Anaheim has the opposite problem. Ryan Poehling is on IR for 6-8 weeks with an MCL sprain. He crashed knee-first into the post after getting tripped on a rush against Calgary, in the same game where he scored short-handed. Cutter Gauthier took 5 shifts in that game, played 2:18, and went down the tunnel with an upper-body injury. He sat out the rematch. Troy Terry is still on long-term IR with a hip injury.
The cost of those absences showed up right away. In the Calgary rematch, Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson scored to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead after 1 period. Then Anaheim went quiet for the last 40 minutes. Aydar Suniev tied it, Martin Pospisil scored the winner and Yegor Sharangovich added an empty-netter. The Flames picked up their first win of the season, 4-2. When you take away a top winger and your best penalty-killing forward, the middle of the lineup gets thin fast.
Through 6 games the Ducks have shown they can play. They beat Florida 3-2, and on a road swing through Winnipeg and Calgary they won 5-1 and 4-2. Edmonton beat them 5-2 at home, though, and both home losses came against teams that just wore them down. Friday's game probably turns on 2 things: whether Gauthier is back, and how the Ducks' penalty kill holds up without Poehling against a Boston team that has suddenly started scoring from all over the lineup.