Ducks (21-15-2) return to Honda Center for a three-game home stint that begins against the Sharks (18-17-3).<\/p>\n
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. PT and will air on Victory+ and FOX 11.<\/p>\n
Anaheim is looking to turn things around after dropping its last two games, most recently falling to the Kings, 6-1, on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can talk about [how] we want to be a harder-working team this season, but the game tonight didn\u2019t indicate that at all,\u201d head coach Joel Quenneville said after Saturday\u2019s loss. \u201cThe tenaciousness and the relentlessness has to go be part of our identity. But we can\u2019t talk about it. We\u2019ve got to prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the loss was lopsided, the Ducks are still second in the Pacific Division, just one point behind the Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
Jacob Trouba discussed his team\u2019s mindset on how the group needs to find their way through this valley by starting faster and \u201cget back to playing good hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRiding the rollercoaster up and down all year is not really where you want to be,\u201d Trouba said. \u201cJust kind of keep level-headed. We know we\u2019ve got to be better [and] get back to doing the things that made us successful early on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nikita Nesterenko returns to the lineup tonight and Quenneville said he\u2019s looking forward to utilizing Nesterenko\u2019s versatility on the ice. Additionally, Quenneville shared how some new line changes will hopefully give his group a boost in upping their scoring chances.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve had some stretches there where we\u2019re looking for a little bit more ignition or lighten-up some lines to get more productivity,\u201d Quenneville mentioned. \u201cI know we\u2019re not going to score at the rate we did when we started the season throughout the year, but it\u2019d be nice to get a little more consistency in our scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n
After dropping their prior three games, the Sharks got back in the win column on Saturday with a commanding 6-3 victory over the Canucks.<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini leads the team in goals (20), assists (37), and points (57) and extended his point streak to seven games in the win over Vancouver.<\/p>\n
While young, this Sharks group has been jelling and Trouba shared what he and the Ducks are keeping their eyes on ahead of tonight.<\/p>\n
\u201c[They have] high-end skill players that are young,\u201d he said. \u201cCertainly, similar to our group, we\u2019ve got a lot of those guys, too. They\u2019ve been playing really good hockey. I think they<\/p>\n
obviously started slow, and over the last 30 or 25 games, they\u2019ve been playing really well and been winning hockey games, so it\u2019ll be a good test for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonight is the second of four regular season meetings between these two teams. Anaheim beat San Jose in a high-scoring overtime affair, 7-6, back in October.<\/p>\n
Quenneville said Lukas Dostal will get the start for Anaheim while Radko Gudas (illness) and Frank Vatrano (upper-body) will miss the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ducks (21-15-2) return to Honda Center for a three-game home stint that begins against the Sharks (18-17-3). Puck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-379118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}