{"id":296910,"date":"2026-05-02T18:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/296910\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T18:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:43:09","slug":"after-7-seasons-without-playoffs-hungry-ducks-to-face-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/296910\/","title":{"rendered":"After 7 seasons without playoffs, hungry Ducks to face Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANAHEIM, Calif.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When Joel Quenneville<\/a> took over the long-suffering Ducks<\/a> nearly a year ago, the veteran head coach cautiously said he hoped to get his new team into contention this season for its first playoff spot since 2018.<\/p>\n

His young, hungry Ducks made it to the playoffs, all right \u2014 and they\u2019re clearly not just happy to be here.<\/p>\n

After nearly winning the Pacific Division in a surprisingly strong regular season, these Ducks ended the franchise\u2019s eight-year postseason drought \u2014 and now they\u2019ve eliminated Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the two-time defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers with a six-game series victory in the first round.<\/p>\n

Anaheim finished it off with a 5-2 victory in Game 6 on Thursday night<\/a>, calmly dispatching its more experienced opponents with the poise and potency that this team has shown for long stretches this season. Quenneville could only applaud as his team took the next step on its journey.<\/p>\n

\"Ducks <\/p>\n

Ducks center Leo Carlsson celebrates with left wing Chris Kreider after scoring an empty net goal during Game 6 of their Stanley Cup playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday in Anaheim.<\/p>\n

(Mark J. Terrill \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge win,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cI\u2019m happy for the players. I\u2019m happy for the fans. And now we\u2019ve got a taste of playoff hockey, and I think we can feel at this moment that it\u2019s so much fun playing games that have the meaning, and the building being as loud and excited as it is. It seems to grow from this level on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future has finally arrived in Orange County, and the raucous sellout crowds that have supported this team all season long are loving the return of playoff hockey for the team that won California\u2019s first Stanley Cup in 2007.<\/p>\n

The Ducks also had one of the NHL\u2019s best teams while winning five straight division titles through the middle of the 2010s, but those teams twice lost in the Western Conference finals before Anaheim fell into a rut of seven straight years without a playoff berth.<\/p>\n

Those years of high draft picks have led to a roster with impressive high-end talent in its young core, and general manager Pat Verbeek added a slate of veteran signees to bolster it. Quenneville was the next huge piece of the puzzle, and the three-time Stanley Cup winner as a head coach has guided the Ducks to a first-round postseason upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that (at) our best is a really good team when we\u2019re playing the right way,\u201d said Troy Terry, the longest-serving Ducks player since 2018. \u201cWe proved it to ourselves that we can do it consistently in a series, and our group should have a lot of confidence going forward in what makes us a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n

After stumbling into a 2-6-2 slump down the stretch and blowing the division lead, the third-place Ducks drew the playoff-tested Oilers in the first round. It looked like a nightmare matchup for an inexperienced team \u2014 but the Ducks were ready.<\/p>\n

Anaheim stormed to a 3-1 series lead while pumping 20 goals past the Oilers, who looked slower and creakier than the Ducks. Edmonton showed off its postseason poise in Game 5, throttling the Ducks in a 4-1 victory and putting the onus on their inexperienced opponents to finish off the series.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what the Ducks did: They scored three goals in the first period, jumped to a 4-1 lead after two, and never allowed the Oilers to get up enough momentum to seriously threaten a comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just proud with the maturity level of that game,\u201d Terry said. \u201cFor how inexperienced and young our team is, it\u2019s exciting moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anaheim also got a star-making performance from defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who led the team with nine points while also leading its defensive effort against McDavid and Draisaitl. LaCombe, a late addition to the U.S. Olympic team last winter, led the Ducks with a plus-6 rating while playing 22 1\/2 minutes per game and taking just one penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us young guys are learning a lot as we go along, and I thought we got better throughout the series,\u201d LaCombe said. \u201cIt means a lot for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ducks have extended their breakthrough season for at least another couple of weeks, and they\u2019re relatively healthy. Their next opponent will be the Vegas Golden Knights \u2014 another experienced playoff team loaded with veterans.<\/p>\n

The Ducks and their fans are thrilled to take the next step on this unlikely journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we get to experience another round, and I think this is healthy for us,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a young group that … you don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to play, but you\u2019re certainly excited what the upside is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beacham writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When Joel Quenneville took over the long-suffering Ducks nearly a year ago, the veteran head coach cautiously…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,18693,12411,423,125912,1719,37614,1741,8841,125914,125913,278,425,427,72],"class_list":["post-296910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-first-round","tag-game","tag-hungry-ducks","tag-joel-quenneville","tag-leon-draisaitl","tag-lot","tag-playoff","tag-playoff-hockey","tag-poise","tag-season","tag-series","tag-team","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296910","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=296910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}