TORONTO \u2014 Pat Verbeek is in charge of a team ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
The Anaheim Ducks were supposed to continue a slow and steady rebuild this season toward an eventual playoff return further down the road. The club\u2019s general manager has instead watched his young group, led by a veteran bench boss back from the NHL wilderness, get shot out of a cannon. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re working hard, they\u2019re competing,\u201d Verbeek said this week at the league\u2019s annual November meeting of GMs in Toronto. \u201cThe goal going into the season was to play fast, and I think we\u2019re starting to get to that level of playing fast.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tied for second in the overall standings with a surprising 11-4-1 record, Anaheim saw an impressive seven-game winning streak snapped Tuesday in a 4-1 road loss to the league-leading Colorado Avalanche. <\/p>\n
But the Ducks have hung with the big boys through the first 16 games of the schedule, including two victories against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, and triumphs over the New Jersey Devils, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets.<\/p>\n
Anaheim centre Leo Carlsson and his 26 points entered Wednesday\u2019s action tied with Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks for second in the scoring race \u2014 six back of Colorado superstar Nathan MacKinnon.<\/p>\n
Verbeek saw a different player after the six-foot-three, 208-pound Swede suited up for his country alongside elite talent at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last February.<\/p>\n
Set to turn 21 next month and a pending restricted free agent next summer, Carlsson had 26 points in 28 games to close out the 2024-25 schedule. He\u2019s found the scoresheet in all but two games this season, and extended his point streak to 11 contests with Anaheim\u2019s only goal Tuesday in Denver.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re looking at a kid that really got confident,\u201d Verbeek, who ranks 37th all-time in the NHL with 1,424 regular-season games played, said of Carlsson\u2019s demeanour after the 4 Nations. \u201cIt was kind of an understanding from him of, \u2018I guess I can play with these guys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Winger Cutter Gauthier is another young piece of the roster who\u2019s taken a significant step on a team that sits second in the league behind Colorado with 3.94 goals per game.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old struggled with the uptick in speed at the NHL level last season, but has found a rhythm in his second full campaign with 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) out of the gate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey went through their growing pains,\u201d Verbeek said of both players. \u201cIt\u2019s just maturity, it\u2019s experience. They were very good players in junior. It\u2019s a process. It\u2019s just getting comfortable.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Ducks also have a couple of former New York Rangers veterans in defenceman Jacob Trouba and forward Chris Kreider pitching in, solid goaltending from Lukas Dostal, and offensive punch from rookie winger Beckett Sennecke.<\/p>\n
But perhaps the most credit for Anaheim\u2019s start should go to Joel Quenneville as the club looks to end a seven-year playoff drought.<\/p>\n
The second-winningest head coach in NHL history was hired in May after almost four years out of the game for his role in the Chicago Blackhawks\u2019 sexual assault scandal. Quenneville took responsibility, acknowledged his inaction, and said he was a changed man when he got the job with Anaheim.<\/p>\n
Verbeek has seen an immediate impact on and off the ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstant credibility with his resume,\u201d he said of the three-time Cup winner in Chicago. \u201cAll the things that he\u2019s preached to the team during training camp, practices \u2026 the players have done it and they\u2019ve been rewarded for it. Now there\u2019s the belief and the buy-in. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor any good team, that has to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
NEXT HALL CALL<\/p>\n
The Hockey Hall of Fame welcomed Joe Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny, Jennifer Botterill, Brianna Decker, Jack Parker and Dani\u00e8le Sauvageau as its class of 2025 this week.<\/p>\n
Names potentially in the running for next year\u2019s rollcall include Patrice Bergeron, Carey Price, Eric Staal, Patrick Marleau, Henrik Zetterberg, Rod Brind\u2019Amour, Bernie Nicholls, Keith Tkachuk and Meghan Duggan. <\/p>\n
HAPPY HUGHES<\/p>\n
The Canadiens took a big step with their playoff return last spring. And much like the Ducks, they have exceeded expectations a month into the new season.<\/p>\n
Montreal tops the Atlantic Division at 10-4-2 thanks in large part to the top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re happy with the way the team is playing,\u201d GM Kent Hughes said in French following Tuesday\u2019s meeting of NHL executives at a downtown Toronto hotel. \u201cThey\u2019re playing a more mature game than what we\u2019ve seen since I\u2019ve been here. That comes with experience, and we know that every year the players gain experience. But there\u2019s a lot of work to do. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be important to manage our consistency, to be able to handle the downs \u2014 when they come \u2014 in a better manner than in the past year. I\u2019m confident that they\u2019re in position to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2025.<\/p>\n
Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Pat Verbeek is in charge of a team ahead of schedule. The Anaheim Ducks were supposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-278867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}