ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 The season should be savored. The defeat should leave a bitter taste.<\/p>\n
Within their dressing room, the Anaheim Ducks began to process it all after a Game 6 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night that ended their year in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The fact that the Ducks fell to the Golden Knights was no shock. Anaheim had a roster stocked with playoff first-timers while Vegas had 15 players who were part of the 2023 Stanley Cup championship team.<\/p>\n
The Ducks shed their rebuilding skin in this level-up season, in which the stated goal of making the playoffs was met<\/a>. What should stick with them as they head into an important offseason is how Game 6 played out. In the first 70 seconds, Mitch Marner turned defenseman Jackson LaCombe and goalie Luk\u00e1\u0161 Dost\u00e1l inside out with the highlight goal of the playoffs<\/a>, and the Ducks never recovered.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to lose what had mostly been a competitive series against an experienced team. But the Ducks went down without showing anything close to their best in a 5-1 blowout loss.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard,\u201d Ducks right wing Troy Terry said. \u201cI thought this series, even some of the games we lost, we played really well in. And I think we earned the right to be in a Game 6 and try and force a Game 7, and I know everyone was excited for it. It\u2019s a little hard to take right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Marner\u2019s goal was just the start of a nightmare first period for the Ducks, who trailed 3-0 at the end of it.\u00a0The Ducks tried to rise up in the second period, but roaring comebacks \u2014 which the Ducks have become known for \u2014 are much harder to pull off in the playoffs. (Unless the opponent is the Edmonton Oilers.)<\/p>\n \u201cI kind of feel like (the game) was kind of the story of the season,\u201d said Mikael Granlund, who had the Ducks\u2019 only Game 6 goal. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good signs in this team, but at the same time, it\u2019s never easy to lose like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Only one team wins its final playoff game every season, so it\u2019s never easy to process elimination. It doesn\u2019t matter what round that defeat comes in. Some exits are digested better than others. The Ducks didn\u2019t take a lot of solace in losing to the Golden Knights, but they didn\u2019t have a hard time finding optimism. There is a strong belief that they\u2019re now on a winning track, with the playoffs becoming a regular destination.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the regular season, we proved that we\u2019re a really good team,\u201d Terry said. \u201cWe proved we were a little inconsistent at times with all the highs and the lows. And then you get into the playoffs, and you get kind of a taste of it and just what it takes at that level. I think we learned, myself included, just how to play in those games. And that\u2019s kind of the difference in some of these games, in the regular season even.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at a team like Vegas \u2014 like learning how to manage those close games and just the experience of that and the confidence moving into next year. I know that it stings right now, but I think I speak for everyone that we\u2019ll be hungry going into the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Terry referred to the experience as a spark for himself and the Ducks. There should be renewed drive after this taste of the postseason, the first for Anaheim in a long time. Nothing is guaranteed, and Terry repeatedly cautioned that the Ducks can\u2019t take any season for granted, especially when so many of them enjoyed success at the NHL level for the first time.<\/p>\n It should motivate the young core of Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke and LaCombe to want more, to continue their ascent as wildly talented individuals and to be on the winning side of handshake lines \u2014 as they were in the first round against the Oilers. And the veterans who will be back should be determined to make an even longer playoff run.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was fun to play in this,\u201d Terry said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long time. I think I speak for a lot of guys on the team. We\u2019re all just excited to get to work and be back next year. \u201c<\/p>\n The feeling that the Ducks are only starting a run of success was echoed from team headquarters early Friday morning before exit meetings with the players.<\/p>\n