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Luckily they haven't had to say it much, but a mantra Bruce Boudreau has impressed upon his players is how 'good teams don't lose two in a row'. They've listened. Prior to Saturday night, the four Ducks losses were followed up by wins. The fifth loss took place on Saturday night against those pesky Phoenix Coyotes. Thanks to the scheduling gods, the Ducks will have a chance to avenge their loss to the very same team that gave it to them.
Saturday night's Ducks look exhausted. It was the second game in back-to-backs after beating Minnesota the night prior at home. Here is another difference between the Boudreau and Carlyle regimes: rest. A loss usually made Carlyle have a full practice on the non-gameday between two games. Boudreau is the opposite. He gave the team the day off to not think about hockey so they'd be fresh for Monday.
(In a cool move, Viktor Fasth, Cam Fowler, Nick Bonino and Bruce Boudreau headed out to visit their next door neighbors, the Los Angeles Angels of Planet Earth in Anaheim, in Spring Training.)
The boys hit the ice tonight missing sniper. Kyle Palmieri has been ruled out with an 'upper-body injury' (i.e. concussion). In his place, a little bit of a surprise, Brandon McMillan. It's been a while since we've seen his face up with the big club. Like most things with the 2011-2012 season, his was forgettable. In 25 games played, he registered no goals, 4 A, minus-10, 20 PIM's and 26 SOG. The rest of his year was spent with Syracuse in the AHL.
McMillan was activated from IR just a few weeks ago. In 36 GP for Norfolk, he's accumulated 7 G, 3A, minus-2, 36 PIM and 72 SOG. He'll likely be centering the line with Emerson Etem and Patrick Maroon.
All reports indicate Jonas Hiller will start in net tonight. Hiller is coming off what could arguably be his best game of the season, a 3-2 victory over Minnesota on Friday night.