Preview: Ducks on the Island Tonight Looking for Bounce-Back Win
The Ducks will continue a four-game road trip tonight on Long Island, taking on the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.
PUCK DROP: 4 P.M. PT | WATCH: VICTORY+ / FOX PLUS (KCOP-13) | AUDIO: DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER
Anaheim tonight looks to bounce back from a pair of losses this week to the Rangers and Devils, the latter a 5-2 defeat Sunday night after allowing four second-period goals.
“We’re making mistakes where we’re not backing each other up, kind of shooting ourselves in the foot sometimes,” winger Brock McGinn said. “You’ve got to keep it simple. You’ve got to get it in at their blueline and keep it out at yours. We didn’t execute some of those.”
Brock McGinn scores his first goal of the season
“We didn’t stop the cycle game and were porous through the neutral zone,” added head coach Greg Cronin. “That’s a fast team. They get it wheeling and they attack the zone. If you don’t stop it, it’s going to be a long night.”
Despite the setback, Ducks winger Troy Terry extended his point streak to seven games, the second-longest run of his NHL career. Terry paces the team in goals and points, and co-leads in assists.
Anaheim now stands at 3-4-1 on the season and 0-2-0 halfway through the trip, which concludes Thursday in Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile, on the other side tonight is an Isles squad looking to keep pace in an already crowded race for the Metropolitan Division crown. New York has played more than its fair share of close games early in the new season, with five of their contests decided by just one goal and four of them requiring overtime or a shootout.
“We have to address blown leads] as a group,” Islanders forward [Casey Cizikas told NHL.com’s Stefan Rosner after a 6-3 loss to Florida on Saturday. “That’s something that starts in here and it starts with, first off, a conversation, and going over where those mistakes are and what we can do better. But it’s something that we’ve got to figure out.”
“We got off to a hot start, but we knew they were going to have a push,” Scott Mayfield added to the Isles’ Rachel Luscher. “We needed a better response, we have to be better.”
New York (3-3-2, eight points) sits sixth in the Metropolitan Division.