The Ducks entered the All-Star break with a four-game points streak’s worth of sparks that they hoped to transform into flames. Now, coming out of the pause, they’ll confront a club that entered it as a blazing inferno.
They’ll host the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, a team that just snapped its 16-game winning streak with a loss in Vegas on Tuesday, which left Edmonton one victory shy of the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins’ NHL record for most consecutive wins.
It’ll be the third meeting of the season between the Ducks and Oilers, with the prior two offering little in the way of proportionality. Edmonton scored seven unanswered goals in an 8-2 win north of the border and followed that up with a 7-2 bombardment at Honda Center.
Ducks coach Greg Cronin said one of his goals for the stretch run was to further extend offensive-zone time and that doing so would mean protecting pucks more confidently. He pointed to Edmonton as a squad that shielded pucks with equal parts aplomb and tenacity. In addition to their marquee forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Cronin also highlighted Zach Hyman and Warren Foegele.
“We’re going to see a team Friday that really protects the puck effectively. They [challenge you] like, ‘Here, try and get it off my stick,’” Cronin said via phone.
Foegele had a career night with five points during the meeting in Anaheim, while captain Connor McDavid had an equally explosive outburst in the clash at Edmonton. That was hardly unusual for McDavid. It was his ninth career five-point effort and he would add a 10th on Jan. 2 against the Philadelphia Flyers. In that affair, he factored into every Edmonton goal and crossed the 900-point threshold in the fifth-fewest games of any player in NHL history.
For the Ducks’ part, they’ve had some shorter-term excellence in the scoring column. Since Dec. 1, Troy Terry and Adam Henrique have combined for 47 points in 51 games. They’d accumulated just 23 points in 45 prior games.
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