Ducks’ Inability to Score Painfully Obvious in Loss to Canucks – The Hockey Writers – Anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks entered the 2024-25 campaign with renewed hope that their half a decade’s worth of painfully deficient scoring woes would turn a corner now that they were fielding the best mix of offensive talent (on both sides of the puck) that they’ve had in a long time. The mix of youth, skill, creativity, and veteran savvy was supposed to click or at least begin to exhibit signs of clicking. We’re 12 games into the season, long enough to make our first legitimate assessment of the team, and the offense looks lost, incohesive, and bereft of the finishing ability that many experts, fans, and coaches thought and probably expected to show up. 

Related: Ahead of Homestand, Ducks Must Learn From Road Trip and Adapt

This has been painfully obvious through the first two games of their six-game homestand. Here’s a look at what went wrong in Tuesday night’s 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

Ducks’ Previously Hot Sources of Offense Have Cooled Off

Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry have been the only consistently productive players on offense this season in Anaheim. When they are not involved, the team doesn’t win. Those are the facts because Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish, Alex Killorn, Frank Vatrano, and Ryan Strome have been invisible most nights. Cutter Gauthier has yet to score his first career goal, but he is firing the puck on net every chance he gets. He leads the Ducks in shots and the NHL in total shots without a goal. 

Without Terry and Carlsson’s production, the Ducks have no chance, and the last handful of games has proven as much. They have been woefully outplayed and outworked in recent weeks by the underwhelming New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, and Canucks.

Terry has one goal in his previous six games, while Carlsson has one point in his last five. Terry factored into the scoring against the Canucks with an assist, but it’s not enough. He and Carlsson need help, and they aren’t getting it. McTavish has been okay, but he isn’t playing with the finisher’s touch or physicality that he began last season with.

Olen Zellweger Is the Only Player Producing Anything From Blue Line

Making matters worse is the complete lack of production by any Ducks defender not named Olen Zellweger, who scored the Ducks’ lone goal last night. He has completely usurped Pavel Mintyukov as the key facilitator of the attack from the back end and has played with poise, energy, and…