Strome: There's still much to play for
It's going to be a completely different spring for both Frank Vatrano and Ryan Strome, two of the Ducks' biggest acquisitions in the last offseason.
They were playing meaningful hockey — three playoff rounds, in all — with the New York Rangers and their season didn't end until June 11 with a loss in the Eastern Conference Final to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This season, their season will end on April 13 because the Ducks have missed the playoffs.
“It's tough. It's a total 180,” Strome said. “You see teams and you watch hockey on TV and you see teams that can go the opposite way this time of the season. I think it's really important that the veteran guys, the guys that are going to be here going forward, really try to keep pushing the needle.”
Strome was talking in the Ducks' dressing room after a 2-1 loss to the Vancouver
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Canucks on Sunday night, which officially eliminated them from playoff contention.
The first season with the Ducks didn't go the way either Vatrano or Strome had imagined. There will be lots of time to reflect on what went wrong and how to make sure it goes better the second time around.
Strome and Vatrano will be part of the future going forward, which differs from the other significant additions made last summer by Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek in signing defenseman John Klingberg and trading for defenseman Dmitry Kulikov. They were always going to be short-term solutions and were shipped off at the trade deadline.
By contrast, Vatrano has two more years remaining on his contract after this season ($3.65 million annual average value), and Strome has four years left on the original fiveyear, $25-million contract. It runs through the 2026-27 season and the only other Ducks' player with as much term remaining happens to be goaltender John Gibson.
The Ducks have been playing better hockey the past 10 games (4-3-3) than the three other teams already eliminated. But the challenge will be to avoid turning in the often lackluster effort displayed on Sunday during the final 12 games. What happens during the final three and a half weeks of the season can help shape the upcoming season.
“It's really important,” Strome said. “If things keep fraying away and fraying away, you come back the next year, you're almost at ground zero again. I think the last 10, 15 games we have built up a little bit.
“We've started to tilt it a little bit. The momentum has been better and the buy-in has been good. I think we've got to keep doing that.
“It's not easy for sure.”
It's easy to dismiss these remaining games as meaningless and it's simply a matter of playing out the string. But Strome will argue that there is a lot on the line.
“One hundred percent,” Strome said. “You saw a Nashville team come in here (March 12), really hungry, a young team. You saw that Vancouver team. They were (near) the bottom a little bit ago. They won back-to-back games.
“There's a ton to play for. Most guys — all guys, I should say — have that mentality. If you don't, you're just going to be the one weeded out pretty quickly. We're all professionals in here. From a team standpoint, I think it's important we keep moving forward.”
Also
Forward Sam Colangelo, drafted by the Ducks in the second round in 2020 (No. 36 overall), has entered the NCAA transfer portal.
He has one year of eligibility remaining and is coming off a nine-goal, 24-point season in 35 games at Northeastern.
The Clippers have 10 regular-season games to make a statement. Ten games to show the rest of the league they are legitimate contenders for an NBA title.
It shouldn't be a difficult task altogether if everyone is healthy and playing well.
The Clippers have won five of their past six games — Saturday's loss to Orlando without Kawhi Leonard in the lineup being the exception. Paul George said after Sunday night's 117-102 victory against Portland that the team, with Leonard on the floor, has a more focused mindset heading into the final stretch than when they dropped five consecutive games after the All-Star break.
“We expect to win now and that's really the key,” George said. “We expect to win, we expect to play well. We know what we need to do and we know what it looks like when we are at our peak.
“We're dialed in.”
With nine of the 10 games left on their schedule against Western Conference opponents, the emphasis for the Clippers (3834) now is holding onto their conference standing. They are currently fifth but sit just a half-game behind fourth-place Phoenix (3833) with three weeks left.
The Clippers start the final stretch with consecutive home games against the Oklahoma City Thunder (35-36) tonight and Thursday. On Saturday, they host the New Orleans Pelicans (34-37), followed by a home game against the Chicago Bulls (33-37) on March 27.
Later that week, the Clippers travel to Memphis for a pair of games against the