As they fell to .500 on the young campaign, the message from Ducks coach Greg Cronin to his team was clear: play faster.
“It’s a speed game. The whole league plays fast,” Cronin said. “The NHL is a fast game. If you don’t skate to the finish line every time you’re backchecking, forechecking or regrouping in the neutral zone, you’re not going to get the puck. It’s just that simple.”
After two losses in which Cronin said his team “did everything at half speed” and that they “looked slow,” they will welcome the Sharks on Tuesday, whom they blanked 2-0 in San Jose to kick off the campaign.
While the match was far from picturesque, it proved to be a springboard for goalie Lukáš Dostál, who won his next decision and then stopped 45 shots in an overtime loss to Colorado on Friday. That was his fourth top-30 performance in franchise history, including the most and third most saves in a single game.
Sunday, Dostál faced the Kings and Swiss national Kevin Fiala, whom he and Czech teammate Radko Gudas bested in a gold-medal-winning shutout at the World Championships this past spring. Dostál robbed Fiala four times and forced him to shoot wide on a couple prime chances, though ultimately the Kings won 4-1 and Fiala went home with an empty-net goal.
“(Dostál) has been a huge part of our success. He’s giving us every opportunity. When he’s in the net he’s giving us a chance to win those games,” Gudas said. “I’m really happy we have him back there and I would like to give him a little more room to breathe.”
Dostál breathed easy even while under pressure most of the night but was suffocated by a pair of blunders by defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who got well in time to draw in for the ailing Pavel Mintyukov (he, Isac Lundeström and John Gibson were all on the ice during Monday’s practice but Ryan Strome was not, per The Hockey News’ Derek Lee). Though LaCombe was beaten badly by Adrian Kempe on the Kings’ first goal and coughed up the puck directly to Alex Laferriere for a sort of pick-six on ice on the second, he played an otherwise steady 60 minutes.
“I really liked his game, he played very solidly,” Gudas said. “We played against Anže (Kopitar) the whole game pretty much, so I really liked his gap, his talkativeness and his overall game management.”
While the Ducks would like to earn a little greater margin for error for their goalie and defense alike, the Sharks have had even bigger problems. Since their loss in the opener, they’ve picked up just one point, a shootout loss to the Dallas Stars in their next game. Since then, they’ve lost three games by a combined count of 16-6: an 8-3 shelling by Winnipeg, a 4-2 defeat by lowly Chicago and, most recently, a 4-1 loss to Colorado.
Former Kings winger Tyler Toffoli, who signed with San Jose as a free agent this past summer, paces the Sharks in scoring with seven points in six games. No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini had a goal and an assist in his debut but has been out with a hip injury since. The Sharks’ other rookie headliner, Ducks rookie Cutter Gauthier’s former collegiate teammate Will Smith, remained in search of his first NHL point after five games.
