Winning streaks are becoming harder to find for the Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils as they enter the meat of their seasons.
The Ducks and Devils will try to get back to their winning ways when they meet on Saturday afternoon in Newark, N.J.
Anaheim brought a three-game winning streak into its matchup on Thursday night against the New York Islanders in Elmont, N.Y. The Ducks, however, surrendered three early goals and dropped a 5-2 decision.
The Ducks used a seven-game winning streak earlier this season to surge to the top of the Pacific Division standings, where they remained for more than a month until the loss to the Islanders dropped them behind the Vegas Golden Knights. Anaheim and Vegas have the same point total but the Golden Knights own a game in hand.
“We had a decent start to the year, and now we’re in a different stretch here,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “We try to get points every day, every game. Our team game had signs (against the Islanders), but when you get down 3-0, it gets a little bit wide open. We’re trying to be so creative that it sometimes could be hazardous.”
Ville Husso has played the past eight games in net for the Ducks, who have been without their top two goalies because of injuries during that span.
Anaheim’s No. 1 goalie, Lukas Dostal, is on the road trip and appears close to returning. He was initially ruled out for two to three weeks with an upper-body injury, and last Wednesday marked two weeks since he was placed in injured reserve.
The Devils are coming off a disappointing 8-4 loss to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, their sixth loss in the past seven games.
New Jersey won eight in a row back in October to give it a nice start in the Metropolitan Division, but the Devils find themselves staring up at five teams in the standings.
“We can’t just flush this,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We got our (butts) kicked (Thursday). We were outworked, outcompeted, outclassed in lots of ways. This is one not to push past. There’s some real lessons in this one.”
The Devils held a loud team meeting after the loss.
“We had to be vocal. Most of the things that we talked about, I’m going to let that stay here,” New Jersey forward Jesper Bratt. “We had that talk in the locker room and it’s going to stay there. … It had to be an honest conversation, man-to-man, and I think we did a good job.”
Bratt ended a 16-game goalless streak by scoring against the Lightning, but that brought little satisfaction.
“It’s always nice to score, but it’s hard to talk about that now after a game like that,” Bratt said. “I would have hoped that goal would have come at a little bit better time for the team.”
Jacob Markstrom surrendered three goals on seven shots in the latest loss before he was swapped out for Jake Allen.
“It is a step back,” Markstrom said. “We’ve got to be honest with ourselves. … Got to look yourself in the mirror and got to be better. What did I play? Five minutes today? That’s not what I want to do.”
–Field Level Media
