Takeaways from the Ducks Losses to the Rangers and Devils

Over the weekend, the Anaheim Ducks played the first two games of a four-game East Coast road trip against the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils.

THN Anaheim Ducks Show (10-25-24)

Against the Rangers on Saturday, Ducks head coach Greg Cronin deployed the same lineup that brought them their latest victory on Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks.

Lukas Dostal started against the Rangers, continuing his hot start to the season by stopping 30 of 32 shots. This gave the Ducks a legitimate chance to win a game in which they were outshot, out-chanced, and out-possessed.

Dostal was opposed by Jonathan Quick in the New York crease. Quick stopped 32 of 33 shots, including a handful of saves in the game's waning moments as the Ducks tried to claw their way back onto the scoreboard.

After losing 2-1 and struggling to generate offense at 5v5, Cronin left no forward line untouched for their Sunday matchup against the Devils and rotated Tristan Luneau in on the blueline for Jackson LaCombe.

Ross Johnston replaced Brett Leason in this game, and there was a fair amount of line shuffling as the game progressed.

James Reimer got the start for the Ducks in this game and stopped 28 of 34 shots. He saved -2.64 goals above expected, but one would be hard-pressed to find a regrettable goal allowed by the Anaheim netminder.

Jacob Markstrom got the nod in the New Jersey crease and stopped 24 of the 26 shots he faced.

Here are my notes from these games:

Defensive Zone Coverage: For the first time this season, the Ducks experienced regular defensive lapses in coverage, leading to four of the eight goals allowed in these two games.

The Ducks ' coverage was irregularly leaky, whether due to puck-watching, misreading assignments, or a miscommunication.

Olen Zellweger: Zellweger led the Ducks in ice time this weekend, playing 43:03 of effective and reliable hockey. His defensive fundamentals have improved dramatically, as has his confidence and offensive awareness at the sport's highest level. He's becoming significantly more than a third pair, power play specialist on the Ducks blueline.

Breakouts: Aside from D-zone coverage, breakouts may have been the largest contributing factor to the Ducks' lack of success in these games.

Early in the Rangers game, defensemen had a difficult time connecting clean passes to their strong-side outlets. As the game wore on, they made necessary adjustments to remedy that.

In their game against the Devils, the outlets struggled to advance pucks beyond the second layer of the New Jersey forecheck. Pucks often innocently seeped to neutral ice for the Devils to regroup with speed.

Trevor Zegras: Though the production hasn't broken through yet, Zegras remains committed to impacting the game on the defensive side of the puck in every zone. He's noticeably engaged in coverage and has added a layer of physicality to his puck retrievals, establishing body position and initiating contact.

His forechecking has been disruptive and he's finding the puck on his stick more each game, and it seems only a matter of time before the dam starts to crack.

Cycle: In the few sustained chances the Ducks got to cycle in the offensive zone, forwards were bringing pucks higher in the zone and defensemen were quick to activate and switch to create high weaves and open up new dangerous pass or shot lanes.

Increased support high in the zone will allow them to attack downhill more regularly and open East/West seams.

Power Play: Though the Ducks power play was held scoreless on three chances in the two games, they were more controlled in their structure and absorbed pressure significantly easier.

The most impactful adjustment they made was to bring Leo Carlsson higher on the left flank and Troy Terry higher from the goal line to the bottom of the left circle. They were able to create looks by playing off of each other and Carlsson had the freedom to rove high in the zone.

It will be curious to monitor the layers that could be added to the structure as the unit becomes more familiar with each other.

The Ducks will look to get back into the win column as their road trip continues on Tuesday when they'll face the New York Islanders at 4 pm PST.

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