Opportunities for victory don’t get set up much better than Friday. The Ducks had four days to prepare for a struggling Carolina team that played its backup goalie.
The result was a giant step back, a 5-1 loss in which the Ducks weren’t engaged at the start and beaten by the Hurricanes, who ploddingly protected a 3-0 lead and rode out a brief Ducks push.
Here’s what we learned:
Their offense is going nowhere fast. The Ducks have repeatedly pointed to “puck luck” as part of being last in the NHL at 1.