ANAHEIM –– Having picked up just six of their past 20 possible points, the Ducks geared up for Friday’s clash with a Minnesota Wild team whose season has had the opposite rhythm of their own.
The Ducks won seven straight games early in the year to bring them to 11-3-1, but they’ve since cooled to go 10-13-2. Conversely, the Wild had a flimsy foray into the season at 3-6-3 before turning it on for a 21-4-4 mark since.
That includes their 7-1-2 run since acquiring 2024 Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes in a massive swap with the Canucks that sent two former lottery picks, a former first-rounder and a future first-round selection to Vancouver.
“In the course of a season, you’re gonna go through stretches where it seems like it’s hard to get two points,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’ve got a schedule coming up, in the New Year, that’s gonna be facing a lot of great teams, and going into that Olympic break is a playoff drive for everybody. We’ve got to take care of business, and it’s our business we’ve got to worry about.”
Early in the season, the offensive brilliance of the top line –– pivot prodigy Leo Carlsson flanked by newcomer Chris Kreider and mainstay Troy Terry –– deodorized plenty of stink for the Ducks. Yet all three players, both together and separated, have seen their production either slip or plummet of late.
Kreider began the campaign with nine goals in nine games, and having been a 50-goal scorer in his career, talk of a renaissance proliferated. But he’s gone goalless in 14 games and counting, and was held pointless in a dozen of those outings.
Terry had a couple December outbursts, a three-point effort in a loss to San Jose and a four-game points streak with three goals and five points. In his other 10 matches, he produced a lone assist.
Perhaps the most drastic flip in fortune has been Carlsson’s. In his last six appearances, he has one point, zero production at even strength and a -7 rating, tied with Kreider for the lowest on the team in that stint. That came after Carlsson accumulated 25 points in his first 15 games and 41 in 33 at the time of his abrupt dropoff.
“He had a great start to the year. He had great pace, he had the puck a lot and that line was very dangerous,” Quenneville said. “That line’s not just a rush line, but a threat to score in the offensive zone or on the power play. Scorers are going to have some dry stretches like we are right now, but we expect him to lead us out of this.”
That turnaround could begin Friday, when the Wild arrive with Hughes, perhaps the league’s most creative force on the blue line, and Kirill Kaprizov, a wizard up front. They’ve also had 25-goal scorer Matt Boldy and one of the league’s top goaltending tandems Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt.