Vegas @ Anaheim preview
Honda Center
Last Meeting ( Dec 31, 2021 ) Anaheim 1, Vegas 3
After losing for the sixth time in eight games to visiting Boston on Thursday and barely clinging to a Western Conference playoff spot, the Vegas Golden Knights hit the road for Anaheim to face the Ducks in the second game of a back-to-back on Friday night.
Vegas, an overwhelming preseason favorite to win the Pacific Division, heads into the contest tied with surging Edmonton for third place with 64 points but the Oilers own the tiebreaker of regulation wins, 25-24. That drops the Golden Knights down to the second wild-card spot in the West, one point ahead of Dallas, which has two games in hand, and three points ahead of Anaheim.
Vegas fell to 8-9-4 in the new year with Thursday night's 5-2 loss to the Bruins, who took advantage of a number of Golden Knight turnovers while methodically building a 4-1 lead. Craig Smith scored his third career hat trick and David Pastrnak had two goals including an empty-netter for Boston. Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault each tallied for Vegas.
The Golden Knights have scored just 15 goals over their last eight games and clearly miss captain Mark Stone, who is on long-term injured reserve with a back injury, and first line right wing Max Pacioretty, sidelined with an upper body injury.
"I mean, at some point there's no excuses," said Marchessault after scoring his team-best 22nd goal of the season. "Like, enough is enough. We can blame it as much as we want on every little thing, injuries or whatever. It doesn't matter. The guys in the lineup, we all have to step up. Good teams find a way to win. We're not doing that."
"We've got to stick with it," added Eichel, who scored for the second time in seven games since returning from November neck surgery. "Teams face adversity. We're facing adversity right now. It's part of the season. We just have to find a way to start winning some games."
Vegas coach Peter DeBoer, who picked up his 500th career victory on Tuesday in a 3-1 win over San Jose, was asked if he felt his team was capable of rebounding quickly to play a great game against the Ducks.
"I would hope so," said DeBoer. "You've got no choice this time of year. We've got to pick ourselves up and look at the tape and fix some things and get ready for a huge four-point game (Friday) night."
Anaheim comes in off a dramatic 4-3 victory over Boston on Tuesday as Trevor Zegras scored the winning goal on a power play with just 22 seconds left after the Bruins had rallied from a 3-1 deficit.
Zegras, who also had an assist, fired a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past the glove of goalie Linus Ullmark for his 14th goal of the season.
"It was a lot of fun," said Zegras of his game-winner that came off a pass from defenseman Jamie Drysdale after veteran Ryan Getzlaf won the key faceoff in the Boston zone. "Give credit to my teammates. Great plays all around by everybody on that goal. It was nice to get the win, for sure."
This is the fourth meeting between the two teams this season. Vegas has won both meetings in Las Vegas, 5-4 in a shootout and 3-1 on New Year's Eve, while the Ducks picked up a 6-5 victory in the only meeting in Anaheim.
--Field Level Media