If any team's performance on Tuesday night deserves to be panned, it's the Ducks'. Joel Quenneville was quick to dish out criticism.
Via Zach Cavanagh of The Sporting Tribune, Quenneville said following Anaheim's third-period collapse vs. the lowly Vancouver Canucks, "We carelessly make plays senselessly. I think that's where we got to be smarter. We gotta play smarter as a team."
Quenneville went on to sum it up by saying, "That was a terrible loss."
Quenneville isn't wrong, considering the Ducks blew the game open at the 12:23 mark of the third period when A.J. Greer scored on a tip-in. What happened over the next five minutes and 40 seconds will go down as one of the worst, if not the worst, collapses from the Anaheim Ducks this season.
Anaheim allowed three goals in that stretch. Vancouver guaranteed an overtime period when Jonathan Lekkermiaki scored with 1:57 remaining in regulation, and the Canucks held off any potential response from Anaheim.
To make matters worse, the Ducks took two penalties in overtime. That is something no team can do in their home arena when they spent the final seven and a half minutes of the game letting momentum shift.
Predictably, Vancouver scored the game-sealing power-play goal with 11 seconds remaining when Filip Hronek drove a slap shot past goaltender Lukas Dostal.
It wasn't just the fact that the Ducks lost heartbreakingly. They lost to a team that hasn't won in 10 straight contests and was on a four-game streak without notching a single point. They also let Vancouver score six goals for the first time since the Canucks put up seven on Oct. 1.
What makes this loss even more curious is that it came just days after the Ducks similarly upended the Philadelphia Flyers . The Flyers saw a two-goal lead slip away, and the Ducks escaped Philadelphia with their only win on their first East Coast road trip of the season.
It took just one game for the Ducks to flip the script. In many ways, this loss was far worse than the one Anaheim handed Philadelphia.
At least it took two periods for the Flyers to give the game away, not just over seven and a half minutes and an overtime period. That was something Quenneville had to call the team out on if they want to minimize games like this going forward.
On Saturday, the Ducks seemingly learned what happened when young teams build multi-goal leads and let them slip away. But they were on the winning end of that experience. Clearly, the message didn't sink in. Or else they wouldn't have been taught the same lesson, but on the losing end.
Now, the Ducks must learn to find ways to maintain a lead, not take needless penalties or to put themselves in a position to take a penalty. They especially can't put a game in cruise control against the worst team in hockey.
Anaheim will get another chance on Thursday when the Buffalo Sabres fly into town. Like Vancouver, the Sabres have had a tough time putting up goals. That could be a prime opportunity for the Ducks to build and maintain a lead they let slip in their most recent matchup.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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