Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli opened their checkbook for a glitzy new coaching staff this offseason, but thus far all they’ve accomplished is proving that money can’t buy happiness.
Or wins.
When the Ducks host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, they’ll seek to avert a double-digit losing streak. Coach Joel Quenneville’s nine-game winless stretch is already longer than anything the Ducks put together under his predecessor Greg Cronin, whose longest slump last season was five games. Cronin’s crew dropped eight straight during his first year, one defined by injuries, budget-skimping and not-ready-for-primetime talent.
These Ducks, who also made significant roster investments, are now running neck-and-neck with the abject futility of even the Dallas Eakins era. They’ve won just two of their past 15 decisions, approaching the 1-in-15 tailspin with 13 losses in succession that not-so-mercifully concluded four wayward campaigns under Eakins.
Ducks fans enduring defeat after defeat could at least point to the two franchises with longer playoff droughts, the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres. But former Kings bench boss Todd McLellan has the Wings atop the Atlantic Division, where the Sabres ascended to the East’s first wild-card spot. That’s on the strength of 13 wins in 14 matches, including Buffalo’s 5-3 victory that sent the Ducks home winless from their most recent road trip.
The Ducks have nearly posted the inverse number, 13 losses in 15 opportunities. Per MoneyPuck, their 22.3% playoff odds are less than half those of Buffalo (56%) and under one third of Detroit’s (75.9%). Should those figures hold, the Ducks would own the NHL’s longest playoff drought.
Their eastern swing wasn’t just an 0-4-0 debacle that finished without Troy Terry (upper-body, doubtful for Monday) and Jacob Trouba (personal, likely for Monday). It also saw them shown up in Philadelphia again, this time by one-time leading scorer Trevor Zegras.
One of his two goal celebrations was clearly aimed at the Ducks, who dealt him for a modest return over the summer, as he quickly answered a trade call and hung up using his thumb and pinky. After the game, he said the performance felt “(expletive) amazing” to Flyers broadcaster Scott Hartnell.
Overall, the Ducks surrendered three or more unanswered goals in each of their four losses, which gave them eight regulation Ls among their nine in a row.
They ceded six consecutive goals to the Stars in their last meeting, an 8-3 stampede by Dallas at Honda Center on Dec. 19. Back on Nov. 6, the Ducks surmounted a two-goal deficit and then held three separate two-goal leads en route to a 7-5 victory.
That was one of five instances in which the Ducks put up a touchdown –– they gave up five or more goals in three of those wins –– and eight in which they’ve scored five or more goals in a game this season. Much as their comeback magic has disappeared, their last such showing was over a month ago, when they walloped Chicago 7-1 on Dec. 7. The first four seven-goal displays all came in the first month of 2025-26.
Of late, they’ve lit up the wrong side of the scoreboard, surrendering 22 goals on their four-game journey and five or more in seven of their past eight tilts.
The Stars have also struggled, losing seven of eight contests heading into their back-to-back set against the Kings and Ducks, though they retained the NHL’s second-highest points percentage and total behind Colorado.
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