Anaheim, CA—It’s amazing what a difference a couple of months can make in a team’s psyche. The last time Anaheim faced Nashville, the Ducks were a bottom-feeder, and people were waiting for the Preds to wake up/play up to their potential.
The hopes of one team have thrived. Those of the other side have withered. Last week, for the first time in my hearing, Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said the “P” word. “Playoffs.” Not as resolutely as to say that his team was going to qualify, but at least in a “it’s in the atmosphere” kind of way. Back on January 25th, not so much.
Still, we’re not talking about the post-season with anything approaching certainty, with Nashville in town here in mid-March and the records being the Ducks 19-23-6, the Predators 18-22-7.
The Predators entered Honda Center on a four-game winning streak and are 6-4-0 in their prior ten games. The Ducks have lost two in a row and are 3-6-1 in their last ten games. In the standings, neither really has a hope of lasting past mid-April. The Ducks are four spots out of the playoffs, eight points shy of Calgary, who are in the second wildcard spot. Nashville is two places below the Ducks, six spots behind the Flames. The Ducks have played one game more than Calgary. The Predators, coming into Friday, had played the same amount of games as the Flames.
Does any of that matter? Only if you think one of these teams can leapfrog all of Vancouver, Utah, and St. Louis. And, for that matter, Calgary. Newsflash: they can’t, but one team, Anaheim, thinks it can, while the other, Nashville, knows the idea to be ridiculous.
Friday night, the Ducks played with desperation born of hope.
Still, the shots were few, 10 Anaheim and 15 Nashville a couple of minutes past halfway in the game. And the goals were none. The Ducks would remedy that near the end of the second frame. Nashville countered to tie. The Ducks got one more, in period three, to scrape out a 2-1 win.
So maybe there’s not a lot to separate these two squads. But that’s only true until you scrutinize their forward lines. The two teams have gone in entirely different directions in the past six weeks, lineup-wise, since that January meeting.
For Nashville, Steven Stamkos has moved from center to left wing on the first line. Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault have moved from that same line as wingers to line two, centered by Colton SIssons. He had previously been right wing on the third line. Ryan O’Reilly is up to first-line center, from centering the fourth line, which is now done by Michael McCarron. He had previously centered the third trio.
On the third line, at center, is Fedor Svechkov, who had been second-line center. And if all of that doesn’t look like the “put your lines in a blender” strategy, note that it accounts for only seven of the 12 forwards.
Out for Nashville are Tommy Novak, Zachery L’Heureux, Cole Smith, Gustav Nyquist, and, well, that’s it. The Predators played 11-and-7 that night.
These weeks later, who draws in? All of Luke Evangelista, at first-line right wing, Michael Bunting and Jakub Vrana, respectively left and right wings of line three, and Kiefer Bellows and Cole Smith to wing the fourth line.
What about the Ducks? Line one was intact. Same with two. On line three, Robby Fabbri was out and Nikita Nesterenko in on right wing. The fourth line was status quo. No blenders needed.
What does this mean? What comes to mind is Samuel Hynes’s words to describe the Edwardian period in England: Placidity Meets Disorder. And that’s why, despite nearly identical records, the Ducks and the Predators are headed in different directions.
The teams will play thrice this year, with Anaheim winning the prior encounter, 5-2, this one at 2-1, and a further game next week, when the Ducks travel to Nashville. Six points gained by the Ducks will take them a little closer to middle of the NHL pack, and farther from the possibility of the highest possible draft choice, but they don’t care. They want the points.
Troy Terry, after the tight win in which his team fired only 15 shots, said their game was “maybe a little disjointed. Maybe we weren’t quite as sharp with the puck tonight and we hung in there. . . . How can I not mention [goalie] Lukas Dostal. He was unbelievable.” He stopped 27 of 28 Nashville shots.
Terry then gave the long view: “We’re in games, just [need to] watch the little things, puck management and things like that. Just got to make sure we’re on the right side of it.”
The Ducks now have three road games stretched over the next week. They next play in Anaheim on March 23rd, versus Carolina.
