The Anaheim Ducks Travel to Familiar Enemy Territory for Preseason Game Three

After a tough shoot-out loss in Glendale, the Anaheim Ducks are back in California to take on their cross-town rivals in the Los Angeles Kings. It’s an early look at a match-up that could be crucial for both teams this season.

The Anaheim Ducks will look to get back on track with their second win of the preseason at Staples Center in the first Freeway Faceoff of the preseason. For the California market, the game will be on Fox Sports West as a Kings broadcast, and the game will also be on AM830 for the Ducks broadcast.

The Anaheim Ducks will have to bring their A-game tonight as the Kings have cut their roster more than once already, while the Ducks have only made one significant group of cuts so far. The San Diego Gulls always face adversity when battling the Kings’ AHL affiliate in the Ontario Reign, and tonight will be no different with a younger line-up that might see plenty of time down with the Gulls.

Kings Rundown

More from Pucks of a Feather

• Who could the Anaheim Ducks consider presenting offer sheets to?
• Is Pierre-Luc Dubois on the cards for the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks?
• Making the case for the Anaheim Ducks to trade with the Edmonton Oilers
• Anaheim Ducks might benefit tremendously by trading John Gibson
• How close are the Anaheim Ducks to becoming contenders again?

The Los Angeles Kings are coming off a 7-5 victory against the Vancouver Canucks in a very hard-fought back and forth game. Jaret Anderson-Dolan (2-1) and Alec Martinez (1-3) each netted three points and made a world of difference for the Kings. Los Angeles is currently being outscored eleven to fourteen though, and their goalies have some terrible save percentages. This Kings defense will have to figure out how to help their goalies better.

The main key to keeping the Kings in check is to really focus on their offense and shut it down to make sure that they aren’t getting the opportunities they need to score. If the Ducks’ defense can carry that out, it’ll be another very close game considering that the Anaheim Ducks are struggling with offense at the moment.

Ducks Rundown

The Anaheim Ducks are almost in the exact opposite boat considering that scoring has been very scarce as of late. Only Max Jones has more than one point with a goal and an assist during the match-up against the Sharks. The Anaheim goaltenders have been outstanding with Kevin Boyle‘s saves in OT and John Gibson‘s five on three performances, and by the end of the game, the Anaheim Ducks will have to make cuts for the better to build a better team for their goalies to thrive with.

For the Anaheim Ducks, their defense needs to improve greatly and work better together. They’ve found themselves contracting far too much in the past two games, and that would spell disaster against this offense-heavy Kings team. Their goal scoring finally needs to kick in too, and they have to dig deep to get off to a better start than the last two games.

To recap, the Anaheim Ducks will have their work cut out for them with a very high scoring Kings team taking on their low scoring offense. It’ll be an interesting match-up with Anaheim’s stunning penalty killing unit and a hopefully improved defense, however. Puck Drop is at 7:30.

Are you a super passionate Anaheim Ducks fan? Would you love to write about your favorite team? If so, you would make an amazing addition to our already passionate contributor list. If you’re interested, make sure to follow the link above!