no clear timetable for their respective returns.
When the Ducks ramble on to Detroit, awaiting them will be a Red Wings club that’s done an about face under former Kings coach Todd McLellan. Since McLellan and former Ducks assistant Trent Yawney arrived in Detroit on Dec. 27, they’ve gone 15-5-1, giving the Wings the third-best points percentage in the NHL since that date.
Ducks at Boston
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: TD Garden, Boston
TV: KTTV (Ch. 11), Victory+
Ducks at Detroit
When: 3 p.m. Sunday
Where: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
TV: KCOP (Ch. 13), Victory+