Anaheim's last couple of weeks have been rough in their own way. The Ducks started a 4-game East trip with a 15-hour travel day and then lost to the Rangers, Islanders and Devils, scoring 2 goals or fewer each night. Joel Quenneville didn't sugarcoat it, saying his team was "a little bit out of sorts" and that "we got to be better than we are." Then came the Flyers game. Philadelphia led 2-0 after the 1st, and Anaheim answered with 3 in the 2nd and 2 more in the 3rd to win 5-4. That was the first time in 6 games they'd scored more than 2.
The Ducks get to come home for this one, and they have Sunday and Monday off to recover from the trip. Vancouver plays at home Sunday and then flies in with 1 day in between. Over a full season that kind of schedule edge doesn't count for much. Against a team that's been getting outshot and outworked for 3 weeks, it might.
Both blue lines are short-handed, though. Anaheim lost Pavel Mintyukov to IR with a lower-body injury, and Ian Moore is still "a ways from skating," according to Quenneville. Up front, Troy Terry is on long-term IR with a hip injury, and Ryan Poehling is out 6-8 weeks with an MCL sprain. That's a lot of missing depth for a team that only recently remembered how to score. Vancouver's IR list is mostly depth pieces plus Demko, but Demko is the big one.
Puck drop at Honda Center is 7:00 PM PT on Tuesday, October 27. It's a game between 2 teams below .500, and what to watch is simple. Can Anaheim's offence from the Philadelphia comeback carry over to home ice, and can Vancouver put enough pucks on net to give itself a chance? Thirteen shots won't beat anybody.