The Ducks lost their season opener 4-1 to the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres won in dominating fashion in Harwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland.
This definitely didn’t go the way most people were hoping and that is understandable. The Ducks looked sloppy and all I kept shouting was “get your sh*t together!!”. I noticed several big problems in their gameplay:
- Their powerplay was AWFUL, going 0/7 including a 5-on-3. They looked completely sloppy overall and often got very few shots.
- Apparently they have no idea how to clear the defensive zone. The Sabres found an easy way to score, by rushing the net and jamming the puck in. The Ducks defense was unable to clear it and Hiller wasn’t covering.
- The Ducks took too many penalties (no surprise), which was the cause of 2 goals, and one cancelled out their own powerplay.
I may seem a little harsh, but that is just what I saw and it is frustrating. There clearly is some work to be done, or maybe the Ducks were just having an off day.
Tomas Vanek opened up scoring with a powerplay goal. Ville Leino then made it 2-0 with a slap shot past Hiller. The Ducks lone goal came from Nate Guenin when he snuck one past Miller. Captain Jason Pominville took a soft shot and somehow Hiller wasn’t able to get a hold of it. After a tripping penalty on Cogliano, Vanek notched his second goal of the night to make the game 4-1.
Hiller stopped 21 of 25 shots and Miller stopped 29 of 30 shots. Miller single handedly kept the Ducks at bay, by stopping 11 shots in the third period. The Sabres had zero shots on goal in the third.
The Ducks travel to Switzerland where they will face the New York Rangers on Saturday.