After being charred by the Flames in Calgary on Thursday and reshuffling their deck in goal Friday, the Ducks were onto Vancouver for Saturday’s duel with the Canucks.
Following their loss in Calgary, the Ducks were mathematically eliminated from a playoff picture from which they’d long faded. Meanwhile, the Canucks’ winless stretch of three games in which they’ve been outscored 15-7 has effectively relegated them to scheduling tee times this spring as well.
Ducks goalie John Gibson sustained the latest in a series of injuries that have hampered an otherwise superb campaign, one that started with him being shelved by an appendectomy before it even began. The Ducks recalled veteran netminder Ville Husso from the minors and announced that prospect goaltender Damian Clara, who spent his year in Europe split not only between clubs but leagues and countries as well, had arrived in San Diego to ply his trade for the Gulls.
In Vancouver, the Ducks will face a team that might be hard-pressed to find fumes in its gas tank, one looking like it will miss the playoffs after being the NHL’s biggest riser last season.
“If you’re struggling as a player and you want to turn your game around, you’ve got to believe in yourself. Plus, we’ve got a bunch of young guys, and you owe it to them to keep pushing,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet told reporters after Wednesday’s blowout loss, 5-0, to the not-so-competitive Seattle Kraken.
The Ducks’ own youth brigade has been increasingly menacing down the stretch, even in a game in which they squeezed out a solitary goal against Calgary. It was the Alberta boy, Calgary-born and Bonnyville-raised Olen Zellweger, scoring his second career goal against the Flames. He has accumulated five points in three games against Calgary in his career, and the 21-year-old defenseman’s parents were on hand Thursday.
“They make a ton of sacrifices for you. When they can watch you, especially at this level, you want to go out there and leave it all out there. It felt great to do that,” Zellweger told Victory+.
The Ducks appear relatively locked into finishing 12th in the West, albeit still as one of the most-improved clubs year-over-year after a dismal and injury-riddled 2023-24 campaign. Their quest to finish above .500 remains in play. Though they arrived in Vancouver with a .493 points percentage, reaching that modest benchmark could still prove daunting.
After the Canucks, to whom they’ve dropped two of three decisions already, the Ducks will face those same Flames along with five playoff-bound teams to close out their schedule.
They’ve beaten both Winnipeg and Edmonton twice and played the Kings tough, including one shootout victory. But they have yet to beat Calgary, Minnesota or Colorado this season, going 0-5-2 to date against those opponents.
Ducks at Vancouver
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
Where: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia
TV: Victory+, KCOP (Ch. 13)
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