The Ducks will return to the Honda Center ice on Wednesday for the first time since Feb. 3, as they’ll host Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the Edmonton Oilers.
The Ducks and Oilers are in a group of four teams separated by a single point, currently occupying the second and third playoff spots in the Pacific Division and the two Western Conference wild-card slots.
Presently though precariously in a playoff position, four key factors could determine whether the Ducks can make their first postseason appearance since 2018.
Carlsson returns to the fold
Leo Carlsson sat fourth in the NHL in points on Dec. 1, but since then he has been tied for 394th.
Of vital note, he missed nearly a month of action prior to the Olympic break, but his output had already tailed off significantly before his stint in the pressbox. Both his dip in production and lack of availability were the result of a Morel-Lavallée lesion that ultimately required surgery on Carlsson’s thigh to correct the cumbersome, painful issue.
That cost him his first Olympics, but the ascendant Swedish star now has an opportunity to take the helm of the Ducks’ attack with healthy legs under him. At his best, Carlsson creates tempo and displays extraordinary creativity. He could resume driving their offense as he did in the first two months of the campaign.
Defensive gains
The last game Carlsson played was a loss in Buffalo that was the Ducks’ ninth straight, a tailspin that exceeded anything the Ducks had seen in two years under coach Joel Quenneville’s predecessor, Greg Cronin, with decidedly more lackluster rosters.
Yet sans Carlsson, and also without Troy Terry and Mason McTavish for sizable stretches, the Ducks reeled off seven straight wins and nine of 11 victories overall heading into the break. That was on the heels of a rapid transformation in the defensive zone.
During their surge, they were the fourth-stingiest defense in the NHL and its ninth-ranked penalty kill. They had sat 25th on the PK and dead last in goals against to that point, yet they were middle-of-the-pack in terms of goals for and power-play efficiency for that parsimonious period. With a healthy group up front and some success in their own end, they could coalesce into a complete team down the home stretch.
Deadline additions
General manager Pat Verbeek let his decision to sell or stand pat go down to the wire last season with the Ducks on the fringe of the playoff race as the trade deadline approached. Ultimately, he moved defenseman Brian Dumoulin, signifying yet another season as sellers, the Ducks’ fourth in four campaigns with Verbeek running the show.
Beyond the mild discouragement some veterans like Ryan Strome expressed, two sources from that team confirmed to SCNG that the lack of additions dealt a blow to team morale, despite the respectable effort late in the schedule that left them on the cusp of their first .500-or-better season in seven years. Encouragingly, the front office did stop flirting with the cap floor, spending firmly above it, albeit nowhere near the ceiling, over the summer.
While the Ducks have had to play a numbers game at times with their young defensemen and improved their forward depth considerably – rookie Beckett Sennecke along with veterans Mikael Granlund, Chris Kreider and Ryan Poehling have all been strong additions – both their position in the standings and their recent history of stripping from the roster every March dictate that they enrich their group at the deadline.
Experience tipping the scales
The Ducks still have a young core with Carlsson, McTavish, Jackson LaCombe, Cutter Gauthier and Lukáš Dostál all being 25 or younger. Yet they now boast Kreider and defenseman Jacob Trouba, who went to two conference finals with the New York Rangers, as well as two-time Stanley Cup winner Alex Killorn and a four-time champ in Quenneville.
Trouba has regained his form after a tumultuous 2024-25 that also saw him get traded and persist through injuries, and he notched three points in his final two games before the pause. Kreider has 18 goals that have come mostly in clusters: nine goals in as many games to start the year and four in four shortly before the break. Killorn scored seven of his 18 goals in 2023-24 during March and seven of his 19 last year in March as well. That has also been the case in his career overall, as his 56 March goals are 17 more than he has in any other month.
Ultimately, this is where Quenneville, whose fall from grace found a soft landing spot in Anaheim, will earn his salary. He was part of the Colorado Avalanche’s first championship as an assistant coach in 1996 and won three titles in Chicago from 2010 to 2015. That Blackhawks group was “sitting on go,” Quenneville said, in a way that the Ducks could be soon if they aren’t already. At 67, Quenneville will first be tasked with bringing the Ducks’ ship into the playoff port, then seeing how far a postseason voyage can take them.
Edmonton at Ducks
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Honda Center
TV: Victory+
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