The Anaheim Ducks neared the end of their six-game road trip on Thursday with a matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Ducks were coming off of one of their poorest offensive performances of the 2024-25 season on Tuesday with a 3-0 loss to the Washington Capitals.
Takeaways from the Ducks 3-0 Loss to the Capitals
The Lightning came into this game after recently seeing their four-game point streak snapped on Tuesday when they lost 6-2 to the Boston Bruins.
Ducks head coach Greg Cronin made some significant changes within the middle six of the forward group for this game.
Mason McTavish, seemingly in an effort to spark offense for himself and Leo Carlsson, found himself on Carlsson’s wing opposite Alex Killorn.
Isac Lundestrom got the call to center the third line between Cutter Gauthier and Robby Fabbri.
The defensive pairs remained the same from Tuesday against Washington.
Lukas Dostal got the start for the Ducks in this game and saved 32 of 35 shots.
Andrei Vasilevskiy took the crease for Tampa and stopped 34 of 37 shots.
Here are my notes from this game:
Mason McTavish/Leo Carlsson: This was an interesting revelation when the lineup was released before puck drop for this game. Both Carlsson and McTavish had been struggling to produce of late, so pairing them together where they can share center duties and create space for each other made sense.
Tampa Bay mostly matched up their top line against Carlsson’s line, and Carlsson’s line walked away with a shot share of 11-0 and 71.59% of the expected goals share.
McTavish was a menace on the forecheck and in tight areas of the ice, angling well and pressuring hard to force battles or broken outlets. The Ducks’ second goal was a direct result of his spectacular F1 effort.
It’s unclear if it was due to McTavish’s presence and interplay or his seizing the game, but Carlsson seemed to have more open ice to operate and generate rush chances, where he’s at his best. He pounced on loose pucks in the middle 100 feet of the ice and decisively churned his legs to push defenders back on their heels.
Penalty Kill: Tampa Bay did well to draw the higher of the defensemen in the diamond as far away from the goal line as possible so they could outnumber the low defenseman in the diamond below the bottoms of the circles.
The low defenseman has to recognize when his defensive partner is near the tops of the circles and remain with the net-front attacker until support arrives. An enjoyable wrinkle from the Lightning power play was running a switch with the weakside forwards to draw the defender high in the zone and run a backside cut to the far post.
Pavel Mintyukov: Mintyukov had a vintage performance in this game, the 100th of his NHL career. Of late, he’s been more confident to jump lanes and break up passes, join rushes, and remain low on cycles to spread out the opposing structure.
Though all of the Ducks’ goals were scored in a greasy fashion, much to the sure delight of Cronin, they were most dangerous when moving off the puck, drawing defenders away from the home plate area, and collapsing after manufacturing quality shots.
The Ducks will wrap up their road trip on Saturday with a matchup against the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers.
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