Following Saturday’s loss in Los Angeles, the Edmonton Oilers will wrap up their four-game road swing with a game against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night. A win would leave the visiting team at 3-1-0 on their trip.
1. With a win on Monday, the Ducks can complete a regular season series victory over the Oilers for the first time since 2015-16. Anaheim and Edmonton split what was essentially a home-and-home around New Year’s and the Ducks hammered the Oilers 6-2 in March after the team had returned home from a disastrous road trip.
The Oilers have dominated the Ducks over the past few seasons, so this year has been a significant change of fortune for Anaheim. Edmonton went 10-1-0 against the Ducks between 2021-22 and 2023-24, outscoring them 64-to-24 in the process.
2. Though the Ducks are going to miss the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season this spring, the team has been more competitive this year than in previous years during their rebuild. The Ducks are 33-35-8, with their .487 points percentage having them on pace for their best finish in the standings since 2018-19.
3. The strength for Anaheim this season has been the team’s goaltending duo of Lukas Dostal and John Gibson. The Ducks have a .901 team save percentage in all situations, which ranks ninth in the NHL.
That solid combined save percentage comes despite Anaheim being arguably the worst team in the league defensively. The Ducks are allowing the most shot attempts, shots on goal, and scoring chances per 60 minutes at even strength in the NHL and they’re 21st in the league in terms of goals against.
4. The Ducks rank 29th in the league with 204 goals this season. A significant part of Anaheim’s scoring issues have stemmed from the team’s terrible power play, which sits last in the league at 12.4 percent.
Leading the way offensively for the Ducks this season is Troy Terry with 53 points in 71 games. Terry, Mason McTavish, Frank Vatrano, and Leo Carlsson all lead the team with 20 goals while Alex Killorn is two goals away from reaching the 20-goal mark for the fourth time in his career.
5. Anaheim spreads out their top forwards in order to try to have three different lines that can score. Former Oiler Ryan Strome is on the top line with Vatrano and Terry, Carlsson and Killorn play on the second line with rookie Cutter Gauthier, and McTavish plays with Trevor Zegras on the third line.
With Jacob Trouba out because of a lower-body injury, Anaheim is running a very young blueline. Captain Radko Gudas is the oldest defender on the Ducks at 34 years of age. Next is 27-year-old Oliver Kylington, as Jackson Lacombe (24), Drew Helleson (23), Olen Zellweger (21), and Pavel Mintyukov (21) are all under 25.
6. The Oilers are going to be undermanned when they take on the Ducks on Monday. The team is still without Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Mattias Ekholm, and they’ll also be without Trent Frederic, who re-aggravated his ankle injury in his team debut over the weekend.
Edmonton will play with 11 forwards and six defenders. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is the centre on the top forward line with Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson on his wings. Adam Henrique has Corey Perry and Zach Hyman on his wings and the third line of Connor Brown, Mattias Janmark, and Jeff Skinner is still intact. Kasperi Kapanen and Max Jones make up the fourth line.
The blueline also has a different look for the Oilers on Monday. Darnell Nurse and Jake Walman are playing together on the top pair, Evan Bouchard is with Brett Kulak, and Troy Stecher and Ty Emberson are the third pair.
