Ducks seek to turn around their dismal homestand
It’ll be a clash of not only styles but cultures as the Ducks host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night, when they will seek just their second victory in the sixth game of an eight-game homestand.
Ducks coach Greg Cronin was an assistant coach in Toronto between 2011 and 2014, initially under Ron Wilson but principally under Randy Carlyle, who led the Ducks to the franchise’s only Stanley Cup, in 2007, and later returned for a second stint in which he shepherded them to the conference finals in 2017.
Cronin was in Toronto in between his own pair of stretches with one franchise, the New York Islanders, and saw firsthand what it was like for Carlyle (and presumably current Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe) to steward a franchise very much at the center of attention in Canada.
“I was in the hottest, most intense, most polarizing market, Toronto. I watched Randy go through that [experience], it’s like you can’t breathe up there,” Cronin said by phone.
In his first NHL head coaching job, the 60-year-old Cronin has enjoyed the relative anonymity that plying his trade in Orange County has offered. He coached in two pressure-cooked North American markets and spent much of his life in New England, where hockey was very much baked into the region’s crust.
“I like being nobody. No one knows who the (heck) I am here, it’s awesome. I do my own thing and nobody bothers me,” Cronin said. “I think about Toronto, Randy couldn’t go get a sandwich without somebody making a comment about the power play.”
Cronin’s group could stand to raise its own profile a bit, however, coming off a 7-2 thumping by the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday in which the line of Leon Draisaitl, Warren Foegele and Ryan McLeod hit double digits in points, combining to outscore the entire Ducks’ roster (4-2 in goals and 10-6 in points).
The Ducks have also got their own questions to answer about the power play, having posted a meager 6.7% conversion rate in the past two weeks (From Dec. 19 to Jan. 2), the second-worst mark in the league.
In the absence of a threat with the man advantage and in the largely constant presence of penalty trouble, the Ducks are looking to have stronger responses to their success while shorthanded. The Ducks’ negative-45 penalty differential is the worst in the NHL, with the San Jose Sharks’ negative-30 being the next most disparate figure.
“You find momentum any chance you can. We definitely take more penalties than we draw. Our PK’ers are constantly getting out there, playing and blocking shots, and we’re trying to find energy off of that,” said Max Jones, who scored a goal in Sunday’s loss.
While Toronto’s penalty kill has been below average, its power play remains among the best in the NHL this season, thanks in no small part to the NHL’s leading goal-scorer, Auston Matthews, and one of its top point producers, William Nylander. Like Edmonton, the Maple Leafs will be in the back half of a two-games-in-two-nights test, which will have pitted them against the Kings on Tuesday.
On the injury front for the Ducks, Troy Terry (upper body) did not practice Tuesday and remained day to day. Forward Isac Lündestrom (Achilles tendon) continued making progress in his long recovery following offseason surgery.
Toronto’s depth in net is being tested at the moment by a pair of unavailable goalies, Matt Murray (hip) and Joseph Woll (ankle). The Leafs are also without former Ducks defenseman John Klingberg. He will miss the rest of the campaign after undergoing hip surgery.
TORONTO AT DUCKS
When: Wednesday, 6 p.m.
Where: Honda Center
TV: Bally Sports West