Ducks return home to take on Golden Knights

The Anaheim Ducks will ring in the new year Las Vegas-style with two games against the Vegas Golden Knights over a five-day stretch, starting with Friday's matchup in Southern California.

The Christmas break came at the right time for the Ducks, who went down to defeat three times on a four-game East Coast trip. They went into the holiday off a 5-1 loss to the New York Rangers.

Now, they not only have Friday's home game against the Golden Knights, they will also help kick off New Year's Eve festivities in Vegas with a noon local time puck drop next week.

It has been a rough two-month stretch for the Ducks after opening the season with a 9-6-0 record. Starting with a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime defeat at home to the Chicago Blackhawks, the Ducks are just 6-12-4.

They did pull off a shootout victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday, but they overstayed their welcome in New York with a short-handed defeat to the Rangers on Sunday.

Team leaders Jakob Silfverberg and Ryan Getzlaf were missing from the most recent game because of illness. Rickard Rakell was out with an upper-body injury. Also missing were centers Derek Grant (shoulder) and Troy Terry (knee), as well as left wing Nick Ritchie (knee), all three of whom are on injured reserve.

"We had some big guys out, but we don't want to use any excuses," center Sam Steel said, according to the Orange County Register. "We saw it as an opportunity and we missed out on an opportunity, I guess. We had some good shifts, some good opportunities and stuff, but only got one (goal). We had chances to get others.

"It might not have won us the game, but we could have been a lot better in a lot of other areas."

The Ducks went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in Sunday's defeat.

The Golden Knights went into the Christmas break with a 7-3 defeat at home to the Colorado Avalanche. Vegas trailed 3-1 after the first period and gave up at least two goals in every period.

Former Golden Knights left wing Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored two goals in the Avalanche's victory. Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury gave up all seven goals on 38 Colorado shot attempts. He has given up a combined 12 goals over his last two starts.

Vegas has lost two of its last three games but has won four of six after a recent three-game winning streak.

The Golden Knights did get some good news Monday with Max Pacioretty's second-period goal. In the first period, the left wing collided with Colorado's Ian Cole and went to the locker room, but he returned for his first shift of the second period.

Instead of being embarrassed by the defeat, the Golden Knights think their opponents' play Monday can serve as a model for them moving forward.

"We feel we have a good team in here, much better than we showed (Monday)," Pacioretty said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"That's a (Colorado) team that's confident over there. A lot of strong players that are feeling good about their game. It seems as if no matter what the score is, what happened in the game, they just go out the next shift and try to create. That's the type of mindset we have to have."

--Field Level Media