Success in the NHL is a confluence of many factors. The first few things that come to mind are a lineup’s skill, depth, and cohesiveness. Then, there’s the culture established by management and coaching staff. Finally, there’s the battle of attrition. Can you stay healthy, or can you not?
On the other hand, failure is merely a result of not having those things. Losing that battle of attrition doesn’t help. Lacking discipline can totally kill a team. And that’s where the Anaheim Ducks find themselves now: without an identity, barely healthy all season, and bogged down by atrociously undisciplined play. Today, we’ll examine some of these factors and determine which are most responsible for the Ducks’ lost 2023-24 season.
The Injuries Began Before the Season Even Started
Like most NHL clubs, the Ducks dealt with offseason and preseason injuries. Isac Lundeström suffered an Achilles injury during offseason training that sidelined him for six months. Alex Killorn, their prized free-agent acquisition, broke his finger right as he was settling into his first training camp in a Ducks uniform. Meanwhile, the Ducks’ second-overall pick and top-line center of the future, Leo Carlsson, suffered a training camp practice injury that delayed his NHL debut by a week. To top it off, Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale were late-offseason signings and missed most of training camp, which definitely played a role in their early-season injuries. Drysdale played two games before missing 20 straight, while Zegras only played a handful more before sitting for 21 games himself.
No team goes into the regular season fully healthy. Extensive offseason recoveries and early injuries are part of the game. That is the nature of the beast that is NHL hockey. But within the season’s opening month, half of the Ducks’ revamped top-six forward group (Killorn, Carlsson, and Zegras) and their top-pairing right-handed shot defenseman (Drysdale) suffered ailments. If that’s not foreshadowing or a bad omen, then I don’t know what is. However, the Ducks won six games in a row in late October, started the season 7-4, and marched on.
And Injuries Piled Up Throughout the Season
Unfortunately, that 7-4 start was a mirage, as the Ducks have gone 17-41-4 since, including back-to-back losses to the Seattle Kraken. To some extent, another tough season in Anaheim was expected. Pat Verbeek is early into his tenure as General Manager, and Greg Cronin is in his first season as head coach. These two inherited a leaky roster but are hard-nosed, old-school hockey guys committed to building a winning culture in Anaheim. That’s a long-term project, no doubt, but injuries have made that process even longer.
We mentioned that the recovery of Lundeström and early-season injuries to Killorn, Drysdale, and Zegras were the first dominos to drop. It continued from there, with Carlsson going down in December with an MCL-sprain that forced him to miss 10 games. He missed eight more with a concussion. After missing those 20 games, Zegras returned in December but suffered an ankle fracture against the Nashville Predators in early January that forced him from action for another 31 games. In that same game against the Predators, rookie defenseman Pavel Mintyukov separated his shoulder and missed 10 games. Mason McTavish has missed time here and there as well, and Killorn, to top it off, needed arthroscopic knee surgery in January. But wait, there’s more…
Here’s a summary:
| 50+ Games | Trevor Zegras |
| 30+ Games | Brock McGinn, Isac Lundeström |
| 20-30 Games | Alex Killorn, Max Jones, Jamie Drysdale* |
| 10-20 Games | Radko Gudas, Pavel Mintyukov, Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish |
| 5-10 Games | Troy Terry |
For the most part, these are not depth players. These are foundational pieces and key free-agent signings. Pretty wild, right? But let us not overlook perhaps an even more prevalent issue: those penalty troubles. An argument can be made that discipline, more than injuries, has completely derailed the 2023-24 edition of the Ducks.
About Those Discipline Issues…
We’ve covered the Ducks’ penalty issues extensively all season. But it bears mentioning once more because their loss to the Kraken on March 28 perfectly sums up everything that’s been wrong with the team this season. With 10 minor penalties, including a double minor by Zegras, the Ducks completely threw the game away with their lack of discipline. Jakob Silfverberg and Lundestrom gave the Ducks life by connecting twice in a minute (while shorthanded, no less) to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead. Then, the Ducks got in their own way, as they always do, and barely played any even-strength hockey the rest of the game. It was a march to the penalty box by the same old suspects, taking the same old penalties: Zegras, Killorn, Vatrano, Strome, and others.
Make no mistake, the injuries this season have this young team even younger because they’ve barely had time together on the ice. But there are still plenty of veterans on this roster that have played this game a long time. Players that should be leading by example because they’ve won at the highest level and been on good teams. But it’s those players that are taking terrible penalties. Zegras’ double-minor may have been the worst of the bunch, but Killorn, Vatrano, and Strome each took cross-checking penalties. That is completely unacceptable. Some of the calls may have been soft, but there is not a single play in hockey where the motion of a cross-check is helpful. It will almost always be a penalty, and the Ducks should know better at this point in the season. After all, they are up to 1,074 penalty minutes in 73 games, by far the most in the league.
You Make the Call
With nine games left, there remains plenty of time for injuries and discipline to rear their ugly heads and turn the Ducks’ rough stretch of play into a full-blown disaster. While their injury issues may largely be behind them for now, discipline certainly is not.
Related: Ducks’ Goals for Final Games of the 2023-24 Season
These are tough issues to weather on their own. But both at the same time? No team, let alone one lacking the talent, depth, and shorthanded capabilities like the Ducks do, can survive that. So, you be the judge. Which has played the biggest role this season?