Takeaways from the Ducks 4-3 Win over the Golden Knights, Series Tied 2-2
Anaheim revitalized their power play and injected fresh energy into the lineup to withstand Vegas' physical onslaught, evening the series behind a more creative and aggressive offensive attack.
Video Transcript
Okay, the Anaheim Ducks win game four here at Honda Center to even the series at two to two with the Vegas Golden Knights, score of four to three.
We had some big lineup decisions off the top.
We had Olin Zelweger and Ian Moore inserted on the blue line, because Drew Helleson ca- had an un- undisclosed injury.
Radko Gudas isn't quite ready, and Tyson Hynes was scratched.
We'll start there.
Derek, how did you feel that Olin and Ian did in relief of those guys?
Well, I was surprised to see both of them in the lineup, first of all, because in morning skate, it looked like, okay, maybe, Radko Gudas will come in, he'll play with Tyson Hynes.
That, that makes logical sense, and Olin Zelweger hasn't played all playoffs long, and Ian Moore was a healthy scratch last game.
So my intuition was, okay, it'll be Hynes and Gudas on that bottom pair, and then they come up for warm-ups, and there's no Gudas, so he's ruled out.
and there's no Tyson Hynes either.
Zelweger and Moore are out there, and they end up being paired on, on the back end.
I thought they were pretty solid.
They did get sheltered a lot, which is, to be expected, especially with the home match-ups.
They got a lot of offensive zone starts, a lot of shifts against the Vegas fourth line.
and Ian Moore gets the goal.
That kind of-- I mean, that ended up being- Game winner the game-winning goal.
So, overall, they, they just played a solid game.
I think that's all you can ask for, really, from the bottom pair, just to be solid and to not, just really be a disaster.
Yeah, I thought they added a little bit more of a dynamic element, especially, like, in transition, because that was something I thought that was missing in the first three games of the series, was that activation from the defensemen and involvement offensively.
You get it from Lucomb, but you don't really get it from anybody else.
and then, obviously, Mason McTavish was also reinserted back into the lineup on the third line with Ryan Poehling and Cutter Gauthier, and again, didn't play a lot like Moore and Zelweger, but I thought he was, l- really effective in his minutes, especially on the power play.
So how do you think he added to his line and, and his unit on the power play?
Yeah, I think he had a strong game.
It's, it's really difficult to go from not playing a long time, and he was a healthy scratch in the last two games, to being thrown right into it right away.
And he, he adjusted well, just like Zelweger and Moore did, and he was holding onto pucks.
He was using his vision, using, his hands to create s- time and space for his, his line mates.
And there was a couple opportunities where he definitely could have had a goal or two.
He definitely deserved to be on the score sheet, I would say.
There was a lot of looks that he was creating.
that line, just as a whole, was really great.
If you look at the expected goals numbers, you looked at, the chances that they were creating and the chances that they weren't preventing, too.
I think just overall, that line was really solid tonight.
Yeah, and then obviously, power play gets on the board two times after being snubbed in the first, three games.
Do you think they did anything different, or was it just, like, the ketchup bottle thing, you bang it enough and then goals start going in?
I think a little bit of that, too, just because you look at the way that those goals went in.
They're two extremely soft ones from Carter Hart.
The first one is just a one-timer from the point.
It goes through his five-hole, and the second one is Collorn kind of shooting it at him, and it squeaks through the arm and the body.
So, I-- the, the old adage is the ketchup bottle flowing a little bit, so maybe that's part of it.
But I think the key is that they're finding ways to kind of get Hart moving and make sure that he's not just stationary and being able to see every shot from wherever it's being released.
They're trying to make him move around, and he's spilling a lot of rebounds, so I think that can be something that, similar to last series with Conor Ingram, where if they create more of these chances where Hart's moving around and he's not able to hang on to these rebounds, then they can find more scoring opportunities.
Yeah, Carter Hart definitely looked the shakier of the two goaltenders, especially, like you said, with lateral movement and getting those arms close to his body.
He let some pucks squeak through him tonight, and in the last game, to be honest.
but yeah, I think on the power play especially, I think-- we just got out of, Alex Collorn's press conference, and he was saying that, you know, they're, they were winning a lot of battles.
Like, once a shot is taken, they're winning, like, the ensuing battle, and I think just keeping those possessions alive and then, like, the breakdowns that happen after those pucks deflect into the corners or whatever what have you.
So I think those kind of situations led to more success on the score sheet.
and then the last thing I think I wanna touch on is just the physicality in this game really stepped up, really intensified.
I think Vegas had a clear game plan to kinda get under the skin of the Ducks' younger star players, Leo, Cutter, and, and Beckett.
So, Beckett kinda gave it back to him.
Cutter did a little bit, too.
how do you think the Ducks responded to those instances?
And, I mean, I'm guessing we can see it, continuing as, as the rest of the series plays on.
I think they did pretty well.
I mean, even Collorn said that the penalty Senneke took, he was fine with just because he's, he's g- he's staying engaged, he's getting into the mix.
and also because the-- at some point, the physicality, if, if you reach a, a certain point, it's gonna lead to penalties, and we kinda saw that tonight where Vegas was taking a lot of penalties, and the Ducks were able to actually make them pay as, as opposed to the last few games.
So it's, it's just about finding that balance, and that's something that a lot of guys and Coach Quenneville will talk about, is finding the balance of being physical, versus going over the line and starting to take penalties.
Yeah, in the moment, I didn't love that Senneke penalty, but I understand it.
Obviously, he's, you know-- you have to get frustrated after a while, and, you know, the refs are missing calls, and, and that's just gonna happen in playoff hockey.
But if you respond, if you trust your teammates to kill those penalties, and, you know, they're, they're gonna get more calls than, than you are if, if they're, if you're getting attacked like that.
So, and they did tonight, and then they capitalized and, and maybe they'll think twice before, you know, engaging like that, again, because now the power play is successful a little bit here.
So going forward, it's a best-of-three series headed back to Vegas for game five on Tuesday.
Ducks seem to have a little bit of momentum now.
I like the, the chess match that's going on between Tortz and, and Quenneville.
obviously, they didn't have Mark Stone tonight, so that was a bit of a hit for them.
But, yeah, so we'll be with you every step of the way for game five.
it'll be probably a, a brutally physical and, you know, maybe high-scoring event as well.
So, thanks for watching, thanks for reading, and thanks for following.
For Derek Glee and Patrick Present, this is Derek Glee.
I'm Patrick Present with the Hockey News.
