"Ducks" struggle in 4-0 loss against Coyotes

I have good news and bad news about the 4-0 result.

First the bad news: The Ducks looked horrible for much of the game. They managed 33 shots on goal, but many of those shots came from the perimeter. John Gibson got burned on the opening (and game winning) goal. The Coyotes also scored on their first power play of the game to get out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period. The best scoring chances that the Ducks had were late in the third period when Devante Smith-Pelly, Rickard Rakell and Emerson Etem were put together.

The good news: None of our regulars (besides Bryan Allen) were playing in the game, and the second home game of the preseason was tough to watch because of it. As has been the case in years past, the NHL regulars sat out the game and worked in different places in Honda Center. Cam Fowler, Dany Heatley, Clayton Stoner, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Ben Lovejoy, Jakob Silfverberg, Patrick Maroon, Francois Beauchemin, Hampus Lindholm and pretty much any other Duck that played in the playoffs last season were not on the ice. The good thing about this is that fans were able to get autographs from these players before the game.

As far as players that stood out during the game, Nick Ritchie had a lot of shifts where he would make a great play to get the puck but then lose it, or be too slow to take the rush up ice. Ritchie turned over the puck and wasn't able to catch the Coyote who scored the fourth goal of the game. William Karlsson was overshadowed by Rakell. I was particularly disappointed by Mark Fistric's play in the game. He was slow and often out of position. The only player that I thought had a great game was Kevin Gagne. He was the fastest player on the ice, and he played the most minutes while also having an even rating in what was a horrible 4-0 loss.

An important thing to note is that Bruce Boudreau said that there will be cuts before Thursday's game (which should be televised on NHL network) against the Kings. Expect many of the prospects to be cut and sent back to their teams.