Ducks power past Panthers for home-opening OT victory

ANAHEIM, Calif. – There’s no place like home openers for the Anaheim Ducks, and this one came with a bit more power than usual.

On the strength of three power play goals, including two by Cutter Gauthier and an overtime winner from new captain Mikael Granlund, the Ducks stayed unbeaten on the early campaign with a 3-2 win over former captain Radko Gudas and the Florida Panthers on Sunday at Honda Center.

Anaheim has won 11 consecutive home openers, which is tied with the Boston Bruins for the longest active streak and the longest all-time streak with the 1953-63 Montreal Canadiens.

Gauthier completed a three-point night with an assist on Granlund’s overtime winner, and Leo Carlsson also put up a three-point night with helpers on all three Anaheim strikes. Lukáš Dostál stopped 29 shots for his second win in as many starts this season.

“We played a man's team tonight in a man's game,” Joel Quenneville said. “I thought we did against Vegas the other night, and that's what happens when you got experienced teams, and they know how to win. They know that it doesn't stop, and it's 60 minutes of pushing and shoving, and you don't have to be fancy sometimes, it's just little protecting of the puck, and they're getting out of the zone, or in deep, or blocking a shot, all the little things add up, and they know how to win, and that was why it was such a big win.”

Anaheim opened the season on Friday with a road win over their playoff ouster and Western Conference champion Vegas Golden Knights and followed up with this victory over the two-time Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, who were just one injury-riddled season beyond their back-to-back titles.

The Ducks get one more season-opening test on Wednesday, as they welcome in last season’s opening playoff opponent and the previous back-to-back Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers.

P-P-Power Play

After more than a few seasons lingering at the bottom of the leagues’ power play table, the Ducks are finally seemingly in a position to blast past those ignominious years thanks to their top talent.

Rather than spreading out their talent equally across two units or splitting up the two units into veteran and young player units as seen in previous systems, Ducks assistant coach Jay Woodcroft has front-loaded the top unit, and through two early games, it’s been exactly what Anaheim ordered.

“Power play’s been rolling real good to start the season,” Quenneville said. “Jay gets it rolling there in the preseason, and the guys got some great personnel on it, and that one unit plays a little bit more. I'm not sure they need probably more balance to our units this year. looks like that's five guys that are all pretty crafty and handy… Really pretty plays, pretty goals.”

Beyond just the pure talent of the five-man group–Jackson LaCombe up top, Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier on either flank and Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund down low–and the natural chemistry that develops in another year of playing together, there is dynamism and tenacity to the approach.

“I think the biggest thing is urgency,” Gauthier said. “I think the biggest thing Coach Woodcroft is putting into us is urgency and wanting to get the puck back. It doesn’t matter your position, it’s more so about possession on the power play.”

The Ducks’ biggest consistent struggles for their power plays over various seasons and coaching staffs was zone entries and settling down–both functions of puck possession. Anaheim has had clean entries or face-off wins, and when they do lose the puck, the fight back for it to settle back into their structure.

The other part of the early success is that that structure is not rigid. There are positions and pathways players are supposed to get to, but there is a dynamic movement to the plays that set them up for success.

“We just got the puck movement and, as long as we have like 4 good passes in a row, we're going to create space,” Carlsson said. “We know where we're supposed to be. Obviously, it's second game of the season, so it's a little bit off still. We can get a lot better still… No stress, just patience, and it worked out for us.”

Just look at each one of the three power play goals.

On Gauthier’s first, it was Carlsson on the right wall, to LaCombe at the point, to Gauthier in the left circle and he just ripped it past a moving screen in front.

On Gauthier’s second, LaCombe at the point passed left to a curling Carlsson who gathered some speed. Carlsson then sent to down to Sennecke next to the net, who tapped it to Gauthier in the bumper position in the slot for the quick release.

In overtime, it was another tic-tac-toe from a four-man all-forward unit. Sennecke at the left point, to Gauthier at the right point, to Carlsson at the right circle, who quickly sent it to Granlund in front to beat the Panthers’ defense and shove home the winner.

Early days, but promising results.

Radko Gudas returns to Honda Center

On the night that the new Ducks captain sent the fans home happy, their previous captain returned and received a warm welcome from the Honda Center faithful.

Radko Gudas has played in plenty of places and had previous returns, but none like the one in Anaheim, where he spent three seasons as a Duck and two as the captain.

"This organization. This whole city. The whole time here for me was very special. The way they treated me. It was something close to my heart,” Gudas said on Saturday. “I tried to give the organization, the city as much as I could give and what I was made of… Anybody that gets the opportunity to represent the organization with the letter, that is something special they’re always going to remember.”

Gudas arrived to his visiting practice locker at Great Park Ice on Saturday to discover some pranks from his former teammates, including his skates tied together, water in his helmet and a new nametag.

“Pretty sure I know who did it too,” Gudas said with a big grin.

Game Note Roundup

• Leo Carlsson's became the fitth Duck to record multiple points in each of the first two games of a season (Ryan Getzlaf, Saku Koivu, Andrew Cogliano, and, you all guessed it, Daniel Winnik) and he tied Trevor Zegras for 2nd most multi-point games by a Duck age 21 or younger (35, behind only Paul Kariya's 44).

• Carlsson is just the third Duck to ever record five points in the team’s first two games of the season following Saku Koivu and Daniel Winnik.