Ducks at Hurricanes
A promising start to a road trip has quickly taken an ugly turn for the Anaheim Ducks, who will try to salvage the finale of the five-game trek when they face the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Anaheim won at Nashville on Feb. 5 but has dropped its next three and surrendered 11 goals in back-to-back losses to Tampa Bay and Florida. The Ducks edged visiting Carolina 5-4 in a shootout on Feb. 3 - the fourth time in five meetings the teams have gone past regulation.
Anaheim has faced a 3-0 deficit in each of its last two games to drop three points behind Nashville for the top spot in the West. "I don't know if we're taking teams lightly or we're lowering the standards or what we're doing but these kind of games you've got to show up to play," Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. "We've got to change something in our routine and get out of this little funk." Carolina has won two in a row and has been idle since skating to a 5-4 win at San Jose on Saturday.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Prime Ticket (Anaheim), SportSouth (Carolina)
ABOUT THE DUCKS (34-14-7): Anaheim's defensive woes surfaced well before starting netminder Frederik Andersen was placed on injured reserve Tuesday - the Ducks have won twice in seven contests while permitting 29 goals after yielding 10 tallies during a six-game winning streak. "I don't want to single anybody out or anything, but we're concerned with the amount of goals we're giving up," coach Bruce Boudreau said. Backup goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was yanked Tuesday in favor of just-promoted John Gibson, who could be in line for his first start since Oct. 30.
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (19-26-7): Despite languishing in the basement of the Metropolitan Division, Carolina has played well in 2015, earning points in 12 of 15 games (9-3-3) and going 5-1-2 in its last eight. Slumping Alexander Semin was a healthy scratch for four straight games before returning to the lineup on the road trip and scored his second goal of the season versus Anaheim. "I think he's still as skilled as anybody," Boudreau said of the former 40-goal scorer. He's going to snap out of it. I just hope he waits to the weekend."
OVERTIME
1. Semin has eight goals in seven games against Anaheim.
2. The Ducks are trying to avoid their first four-game losing streak since March 5-12.
3. Hurricanes D Ryan Murphy is expected to miss four weeks due to a knee injury sustained at Arizona on Feb. 5.