Tuesday night’s embarrassing loss to the Vancouver Canucks was the fifth game of the 2024-25 campaign where the Anaheim Ducks scored just a single goal. It was the third time in the last four games they had been outshot by at least 15. Against superior teams, they just don’t have the puck enough to get anything going and fall back the all-too-familiar trend of hoping their goaltender limits the opposition to one or two goals amidst a barrage of shots and high-danger scoring chances.
There are a number of reasons the Ducks cannot keep the puck and generate more shots. They pass up shooting opportunities to make an extra pass or hold onto it longer, they dump the puck into the offensive zone but struggle to retrieve it, they miss the net with their attempts, fumble possession, or miss entirely on passes; the list goes on. Outside of the rare circumstance where they find their game early and convert on a power-play chance or two, this offense right now is just not going to reliably score the three to four goals needed to win a game. It gets no easier tonight, when the Ducks face a red-hot Minnesota Wild team that has begun the season an impressive 9-2-2. Who on the Ducks needs to step up? Let’s look at a few names.
Honorable Mention: Pavel Mintyukov
Let’s begin with an honorable mention who doesn’t make the list because he is still just 20 years of age and adjusting to the responsibilities of being a top four defenseman on a struggling team. Qualifier aside, Pavel Mintyukov has not begun the season the way that his play during his rookie season suggested he would. He has struggled to produce offense, though his two-goal game in the home-opening win against the Utah Hockey Club (Oct. 16) was the best output by a Ducks blueliner this season. Outside of that, there hasn’t been much. He has found ways to get pucks to the net — he has at least one shot in five of the last six games — but little to show for it. He is no doubt a full-time player for this team, but he has already ceded some responsibility to Olen Zellweger, and sometimes Jackson LaCombe, both of whom have handled the lion’s share of power-play quarterback duties as of late.
The last five games have been particularly rough. He hasn’t registered a point and is minus-5. We expected growing pains for the young Russian, and it looks like we’re seeing it early, but there’s still plenty of games left for him to deliver an impressive sophomore…
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