The Ducks (21-20-3) head to Buffalo for the final game of their four-game road trek as they take on the Sabres (23-15-4).<\/p>\n
Puck drop is set for 4 p.m. PT and will air on Victory+ and KCOP-13.<\/p>\n
Anaheim is still looking for its first win since Dec. 20 as the team most recently fell to the Hurricanes, 5-2, on Thursday night. Ryan Poehling and Mikael Granlund scored in the loss.<\/p>\n
With the Ducks falling out of playoff contention for the first time since early October, head coach Joel Quenneville noted how critical it is for his team to course correct through consistency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of areas we\u2019ve got to get better and more consistent in,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s the mindset or the confidence in doing it, but there\u2019s gotta be an urgency for us to change the momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buffalo heads into this game off a 5-2 victory over the Rangers. The Sabres are one of the hottest teams in hockey right now, winning 12 of their last 13 games.<\/p>\n
With these two teams seemingly heading in different ways as of late, Quenneville noted how tonight\u2019s game could be a great opportunity for the Ducks to get back on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re on a roll,\u201d Quenneville said of Buffalo. \u201cThey\u2019re in the opposite direction we are when we started and they\u2019re in an opposite direction than we are right now. The roles are reversed and give them credit [for] how they\u2019ve turned it around. We\u2019re looking forward to doing what we can to get back on track and look at how quickly you can turn your season around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff noted caution when discussing the Ducks saying he knows what it\u2019s like when a team\u2019s had a downward stretch, noting it only makes you a more hungry and dangerous team to your opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re going to see a really desperate team tonight, for sure,\u201d Ruff said. \u201cI think they\u2019re physical, they\u2019ve got some big players. They\u2019ve got some defense that can punish you, too. We\u2019re going to have to be on top of our game plan; playing the game fast, get the pucks in behind, winning footraces. But they\u2019ve got skill, they\u2019ve got size, and there\u2019s not game where you can take anyone for granted and we\u2019re certainly not going to take these guys for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first meeting between the Ducks and Sabres this season. The two teams will meet again in Anaheim on March 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ducks (21-20-3) head to Buffalo for the final game of their four-game road trek as they take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-128376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}