Game 70: Ducks Look For Some Home Cooking

Image: parkhub.wordpress.com

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks(34-23-12) return home to face the St. Louis Blues(36-27-5). The game starts at 7:00 PM PT and will be on Prime Ticket locally and AM 830.

Anaheim Outlook:

The Ducks return home after a rough two-game road trip. The Ducks dropped both games to Nashville and Dallas. Anaheim is currently in third place in the Pacific Division with 80 points. Rickard Rakell leads the team with 30 goals. Ondrej Kase has 17 and Adam Henrique has 16 goals with Anaheim(20 total on the season).

For video highlights and podcast analysis of the game against Dallas visit: Ducks Downed 2-1 In Dallas.

Keys To The Game

In the game against Dallas, the Ducks were able to get the lead and maintain it for two periods. The issue for the Ducks was the penalty kill, which gave up two goals in the final frame. The Ducks penalty kill had been very good as a late and the back-to-back scenario seemed to weigh on the Ducks as they ran out of steam. The Ducks will face another potential playoff team tonight and with two days off they should be ready to bring their A-game.

Anaheim’s Projected Lineup:

Offense
Rickard Rakell – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano – Ryan Kesler – Jakob Silfverberg
Nick Ritchie – Adam Henrique – Ondrej Kase
Jason Chimera – Derek Grant – Chris Kelly

Defense
Cam Fowler  – Brandon Montour
Hampus Lindholm – Josh Manson
Francois Beauchemin  – Kevin Bieksa

In Net
John Gibson 25-16-6, GAA 2.49, SV% .926 (Confirmed)

St. Louis Outlook:

The Blues have 77 points and are three points out of the final wild-card playoff spot. St. Louis is coming off an impressive 7-2 smackdown of the Los Angeles Kings this past Saturday. Despite the win, they have struggled lately going 2-6-2 in their last 10 games. Vladimir Tarasenko leads the team with 27 goals. Brayden Schenn has 24 goals and Jaden Schwartz has 20.

Keys To The Game

Score early and score often will be the plan for St. Louis. The Blues built an early 2-0 against the Kings and never looked back. They will try to get the lead first in this contest and use their forecheck to create scoring chances.

St. Louis Projected Lineup:

Offense
Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko
Alex Steen – Kyle Brodziak – Patrik Berglund
Tage Thompson – Vladimir Sobotka – Dmitrij Jaskin
Nikita Soshnikov – Ivan Barbashev – Chris Thorburn

Defense
Carl Gunnarsson – Alex Pietrangelo
Colton Parayko – Vince Dunn
Jordan Schwartz – Robert Bortuzzo

In Net
Jake Allen, 20-20-2, GAA 2.77, SV% .907 (Confirmed)

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March 12th, 2018