GAME 3: Anaheim Ducks (1-1-0, 2 PTS) vs Pittsburgh Penguins (2-1-0, 4 PTS)

When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Pacific

Where: Honda Center, Anaheim, Calif.

Local TV: FOX 11 KTTV, Victory+

Starting Goaltenders: Ducks – Lukáš Dostál; Penguins – Arturs Silovs

Injuries: Ducks – Ryan Strome (IR, upper-body), Jansen Harkins (IR, upper-body); Penguins – Kris Letang (day-to-day, lower-body), Rutger McGroarty (IR), Kevin Hayes (IR, upper-body), Joel Blomqvist (IR)

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The new look Anaheim Ducks don their glowing orange home uniforms for the first time this season, as the Ducks return to Honda Center for their home opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday following two-game season-opening road trip.

Anaheim split its opening trip with a 3-1 loss in Seattle and a 7-6 overtime, comeback victory in San Jose, but the overly encouraging thing was the pace and style of play, which was immediately evident from the season-opening period in Seattle.

“We’re a really good team at five-on-five,” Troy Terry said of his early takeaways. “It was kind of how it felt. The game in Seattle got away from us just with some mental mistakes. I thought we controlled a lot of that game up until we kind of lost it. Then same in San Jose. I thought five-on-five, doing some really good things, controlling the game… It was big to see some power play goals, which has been something that’s obviously hurt us in the past. I think we should be feeling confident as a group.”

A main key for the Ducks early under coach Joel Quenneville has been cutting off plays early in the defensive zone and simply having the puck on their own sticks more. Aside from some mental lapses in transition that led to goals, as Terry alluded to, the Ducks’ new system is working as intended and allowing the offense to get to work on its relentless, high-energy forecheck.

“Everybody is starting to understand the D zone a lot more,” Radko Gudas said. “Everybody’s finding where they’re supposed to be in the coverage. So it’s really fun to see us learning and have the layers behind each other and helping each other out in some D zone situations and just getting to know the system and getting to know the tendency of the new guys. I think it’s one of the more exciting times of the year for the players just finding out how the player is going to react in certain situations.”

The next test for this defensive system is the hardened veteran leadership of the Pittsburgh Penguins, particularly their perennial stars in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. It is a interesting hodgepodge of a Penguins lineup with its longtime stalwarts in Crosby, Malkin, Kris Letang and former Duck Rickard Rakell, as well as young players like their 2025 first-round pick Benjamin Kindel.

“They’re a lot younger than they were last year,” Gudas said. “They still have a lot of skill. They have some of the best players arguably in the last few decades. So they’re obviously dangerous out there, so we’re going to make sure that we don’t give them free offense. We want to play our full 60 minutes that we know we can. We want to hold on for the puck don’t give them free offense.”

The only line-up change for the Ducks is Alex Killorn and Troy Terry swapping on the first and third lines, respectively, and Lukáš Dostál returning to the net.

Beckett Sennecke will look to become the first teenager in NHL history to score in each of his team’s first three games, and if he does, he’ll join Paul Kariya as the second Ducks rookie to accomplish the feat.

Anaheim has won nine straight home openers. That’s the second-longest active streak in the NHL behind only Toronto and Boston, which extended to 10 straight this season.

Chris Kreider-Leo Carlsson-Alex Killorn

Cutter Gauthier-Mason McTavish-Beckett Sennecke

Frank Vatrano-Mikael Granlund-Troy Terry

Ross Johnston-Ryan Poehling-Nikita Nesterenko

Jackson LaCombe-Radko Gudas

Olen Zellweger-Jacob Trouba

Pavel Mintyukov-Drew Helleson

Projected Ducks Scratches: Sam Colangelo