Misfortune and miscue infected the Ducks’ after a successful run up to game No. 41.
Anaheim showed a lot of positive signs again but couldn’t overcome another night of dried-up offense in a game with little to no margin of error, a 2-1 loss to Detroit to mark the halfway point of the season.
Here’s what we learned:
They’ve built up mental toughness the hard way: The Ducks have resigned themselves to getting wins by the skin of their teeth and have learned to handle adversity better. A bad goal allowed and several shots off the post might have doomed them psychologically a few months back, but they’ve shown resolve since Christmas and did again Sunday.