Ducks and schmucks from Anaheim's bounce back against the Jets

The Anaheim Ducks defeated the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday night, by a final score of 5-1. Coming off of an uninspiring loss against the Edmonton Oilers, the Ducks needed to get back on track and in the win column. The Jets have been one of the best teams early on in the new season and the Ducks passed a measuring stick game of sorts, but on the backs of some unexpected performances from some lesser-known players.

Duck

Judd Caulfield

Hand up, we were unfamiliar with Caulfield's game heading into the 2026-27 season and did not think he would stick in the lineup. But the rookie put on a grinding clinic against the Jets and was rewarded with his first NHL goal.

In just 9:34 of ice time, Caulfield was responsible for 16.8% of Anaheim's expected goals in all situations, had a Corsi percentage of 57.9, and tacked on an assist for good measure.

Schmuck

The blender

Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville normally does not opt for major changes to the lineup, as the fourth line remained intact, but the rest of the lines got put into a blender. While a third line composed of A.J. Greer, Ryan Poehling, and Alex Killorn was serviceable, placing Nikita Nesterenko on the second line and Sam Colangelo on the first line was definitely an odd choice. With Troy Terry still out for a couple months with an injury and Nikita Klepov unable to stay in the lineup, the Ducks are lacking another Bonafide scoring threat in the top six, but having two bottom six guys playing higher than they should is not the answer. The Nesterenko, Mikael Granlund, and Cutter Gauthier line was especially abysmal at generating offense, as the trio had an expected goals of just 0.042 in 8:14 at five on five.

The defense pairings were even more questionable as the newly extended Tristan Luneau got bumped all the way down to the third pairing with Tyson Hinds. While the pairing of Travis Mitchell and Pavel Mintyukov limited the Jets' scoring chances, they provided no juice on the offensive side of the puck with an expected goals of 0.247 in 12:36 of ice time at five on five. One aspect to monitor though, will be how the defense pairings will be constructed as Ian Moore, Nick Jensen, and Drew Helleson have yet to play a game this season and at least of couple of the rookies currently in the lineup will be pushed out.

Duck

More firsts

Caulfield was only one part of a dominate performance from the Ducks fourth line, as Tim Washe got his first goal of the season, with a great assist from Jeff Malott during a two on one rush.

The trio of Caulfield, Washe, and Malott had an eye-popping 91.2 expected goals percentage, a 56.3 Corsi percentage, and outshot the Jets 5-0 during their 7:10 of ice time.

Despite our misgivings of Colanegelo's placement higher in the lineup, he also scored his first goal of the season, as Beckett Sennecke dished him the puck from behind the Winnipeg net.

Nesterenko also got his first goal of the season, as Sennecke whiffed on an empty net attempt, and Nesterenko battled through the Winnipeg skaters to seal the victory for the Ducks.

Schmuck

The shutout-less streak continues

Lukas Dostal needed to have a bounce back performance, after allowing 5 goals on 10 second period shots against the the Oilers in his last start and getting pulled from the net. Dostal delivered against the Jets, with a .938 save percentage and 1.34 goals saved above expected. Heading into the third period, Dostal had yet to allow a goal and we a glimmer of hope that he might get a shutout, but Kyle Connor spoiled that thought.

The Ducks have not had a shutout since the first game of the 2024-25 season, when Dostal made 30 saves to shutout the San Jose Sharks. The variance in hockey is absurd and it's somewhat perplexing that the Ducks have not at least lucked into a shutout since then. There's still plenty of hockey left this season, but it had to have busted Dostal's chops after being so close in a low shot volume game, for the Ducks defense to break down at an inopportune time to give Connor such a glorious scoring chance.

What's next?

The Anaheim Ducks will play the Flames in Calgary tonight and expect Ville Husso to get the nod in the net. The Flames also have yet to win a game this season and after a great performance against the Jets, tonight's matchup has the makings of a trap game. Fingers crossed the Ducks keep the Flames winless.

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