A feel-good story in the early weeks of the season, as they looked to wave goodbye to a painful period in franchise history, the Anaheim Ducks have seen their tremendous start transition into a tailspin.

Their bid to end a seven-year playoff drought seemed all but certain to succeed during a goal-fueled 11-3-1 run to open the season, and a 19-10-1 record as recently as Dec. 9. Instead, the Ducks have lost seven consecutive games. They’ve won only two of their last 13 and have gained just six points in the last month.

Road losses to the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers to begin the second half of the schedule dropped Anaheim out of a playoff spot it seemed to have on lockdown. It doesn’t get any easier for the Ducks. There are games at Carolina and red-hot Buffalo to finish off their current trip. They’ll return home to see Dallas, play a home-and-home with rival Los Angeles and take on NHL-best Colorado, suddenly resurgent Seattle and ever-dangerous Edmonton on another road swing.

“First and foremost, our compete just has to be better,” defenseman Jackson LaCombe said. “I think that’s just a key that we have to figure out and come together and do. There’s always areas you can clean up, but I think for us that’s kind of our biggest thing.”

This midpoint is a critical juncture for the Ducks. They must fix their issues to make a playoff push. How did they get here?

The good

The come-up by Carlsson and Gauthier

No one can ignore the large strides taken by forwards Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier. The two remain early in their NHL careers — Carlsson is in his third season, Gauthier is in his second full campaign — but they’ve established themselves as franchise pieces. Carlsson is tied for the team lead in scoring with 42 points, while Gauthier is third with 40, pacing them with 20 goals.

The two are key elements that any prospective team wants. Carlsson has become a highly productive No. 1 center and Gauthier is a high-end sniper capable of filling the net over a season and affecting a game’s trajectory with a single shot. With Carlsson only 21 years old and Gauthier 22 (in over a week), the Ducks can look forward to both putting up numbers for years. As of now, they’re on different lines, but they’ve often played together as well.

Terry’s quiet consistency

When Troy Terry signed his seven-year, $49-million extension in the summer of 2023, the Ducks locked up a homegrown winger who broke out in a big way after three years of staggered development and became one of their top offensive talents. Mind you, this was during a time when Anaheim moved into a rebuilding phase and transitioned away from the Ryan Getzlaf era. But in the last two seasons, Terry looked as though he’d hit a plateau. He wasn’t producing like a $7 million forward.

The NHL’s salary-cap spike does necessitate recalibration, because true top-six wingers now make $8 million AAV and above. But Terry is delivering after his career appeared to stagnate. He hasn’t gone more than three consecutive games without a point and he has had only two of those droughts. He’s had 11 multi-point games, leads Anaheim with 29 assists and should easily clear his career high of 67 points. The Ducks now have more high-end offensive talent and that has allowed him to flourish as others draw attention.

A new Calder Trophy contender

High draft picks in recent years, coupled with the team’s rebuild, gave young players the opportunity to make an immediate impact. Trevor Zegras, who’s now in Philadelphia, was the runner-up to Detroit’s Moritz Seider as the NHL’s top rookie in 2022. Gauthier finished fifth in voting for last year’s Calder in what was a standout rookie class. Beckett Sennecke has elbowed into the conversation this season.

With his 14th goal of the season on Monday, the 19-year-old Sennecke has scored in three consecutive games and his total leads all rookies. He’s also second in points behind Montreal’s Ivan Demidov. The Ducks are not punishing him as he learns from his bad penalties and turnovers. To be clear, Matthew Schaefer is special and does incredible things for the New York Islanders as an 18-year-old defenseman. Schaefer is the definitive Calder favorite, but if Sennecke continues to produce, he should be a deserving finalist.

A working, effective fourth line

Did anyone anticipate Ross Johnston playing nearly every game and already posting 10 assists and 12 points, easily clearing previous highs in both? Neither did I. But the enforcing left wing is having a terrific contract year. He has appeared in all but two games and given the Ducks quality forechecking while making plays off that. “The Boss” has been much more than an adept fighter and he has helped upgrade the fourth line from previous seasons.

Ryan Poehling, who came to Anaheim in the Zegras trade, has emerged after a slow start and infused the club with strong skating and penalty-killing. Jansen Harkins has filled in nicely when Poehling moved up in the lineup as injuries developed. Younger talent has pushed Alex Killorn down the lines, but the veteran remains one of Anaheim’s dedicated defensive forwards. He gets minutes because he’s responsible and usually plays a smart game.

Offense coming from defense

With a goal on Monday, his seventh, Jacob Trouba took back the Ducks’ lead among defensemen. It’s the most the 31-year-old has scored since potting eight for the New York Rangers in 2021-22. Trouba’s offense from the back end has been unexpected, given that his primary role these days is to be a sturdy defender and chew up five-on-five and penalty kill minutes. But the Ducks getting goals from the blue line is expected, given their makeup.

Anaheim has 28 goals from defensemen, which ranks third in the league behind Columbus and Washington. There isn’t a double-digit type on the roster, such as Zach Werenski or Jakob Chychrun, but mobile puck-movers LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger have six, five and five goals, respectively. Even young right-hand shots Ian Moore and Drew Helleson have contributed. It isn’t just the forwards who have made for an offense that’s tied for fifth (3.31 goals per game), a serious jump from 30th (2.65) last season.

The bad

A slumping Carlsson affects the whole

At one point, the silky Swede was clicking at a 100-point pace. That would have made him Anaheim’s first player — and only other player — to hit that threshold since Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya both did it in 1988-99. The Ducks seemed to have a certified new superstar on their hands, the big franchise pivot to officially take the throne from Getzlaf.

The last few weeks have shown that Carlsson still has a lot of growth to do, because he now sees a steady diet of opposing top-line counterparts and shutdown defensemen dedicated to keeping him off the scoresheet. Carlsson has had less time to operate. He has only one assist in his last nine games and has gone without a goal in his last 11. Carlsson isn’t the only reason the Ducks are struggling, but he hasn’t been able to lead them out of this deepening losing spell.

The Ducks need Leo Carlsson to rediscover his scoring ways. (Gary A. Vasquez / Imagn Images)

The grizzled ones look more frayed than sharp

Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek surrounded his young core with several veterans who’ve managed plenty of 82-game seasons and have played in many meaningful games. What matters is whether those veterans still have enough high-level hockey left in their tanks. That was the case early on this season. Not so much now.

Chris Kreider has characterized that. His goal on Monday snapped a 15-game drought, but he has tallied only four times after a blistering 10 goals in his first 13 games with Anaheim. Mikael Granlund has been streaky since overcoming his lower-body issues. Both have quiet on the power play, with Kreider’s net-front presence not as effective as early on. Radko Gudas has been OK, but Moore, the 24-year-old rookie, arguably has been better. Killorn is already playing a lesser role. Trouba’s defensive recognition and positioning have slipped.

Slumping goalies aren’t making enough saves

Lukáš Dostál is a workhorse and his play was fantastic in October and was still strong through November. Ever since a rough Dec. 19 game against Dallas, in which he was pulled after allowing four goals on seven shots, Dostál has won only one of his eight starts while posting a lowly .837 save percentage. Worse than that, the potential starting netminder for Czechia in the Olympics has made 4.4 fewer saves than expected. More of the big and timely saves he was making at the start of the season are winding up in the net.

Petr Mrázek hasn’t been good. Just two of his eight starts included better than a .900 save percentage and he left Monday’s game due to injury after giving up five goals on 24 shots. Ville Husso was recalled on an emergency basis. Husso provided some key starts when Dostál missed time because of an upper-body injury. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Ducks went with Husso as Dostál’s backup going forward.

The ugly

Team defense is a misnomer

The following statistic should leave the Ducks thoroughly embarrassed. Their 158 goals against are the most in the NHL. They’ve now given up 11 more goals than any other team. Teams have scored five or more goals against them in five of the seven games during their current losing streak. The Ducks have allowed fewer than three goals just 11 times, with the last time coming Dec. 15 in a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers.

Subpar goaltending is one thing. But the Ducks’ inability to consistently defend well — be it the picking up the opposing team’s late attackers off the puck or allowing players to repeatedly be open in the slot area for scoring chances or tip plays — is the single biggest reason for their swift downfall. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Ducks allow the second-most scoring chances and the most high-danger chances. That’s a big reason why they’ve given up the most five-on-five goals. High-event hockey is entertaining, but it’s still losing hockey if you can’t defend. The forwards often leave their zone too early. The strategy of using seven defensemen to fill six lineup spots hasn’t fostered consistent, dependable pairings.

They’re constantly playing from behind

An easy way to play uphill night after night is to allow more first-period goals than any other team. The Ducks have done that. They’ve been outscored 51-36 in the opening 20 minutes. And they have scored the first goal just 15 times in their 43 games. Coincidentally, two of those games came on Monday and Tuesday, but then they promptly allowed two goals in the first period to Washington and Philadelphia while never forging a tie or re-taking the lead.

Comeback victories are dramatic and can burn memories (such as “The Comeback on Katella”) forever. But to continually rely on that is no way to become a playoff team. The Ducks have the capacity to score — and did outscore their mistakes early on — but that is unsustainable over 82 games. While they’ve won every game they have led after two periods, the Ducks have done that only 12 times. They’ve entered the third period with a deficit on 19 occasions, and just once have they emerged victorious.

What happened to Strome and Vatrano?

Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano were the first two notable free agents Verbeek signed in 2022 as the GM began to reshape Anaheim following an initial teardown. Strome missed only three games in his first three Ducks seasons, scoring 41 points in each while giving the club some versatility up front. Vatrano scored a total of 80 goals in his first three years, including a breakout 37-goal campaign in 2023-24.

Both have been relegated to the bottom two lines while dealing with severely diminished roles in coach Joel Quenneville’s first season. Strome has become a regular healthy scratch. Vatrano is out with a shoulder fracture, but was having a miserable season before that. The emergence of Anaheim’s youngsters pushed the two down the lineup, and while both could have given the Ducks great depth, they’ve also struggled to adapt to dramatically reduced ice time. Strome has another year left on his contract, but Vatrano just started a three-year extension he signed a year ago.