Although their playoff hopes are long gone, the Anaheim Ducks are making a push to finish their season on a positive note.
The Ducks (26-48-5, 57 points), who sit 30th overall in the 32-team NHL, have a 2-1-1 record over their last four games heading into Friday night’s matchup against the visiting Calgary Flames.
Anaheim is coming off an impressive 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.
“There’s been a lot of change in the lineup, the consistency hasn’t been there, and the last couple games we’ve had the same lineup, which was nice,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “You could see the chemistry that was there (on Tuesday) and the last game as well, so I’m happy for them. They deserve to win more games than we’ve won this year.”
It will be the final home game of the season for veteran forward Jakob Silfverberg, who announced Thursday that he would retire from the NHL at the end of the season.
Silfverberg, 33, has 158 goals and 354 points in 769 games during his 11 seasons with Anaheim.
“It’s not a decision that was made yesterday by any means. It’s something that’s been decided awhile back, so I’ve kind of slowly been preparing for it, but I’m sure it’ll still be a weird feeling for my last game at Honda Center,” Silfverberg said. “I’m just going to try and enjoy it, have a lot of fun with it, and hopefully we’ll have a good game. It’s going to be a special night, that’s for sure.”
The Flames, also long eliminated from playoff contention, will end a three-game trip through California on Friday. Calgary (35-38-5, 75 points) is coming off a 4-1 loss to the Kings on Thursday.
“They’re a good team and showed it, but I think we’ve got to give a better effort,” said forward Jonathan Huberdeau, who scored Calgary’s lone goal in Los Angeles. “I think we’ve got to give a better effort to get some wins or at least compete against a team like that. Just put this one in the garbage and (on Friday) be better.”
The Flames have only two victories in their last 11 games and four in their past 16. They have been greatly impacted by trading a handful of key pending unrestricted free agents. Even so, the losing is wearing out the players, and the lack of a spark is noticeable.
“I don’t think we were competitive enough in the first two periods,” coach Ryan Huska said. “In the third period, we started to skate and had some more (offensive) zone time, but a lot of it came down to the competitive-side and not being clean and crisp.”
The Flames and Ducks have split the season series thus far, with the visiting team winning in both games. The Flames have won seven consecutive games in Anaheim.
With Jacob Markstrom having played on Thursday, the Flames likely will turn to rookie Dustin Wolf against Anaheim. Wolf made 20 saves was in Calgary’s 3-2 overtime win Tuesday in San Jose to start the trip.
–Field Level Media
