Progress seen in loss to Boston
ANAHEIM » If fans were looking for an explosive night from No. 2 overall pick Leo Carlsson as part of a high-scoring affair Sunday at Honda Center, they might have been disappointed, as Carlsson sat out the Ducks' 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins.
But if they were looking for clear signs of progress from a young club burgeoning with promise, the Ducks gave them plenty to smile about, even as Carlsson got comfortable in the press box as part of a planned absence.
It was the sort of workload management the Ducks had plotted for him in early-season situations like they faced Sunday, when they were playing the second half of a back-toback set after a 2-1 loss in Arizona on Saturday. They also have envisioned more stifling defensive efforts, like they turned in this weekend and throughout the early going of the 2023-24 campaign.
The Ducks were an empty-net goal allowed away from having ceded two goals or fewer in three straight games, something they did only once in all of the 2022-23. Not coincidentally, those three matches were the only instances where the Ducks won three straight games in regulation and one of just two threegame win streaks last season overall. While their newfound structure and defensive acumen have only translated to one victory in five matches, the difference has been palpable in every area but the win column.
“Sitting here 10 minutes after the game it's frustrating, but the way we've played for the first five games I don't think anyone has any disappointment,” veteran forward Ryan Strome said. “Five-on-five we're controlling a lot of the play. We're playing good hard defense. Everyone's playing hard, you see guys forechecking, everyone's hitting, no
THE SCORE BRUINS 3, DUCKS 1
Up next: Ducks at Blue Jackets, Tuesday, 3:30 p.m., BSSC
SUMMARY
one's being lazy or taking shifts off. “The results are going to come.” Mason McTavish scored his second goal of the season. John Gibson beat back 23 Boston bids.
Boston's Matthew Poitras scored his first NHL goal and thought so much of the experience that he tallied again in the same period before Brad Marchand added an emptynetter. Linus Ullmark, last year's Vezina Trophy winner, made 30 saves, two fewer than backup Jeremy Swayman did in a win over the Kings on Saturday.
Marchand's empty netter with 2:34 to play extinguished any hopeful embers for the Ducks, who had buzzed early in the third and surged in spurts late.
Boston earlier responded with its first goal of the night, and the first of a promising rookie's career, 1:24 after the Ducks got the scoring going. It was Poitras depositing the puck into Gibson's net with a redirection from the low slot. He netted the game-winning goal with 9:40 to play off a follow-up effort down low.
The Ducks broke through 5:05 into the closing stanza with a goal off the rush. McTavish engineered a golden opportunity for Strome, whose rebound was banked softly off the post and in by McTavish for his second goal of the season. Prior to that, the Ducks had sustained pressure and tested Ullmark, creating some buildup to the goal.
“You can always feel the momentum, especially with the fans, with the loud noise in the back of your head,” McTavish said. “It gives you more energy, we were kind of flying and we kind of felt the ice shift.”
Through two periods, the game was not only scoreless but also even in many statistical areas. Shots on goal, faceoffs and turnovers were essentially split, but the Ducks had owned the puck more, delivered four more hits and blocked six more shots than the Bruins. Their heavy possession advantage — Natural Stat Trick metrics put them around 65% in every major category for the game — barely produced a shot-on-goal advantage and put them at a disadvantage in shot attempts.
Coach Greg Cronin lamented the lack of a shot mentality and expressed bewilderment at his team's tendency to possess the puck in dangerous areas only to redistribute it to the peripheries of the offensive zone.
“We had plenty of opportunities. I keep saying, like a broken record, we won't shoot the puck. We had the puck the whole second period,” Cronin said.
“We want to tee it up and pass the puck laterally at home plate, it's getting old,” he added.