ANAHEIM — The Ducks remained in the mushy middle as they prepared to confront a club that’s plummeted to a similar position Wednesday, when they’ll welcome the Boston Bruins to Honda Center.
The Ducks are two games under a .500 points percentage while Boston sits three games below. The Bruins are winless in their past six games and have a -19 goal differential during their freefall, mostly recently being bombarded 7-2 by the Kings.
Goals and expectations have recalibrated for the Ducks as they slide from the fringe of the playoff race into a space of internal barometers, but a slate full of competitive opponents with veteran rosters still holds value for their final dozen games.
“We don’t like that the playoff race is getting away from us, but we thought we played really good games where we were hanging in the games and staying relevant in those games,” captain Radko Gudas said. “At this time of year, pretty much every team is in playoff mode, so it’ll be a fun challenge for us to see how some of the older, more experienced teams handle things.”
Alex Killorn, Jackson LaCombe and Trevor Zegras have combined for five goals and seven total points in the Ducks’ past two games, a win in Nashville and a home loss to Carolina. Meanwhile, the status of Pavel Mintyukov and Isac Lundeström was in some question after both players missed Tuesday’s practice with an illness.
The Bruins have been afflicted with a collective unease in the pits of their stomachs during a disappointing campaign. Lucrative contracts for goalie Jeremy Swayman and forward Elias Lindholm raised their level of struggle rather than their level of play, with Lindholm’s 37 points in 72 matches falling well short of his point–per-game performance of 2021-22. Swayman’s contentious negotiations and hefty extension have led only to a sub-.900 save percentage.
Former Duck Hampus Lindholm hasn’t played since mid-November and will likely not return until next season. The Bruins fired coach Jim Montgomery (who was hired by likely playoff-bound St. Louis five days later) in November, but still ended up as sellers at March’s trade deadline. Most prominently, they dealt captain Brad Marchand to defending champion and divisional rival Florida.
Gudas, who played against Marchand and other core Bruins with Florida, Tampa Bay, Washington and Philadelphia, said he hadn’t seen the new-look B’s after the March 7 deadline, but he anticipated a “less predictable, more agile” feel to the Ducks’ opponents Wednesday.
It’ll also be something of a gold-medal reunion from last spring’s World Championships, when Czechia won gold on home soil with Gudas and Lukáš Dostál in the fold, as well as Boston forwards David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha. Dostál was named the most outstanding goaltender of the tournament, Gudas was a top-three player for his side and Zacha skated on the top line with Pastrnak, who scored the game-winning goal in the gold-medal game.
All four players had fond memories of the tournament, with Dostál offering a bit of good-natured ribbing toward Pastrnak and recalling not only his triumph of 2024 but his first experience in 2022, when his tournament was truncated by an injury.
“You’re representing your country, you’re among all those great players. [In 2022], Pastrnak was there, (former Bruin) David Krejci and all those guys, and I was a part of it. That gave me a boost,” Dostál said. “Obviously this summer was something unbelievable, with all the fans, it was at home, and it was a different kind of pressure. That whole Czech was basically watching. I was the guy that needed to handle it, and I think I did, it was a huge growth [experience] for me.”
Boston at Ducks
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Honda Center
TV: Victory+, KCOP (Ch. 13)