Hurricanes pounce on mistakes, show Ducks pace to aspire to in 4-1 defeat

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The opening stretch of the season has not been all roses for the Anaheim Ducks, and the differences in levels showed through with the thorniness of relentless Carolina Hurricanes pressure on Thursday.

The perennial Eastern contender remained unbeaten by pouncing on Ducks mistakes and limiting all time and space for Anaheim, as the Hurricanes never trailed in a 4-1 victory at Honda Center.

“They're a good hockey team because I don't know if I've seen better sticks in a game,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “I don’t know how many times they took the puck away from us cleanly, neatly and turned it into something, but that was a relentless performance on how to play with your stick and in the puck area, in the battle areas. That's what we want to get to, but that was a demonstration of how to do it correctly.”

Seth Jarvis jumped on a rebound in the first period and finished off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence on the power play for a 2-0 Carolina advantage.

Leo Carlsson barreled downhill to rip the Ducks lone goal on a second-period rush, but Anaheim couldn’t convert on its chances to tie the game.

Alexander Nikishin found a soft spot in the Ducks zone to blast his first NHL goal, and Sebastian Aho collected the rebound off a Jarvis netfront charge for the 4-1 advantage.

“Ultimately, it comes down to I think we didn't really capitalize on our chances,” Mason McTavish said. “We had a lot of great looks. Credit to their team. They played well, goalie played well, but we had some good looks. I don't think we'd have to get too down on ourselves, but that's a really good hockey team over there. I feel like we held in there and we gave ourselves a chance.”

Lukas Dostal stopped 27 of 31 shots, and former Ducks netminder Frederik Andersen made 23 saves, including a few momentum-savers with his right pad in the third period.

Anaheim (2-2-0, 4 points) next sets out for a five-game eastward road swing beginning in Chicago on Sunday. The first three teams of the trip–Chicago, Nashville and Boston–all missed the playoffs, but Tampa Bay and Stanley Cup Champion Florida await at the end of the trip.

Opportunities for the Ducks to bounce back, but there’s still room to grow early on.

“I didn't mind our game until today,” Quenneville said of the season’s start. “I think that it's a work in progress, but I still think that I'm looking forward to getting to a standard of play and expecting us to play at that level of game in, game out, and when we get there, I'll let you know.”

Carolina Controls Pace

All things considered it wasn’t a bad game for the Ducks, but it was a showcase of the level of the Hurricanes, specifically how Stanley Cup contending teams can turn little mistakes into big results.

Carolina presses on the forecheck, plays relentless man-to-man defense and is constantly generating shots to dictate the pace of play. Entering the game, Carolina was first in the league in percentage of offensive zone time at five-on-five, and the Ducks were third.

“They create a lot of wear and tear by just shooting a lot of pucks, skating around, always in your face,” McTavish said. “it's a good style they play, and it's working for them. I guess at the start, the first half (they) dictated, but I feel like we kind of had a good push and late in the second there had a lot of great looks, and like I said, just didn't capitalize.”

However, by the time the Ducks did get those looks, Carolina already had a 2-0 lead, with Mikael Granlund turning the puck over inside the zone on an outlet pass that was never going to get through Carolina’s press and a power play strike.

“They're frustrating to play against when they do get a lead on you,” Quenneville said at Thursday’s morning skate. “You open it up and they'll make you pay a price… They're very handy in playing the right way when they do get the lead, but they play the right way, no matter what time of the game it is.”

Down Deuce Again

Starts remain trouble for the Ducks four games in. Not necessarily how they’re playing, but how the scoreboard reads.

Anaheim has given up the first goal of the game in each of the first four games of the season, and the Ducks have trailed 2-0 in the last three games.

“I think we're ready to start game,” Quenneville said. “I think that maybe we're hesitant a little bit, but they're all different kind of goals that have gone in. (Carolina) came up for a shift and dictated the way that the game was going to be played. That was indication that we had to kill it right there early enough, and that was but that's what happens when you're ready to play.”

As Quenneville said, there isn’t a pattern to any of the early goals the Ducks have given up.

Seattle scored on a perfectly placed shot around a screen. San Jose scored in two different ways off the rush. Pittsburgh scored twice on deflections behind the defense. Carolina converted a rebound off an intercepted pass.

That leaves the Ducks scratching their heads about what more to do besides get on the board first themselves.

“I don't know. I guess just score the first one,” McTavish said. “Yeah, I don't know, I guess warm-up better. I don't know. I'm not too sure.”

Carlsson Shines Through

For all the early success of the Kid Line of McTavish, Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke, Anaheim’s most consistently strong player through four games might be Carlsson.

The 20-year-old Swede has already shown growth over last season and the ability to take charge of a game when Anaheim needs it most. He nearly single-handedly engineered a late-stage comeback in the preseason finale in Los Angeles, and it was his heroics that set up Chris Kreider’s game-tying goal in San Jose and his own overtime-winner.

On Thursday, Carlsson did it again by generating a full head of steam in the neutral zone and calling his own number on a two-on-one to beat Andersen.

Carlsson said he doesn’t completely see himself as “putting the team on his shoulders” in those moments, but he’s stepped up nonetheless.

“A little bit,” Carlsson said. “I don't really think like that. I just think to try and score every shift. That was a good one to get it, but wasn’t enough today.”

Carlsson is Anaheim’s leader in shot attempt share at five-on-five through four games, with the Ducks earning 61.74% of shot attempts with Carlsson on the ice. Carlsson is also second in scoring chance share at five-on-five, only behind his linemate Chris Kreider.