The Anaheim Ducks hosted the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night at the Honda Center in their fourth of six preseason games.
Quack of Dawn: Duck Morning Report – 09/30
The Ducks have put together a mid-tier roster filled with likely NHL regulars for the 2024-25 season, while the Kings have deployed a lineup likely consisting of three full forward lines and four regular NHL defensemen.
“There are times, and it’s non-contest, where you’re not happy with the way you’re playing,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said of his team’s performance. team. “We were pretty stable defensively, but they scored these opportunistic goals. We lost a bit of our starch.”
Oscar Dansk started in the posts for the Ducks and stopped 21 of 25 shots. Opposite him was Darcy Kuemper for Los Angeles, who stopped all 23 shots he faced.
With a roster not exactly stacked with surefire 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 on this game:
Rashes: The Ducks defenders had difficulty absorbing the first wave of forechecking from the Kings. LA F1 consistently disrupted outlet pass attempts, putting a stick or skate on the puck and making play construction a daunting task for the Ducks in the defensive zone.
“They skated a hundred percent on their forecheck, put their sticks in there and finished their checks,” Cronin said. “We had one guy going a hundred percent wild and four guys watching.”
Brian Dumoulin: Dumoulin got his first action of the preseason in this game and showed long flashes of what he will provide on the Ducks blue line. He was surprisingly calm and active at the offensive blue line in an effort to break down the Kings’ man-on-man defensive zone coverage.
“Anytime you can beat a guy, it seems to open things up,” Dumoulin said of his active play at the offensive blue line. “We were pinned against the wall and they were just able to do high somersaults to get out of the zone.”
Zone D coverage: Away from the puck, the Ducks were too relaxed when breakouts were disrupted, and they were slow to get back on their mission or were simply pushed back in front of the net. Zegras and Nesterenko, in particular, lost races in 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 have much of a chance to stop the Kings’ goals, but he didn’t look comfortable in the crease during this game.
The Ducks’ next preseason game is Wednesday, October 2 at 7 p.m. PST against the Utah Hockey Club at the Honda Center.
