In a season full of terrible games, the Ducks’ 5-0 loss to the Dallas Stars is up there (or down there) with the worst.
The Ducks continued their four-game road trip with a stop in Dallas to face the Stars, who sit at the top of the Central Division with a 14-6-4 (32 points) record. The last place Ducks looked to try to turn things around after losing three straight, including a heartbreaking overtime loss in Nashville against the Predators on Tuesday.
The first period gave hope that maybe the Ducks might get things going and battle with a really good team to the end. The time of possession was very similar in the opening period, but the Stars were able to get more high-danger scoring chances. Anthony Stolarz was masterful in the first period, making impressive saves on high-danger scoring chances by the Stars. Stolarz’s only blemish was when Arcadia native, Jason Robertson, banked one off of Stolarz’s back from behind the goal line. The first period could have easily ended 2-0, maybe even 3-0, but Stolarz kept the Ducks within one.
Things started to go south in the second period for Anaheim. Dallas started to control the game’s tempo, and the Ducks just could not keep up. Stolarz stood on his head and made some more high-quality saves, including a skate save to rob Wyatt Johnston, who was all alone in front of the net.
Then Robertson rings one off the post and in from the slot on the power play to make it 2-0. Then a few minutes later, Joel Kiviranta gets left alone in front of the net and bangs in a rebound; now it’s 3-0. Dallas would continue to control the game and have the Ducks playing chase for the rest of the period.
Just over a minute into the third period, Robertson nets his third goal of the night on the power play, eerily similar to his second goal. The SoCal native completes the hat trick against one of his hometown teams to extend the lead to 4-0. Robertson now has an other-worldly 22 goals in 24 games played this year. That is good for most in the NHL.
Nathan Beaulieu tried to make a pass to Kevin Shattenkirk on the half wall to set up a breakout. Still, Shattenkirk could not handle the pass and former Duck, Jani Hakanpaa, fires a shot that gets blocked, and Johnston ends up with the puck and stick handles his way to the front of the net, where he roofs a backhander past Stolarz to put the nail in the coffin 5-0.
Beaulieu was playing in Colton White’s spot last night despite White being one of the Ducks’ best defensemen all season, and it showed tonight. The Ducks defense looked like five cats following a laser pointer, constantly falling out of position and leaving Stars forwards by themselves in high-danger areas.
The Ducks dropped this one 5-0, and it was a down night, to say the least, for everyone, including the top line, who the Ducks have relied on for most of the offensive production this year. The Henrique-Zegras-Terry first line had an abysmal 6.3% xG%. Far below the other three lines for the Ducks tonight, who also had astonishingly low numbers.
The best line tonight for the Ducks in terms of xG% was once again the Jones-McTavish-Leason line, who had a 31.4%. The Grant-Strome-Vatrano second line only mustered 23.0%, and the Carrick-Lundestrom-Silfverberg third line had a 29.7%.
Everyone knew it was going to be a tall order for the Ducks to muster any offense tonight, considering they were facing Stars goalie Jake Oettinger. Going into last night, Oettinger had 6.6 goals saved above expected, which is good for 9th most in the NHL. Oettinger really was not challenged last night, and he coasted to a 31-save shutout, his second of the season.
The Ducks now head to Minnesota to take on the Wild on a Saturday Matinee that begins at 11:00 a.m. PST.
