The Anaheim Ducks hosted the Los Angeles Kings Monday evening at Honda Center in their fourth of six pre-season matchups.
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The Ducks iced a roster about halfway consisting of likely NHL regulars for the 2024-25 season, while the Kings deployed a lineup made up of likely three full forward lines and four NHL regular defensemen.
“There are stretches, and it’s exhibition, where you aren’t happy with the way you play,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said of his team’s performance. “We were pretty stable defensively, but they got those opportunistic goals. We lost some of our starch.”
Oscar Dansk got the start between the pipes for the Ducks and stopped 21 of 25 shots. Opposing him was Darcy Kuemper for Los Angeles, who stopped all 23 shots he faced.
With a lineup not exactly brimming with sure-fire NHL talent and further roster cuts on the horizon for the Ducks, only a certain number of conclusions can be drawn. That said, here are my notes from this game:
Breakouts: The Ducks’ defenders had a tough time absorbing the first wave of the Kings’ forecheck. LA’s F1 consistently disrupted outlet pass attempts, getting a stick or skate on the puck, and rendering play-building a tall task for the Ducks in the defensive zone.
“They skated one hundred percent into their forecheck, got their sticks in there, and finished checks,” Cronin said. “We had one guy going one hundred percent and four guys kind of watching.”
Brian Dumoulin: Dumoulin got his first action of the pre-season in this game and displayed elongated flashes of what he’ll provide on the Ducks blueline. He was surprisingly poised and active at the offensive blueline in an attempt to break the Kings’ man-on-man defensive zone coverage.
“Anytime you can beat one guy, it seems to open things up,” Dumoulin said of playing actively at the offensive blueline. “We got closed off on the wall, and they were able to just make high flips to get out of the zone.”
D-Zone coverage: Away from the puck, the Ducks were too casual when breakouts were disrupted, and they were slow to pick up their assignment or simply got beat back to the front of the net. Zegras and Nesterenko, in particular, lost races to the front of the net, leading to two goals.
Oscar Dansk: Dansk had trouble feeling the puck in this game and was often unable to get pucks to stick to him. He didn’t stand much of a chance of stopping any of the Kings’ goals but didn’t look comfortable in the crease in this game.
The Ducks’ next game of the pre-season will be on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 7 pm PST against the Utah Hockey Club at Honda Center.
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