Fans should be worried about the recent stretch of play from the Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks recently lost to the San Jose Sharks, yet the final score was not a good indicator of their play. For the second game in a row, the Ducks were down early again. Even though the Ducks battled back and pulled within a goal late, they lost to another Pacific Division rival, costing valuable points in the standings.

At the quarter season mark, the Ducks were flying high, surprisingly sitting atop the Pacific. With a record of 14-7-1, a .659 points percentage, and a +11-goal differential, the Ducks made even the most jaded of fans begin to believe.

Flash forward a month later and that belief has turned into panic. The Ducks have lost four of their last five games and have slid down into third place in the Pacific Division with a record of 21-16-2. That plus +11 goal differential has turned into a -3. Combined with a .564 points percentage and a record of 3-6-1 in their last ten games, the problems are beginning to mount. So, what's gone wrong in Anaheim?

Late Starts

Not to beat a dead horse, but this has been a problem for the majority of the season. The Ducks were down 4-1 in the second period against San Jose. In the previous game against Los Angeles, the Ducks gave up four goals to the Kings before they even got on the scoreboard. Scroll through any of the box scores for their previous games and this problematic pattern keeps cropping up for the Ducks, as they have still only scored first in 14 of 39 games.

It is doubtful that head coach Joel Quenneville has the team unready to play every game; this should be on the players. And this problem precedes Quenneville's tenure, as the previous coaching regimes of Greg Cronin and Dallas Eakins were marked by horrible starts to games too. This version of the Ducks undoubtedly has a better group of players than in years past, but the problem still persists. The Ducks get down early and have to fight their way back into games, and that mindset has begun to backfire.

Defensive breakdowns

For all the hype heading into the 2025-26 season about the young and talented defenseman of the Ducks, the actual results in the defensive zone have been maddening. Bad defensive coverage and breakdowns have been a ghastly hallmark of the Ducks season so far. The game against the Sharks, only helped to illustrate how porous the defense has been.

On San Jose's first goal, Drew Helleson pressured the puck carrier, leaving Mario Ferraro open on the far side.

In another instance, Olen Zellweger mistakenly pressured the puck carrier, leaving an opening for Macklin Celebrini to streak behind Jacob Trouba, for the San Jose's second goal.

And in this sequence, Helleson was the main culprit again, as he was stripped of the puck by Celebrini, who made a pass to an uncovered William Eklund, for San Jose's fourth goal of the game.

Bad goaltending

In his first 17 games of the season, Lukas Dostal had a 11-5-1 record, with a .904 save percentage and 2.81 goals against average. Since his return from an injury however, Dostal has not played up to his normal standard. Dostal has gone 3-4, with a .849 save percentage, and a goals against average that has ballooned up to 3.83.

Dostal was allowed to stay in net in the game against the Kings, despite allowing four goals on the first 17 shots. He was not so lucky in the game against the Sharks though, being pulled after giving up four goals again, this time on only 9 shots. Granted, defense can be partly to blame for those poor outings, but it's still on Dostal to come up with a save or two.

What now?

There's still a little more than half the season for the Ducks to fix their problems and quiet the panic that has begun to emerge. They still have a little cushion in the playoff race, but that advantage is beginning to evaporate quickly. After three straight losses, the team should be highly motivated to have a bounce back against the incoming Tampa Bay Lightning.