ANAHEIM — A three-game road trip will take the high-flying Ducks through three time zones, beginning Tuesday when they visit the Colorado Avalanche.
While the Ducks have blown through a murderers’ row of opponents lately –– during their seven-game winning streak, they’ve beaten the repeat Stanley Cup champs twice as well as a division winner, a conference finalist and the 2025 Presidents’ Trophy winner –– they understood the Avs at mile-high altitude were yet another level up in competition.
“Colorado is certainly the highest measuring stick, though I know we’ve played some really good teams here lately,” said Coach Joel Quenneville, who won a Stanley Cup as an Avalanche assistant. “But we know the challenge (the Avs) are going to bring.”
Quenneville, 67, hoisted the Cup with Colorado in 1996, eight years before center Leo Carlsson was born. Today, their fates are intertwined, with the Ducks putting their seven-game surge on the line against the NHL’s No. 1 team by points percentage, which has lost in regulation just once this year.
Carlsson was asked what his club, which ranks second in points percentage, wanted out of the journey east that would send them from Denver to Detroit and, finally, Minnesota.
“To keep winning, that’s the really simple answer,” Carlsson said. “Colorado is the top team in the league right now, so it’s going to be a challenge, and in their home arena, too. It’s a big challenge to see if we really are a good team.”
Carlsson, who was the NHL’s third star last week, tops the Ducks in scoring (and the Ducks pace the NHL in goals per game). He would lead the league if not for the Avs’ pace car and week’s first star, Nathan MacKinnon, and his 29 points to date. The Avalanche also have Cale Makar, whose 22 points were eight more than any other pro defenseman entering Monday’s action.
“They have the superstars, MacKinnon and Makar,” Carlsson said. “They just have a really deep team. They’re especially good in their (rink), it’s tough to play there, but it’s fun also, so it’s exciting.”
The Ducks beat the Red Wings, 5-2, on Halloween, while these will be their first meetings with the Avalanche and Wild in 2025-26.
Detroit coach Todd McLellan said of his team’s frightful performance that it was not sharp mentally, being done in by inferior special-teams play and “flat-out unintelligent hockey.”
For Minnesota, a five-game funk, three of those losses in regulation, dropped them below expectations. But they’ve regained that ground by capturing four of their past five heading into this week.
The Wild had to pay handsomely for their leading scorer, Kirill Kaprizov, signing him to a record $17 million per year pact this offseason. The Ducks may be facing similar contractual quandaries with Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier, both of whom are restricted free agents to be.
They have combined for 45 points and even with Carlsson’s pair of power-play goals on Sunday, they have both done most of their damage five-on-five. Having accounted for 21 goals and 45 points thus far, 16 of those goals and 32 of those points have come at even strength.
For now, their contributions have practically no cost, and with immense benefit, as the two early 20s stars –– the Ducks have a league-best 27 goals and 59 points from players age 21 and under –– are propelling the Ducks while they collect entry-level salaries.
“That was something that we talked about before the season, us young guys taking a step,” Carlsson said. “It’s my third season, Beckett (Sennecke)’s first few games. Cutter too, (Mason McTavish) and those guys. It’s just about time, I would say.”