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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 19: Ville Husso #33 of the Anaheim Ducks defends against J.T. Miller #10 of the New York Rangers during the first period at Madison Square Garden on October 19, 2026 in New York City. The Rangers defeated the Ducks 5-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The Anaheim Ducks may have only lost to the New York Rangers by three goals, but their performance was way uglier than it looked.
With just over a minute to go, Nick Jensen scored in his season debut, nullifying a Rangers shutout. The Ducks played the puck well off the boards, and Frank Vatrano found Alex Killorn with a backward pass.
Killorn passed to Jensen, who was wide open just outside the left circle. Jensen had one Rangers player in front of him and easily shot the puck past goaltender Dylan Garand to end New York’s shutout bid.
But that didn’t erase the fact that the Ducks let the Rangers build a commanding 5-0 lead through the game’s first 58 minutes and 51 seconds before Jensen scored. A.J. Greer tacked on one more at the 19:27 mark, and the Ducks ended up losing 5-2.
Looking at the numbers, it heavily implies that one team took full advantage of its opportunities while the other didn’t.
Squandered Opportunities, Poor Defense, Plagued The Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks have now lost three games in a row and haven’t scored over two goals in a single one of those contests. On Monday night, the Ducks created more opportunities, evidenced by their 52.6 Corsi For Percentage at 5-on-5.
They outshot the Rangers 31-30, won the turnover battle, and even had three power-play opportunities. Anaheim’s power play is still one of the better units in the league, converting 24.14 percent of their opportunities into goals. But they were 0-for-3 on Monday night.
The Ducks also couldn’t respond to the Rangers’ rush early. They had terrible coverage on Sean Durzi in front of the net, and he easily beat goaltender Ville Husso to put the Rangers up 1-0. The same thing happened when J.T. Miller scored on the power play in the second period. Gabe Perreault was uncovered near the net when he scored at the 10:17 mark of the second.
By that point, the Rangers blew the game open before notching two more goals.
Ducks’ Losing Streak Has Been Full Of Missed Opportunities And Bad Hockey
Go back to last Tuesday’s loss vs. the Calgary Flames, and the Ducks took advantage of a power-play goal in the first period to go up 2-1. That was the high-water mark for Anaheim over the past week, as they ended up blowing the game in the final 40 minutes.
Throughout this three-game skid, Anaheim is 1-for-13 on the power play. They started the season as one of the hottest teams on the man advantage, converting six of their first 16 attempts and even notching a short-handed goal.
Anaheim started the season 4-1-0. Yet in those four games, only 48.6 percent of their faceoffs came in the offensive zone at 5-on-5. They posted a Corsi For Percentage of 48.2. In the three games since, the Ducks have a Corsi For of 52.7, and 57.0 percent of their starts have come in the offensive zone.
It’s another example of how opportunities have routinely hurt the Anaheim Ducks. It’s also worth noting that they have won just 39.8 percent of their faceoffs over the past three contests. That number improved to 45.6 percent against the Rangers, but it didn’t do much to affect the outcome.
Overall, the Ducks demonstrated yet again that missed opportunities and bad play in the defensive zone will lead to blowout losses. Some of those losses look a lot worse than the final score suggests when one takes a deeper dive.
Todd Matthews Todd Matthews is a veteran sportswriter with years of experience covering the NHL, NFL, and other major sports. His background includes team-specific coverage, breaking news, analysis, roster developments, player trends, and league-wide storylines. He joined Heavy in 2026 and previously wrote for FanSided. More about Todd Matthews