The eight-year drought is over. The Ducks officially return to postseason hockey as they head to Edmonton to take on the Oilers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Round 1 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. PT and will air locally on KCOP-13 and Victory+. The game is also nationally televised on ESPN2.
Game 1 Factoids
“The best part about winning a Cup is trying to win the Cup,” head coach Joel Quenneville said. “That starts when they drop the puck in the first game.”
Led by Quenneville, who has three Stanley Cup championships to his name, the Ducks finished third in the Pacific with their best record since 2018 (44-33-6). The team had 26 comeback wins, tied for the NHL lead and a franchise record and set a new franchise record in goals scored (265). Anaheim had 16 games where it scored five-plus goals for a perfect 16-0-0 record.
Based on the team’s current roster, only 10 players have postseason experience. Radko Gudas is one of those 10, as he made it to the Stanley Cup Finals with Florida in 2023, and he shared his team’s mindset going into this series in “one of the biggest cities to play hockey.”
“We spoke about it a little bit, but overall, we’re just more excited than anything,” Gudas said. “We want to see how we perform and the way we’re going to battle today.”
Despite the group being relatively young, Quenneville said not much really changes from regular season to the playoffs. Yes, there’s a heightened excitement, but he believes his group should channel that feeling and have it translate through their play.
“Nothing’s that much different about it except the vibe,” he mentioned. “I think that they have to learn everyday is going to be a good experience, a positive experience, and take the fun out of each and every day and apply it going forward. It gives you some excitement to the game knowing it is a special time … You can feel it, you can see it, and then you get the experience and you can apply it and that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
If there’s one shared focus for the Ducks this series, it’s honing in on bringing offensive firepower to the ice as they face an Edmonton team with a plethora of playoff experience that’s known to score.
“We’re going to have to have it,” Quenneville said of the offensive side of the game. “I know that when we look back when I was in Chicago, we had an offensive team very comparable to the team we have here. But if you want to win, you have to play without the puck and you’ve gotta check and you’ve gotta make sure you prioritize that, especially against a team that can score and has a lethal power play. So, let’s make sure we avoid taking unnecessary or careless penalties. But we’ve gotta play well with the puck as well, managing it as best we can.”
Leon Draisaitl, who missed the final 14 games of the regular season with a lower-body injury, remains a game-time decision for tonight’s date with the Ducks.
“No updates,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “As we’ve said before, we expect him sometime during the first round. Now (in) playoffs, it’s a little more secret as to what our lineups will be and we’re not going to announce who’s playing and what our lines are going to be exactly.”
Secret lineups aside, one thing’s for certain, and that’s the fact that these teams will be playing each other in a seven-game series.
Troy Terry, the longest-tenured current Ducks player, discussed how the mindset shifts from regular season to postseason, and how game planning against the same team becomes more unique as the series goes on.
“That’s kind of what I’m excited for, the chess match of playing one team and be able to kind of systematically change to whatever their tendencies are,” Terry said. “I’m enjoying from a hockey standpoint, being able to maybe limit some of their time and space and I think just five-on-five, not giving them too much space and too much respect.”
