VIDEO: Vegas Royale

By Richard Gonzalez

Pre-game:

This is the third of four meetings against the Anaheim Ducks and the Las Vegas Golden Knights. The Ducks are coming off an overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks and the Knights are fresh off a 6-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings. Cam Fowler did not play this game. Max Comtois and Trevor Zegras are also still in Covid-19 protocol. Sam Steel would return. John Gibson and Laurent Brossoit would each get the start for their respective teams.

The Game:

The first: The first period was all Golden Knights as they came out firing pucks o net and kept the play in the Ducks zone for most of the time. The Ducks could not generate too many opportunities as the Golden would score two tip-in goals to give them the 2-0. Jamie Drysdale would get the game’s first penalty, but the Ducks were able to kill it off. The Ducks got outshot 16-4 and could not respond to the Golden Knights’ two goals after the end of the first.

The second: Nicolas Deslauriers would get an early tripping call, but the Ducks would once again kill off the penalty. Moments later, the Golden Knights would extend their lead 3-1 after Gibson was knocked into his net by a Golden Knights player and Mattias Janmark would score. The Ducks did to protest this controversial goal. Ryan Getzlaf would get into an altercation with former Duck, William Karlsson, which Getzlaf received a penalty. After the kill, he was challenged and accepted a fight from Keegan Kolesar. Deslauriers tried to answer back for his captain but was given a misconducted penalty.

On the next play, Derek Grant crossed checked a Golden Knights player and that led to another fight and altercation. Grant received a fighting major and minor, Sam Carrick received a double minor. Ducks went back on the PK but were able to kill it off. The period saw the Golden Knights awarded a penalty shot, but Gibson was able to stop it. The Ducks were outshot 18-6 and ended the period being down 3-0.

The third:  The third was more of a slower pace and the Ducks generated more chances and played better. Hampus Lindholm would get a tripping call to put the Ducks on the PK again, but they were able to kill that off. The rough stuff started again after Carrick took a big hit which resulted in a scrum. The Ducks would get a power play out of a result. Getzlaf would score his second of the season as he scored on the power play. The Ducks would drop this game 3-1 in their last game of 2021.

The good, the bad and the ugly:

Good: Seeing the captain, Getzlaf step up to fight to try to fire up his team. That is a good lead by example mentality. He also scored a power play goal.

Bad: The undisciplined play of the Ducks that lead to the minor penalties.

Ugly: The first period play by the Ducks that dug them into a hole they could not get out of.

Analysis:

The Ducks did not come into this game ready to play. The Golden Knights set the tone and pace early on into the game and the Ducks could not get anything going. The Golden Knights are missing some key pieces to their roster too but made the Ducks seem like last year’s team. The Ducks spent a lot of time on the PK, but they were flawless in that department. The Ducks showed fight and tried to stepped up for their captain. The third period was somewhat of an improvement, but still a bad game played.

Next Game:

The Ducks will take on the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday January 2^nd, 2022, in Denver Colorado at noon (PST).

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December 31st, 2021