It is becoming increasingly more obvious that the Anaheim Ducks are in trouble this season.
The seemingly perennial presence of the Ducks somewhere near the top of the Pacific Division is threatened this season by inconsistency across the ice and bench.
Sunday night that was evident as the Ducks lost to the Predators, 5-2, in Nashville.
Austin Watson picked up his fist NHL hat trick in the Nashville win.
“For as long as I’ve been here, we’ve done a good job of bouncing back after we’ve played games we didn’t like,” Watson said. “Tonight was no different. That’s a good hockey team over there. They’re always spirited, hard battles. We stuck to our game plan, we got on the attack and we were able to start our little homestand here off with a good win.”
Pekka Rinne made 17 saves to get the win for the Predators who improved to 17-6-1.
“It’s always nice to score goals and contribute,” Watson said. “Hockey players, that’s what we like doing. To get an opportunity to play with [Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg], two really gifted players, and then I was out there with [Bonino and Sissons], we’ve had some good success. It was a fun night.”
Adam Henrique and Ondrej Kase scored for the Ducks.
The Ducks dropped to 10-10-5 and have struggled with a lack of offense where two goals need to be considered an avalanche.
“To me, it’s about defense,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said. “We can be criticized for lack of offense, but the reality is, we need to be able to hold the opposition to one goal or two goals. That’s the reality of it. Where we’re set up, the way we are with our group right now and the personnel that we have in place, we have to win the 1-0 game or the 2-1 game. Simple as that.”
It may be part of the equation, but at some point the Ducks need to find the back of the net.
Nick Bonino and Craig Smith also scored for the Preds.
That was really good to see that,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “Guys chipping in like Nick [Bonino]. He had a really strong game, and obviously [Watson] had a big part of it tonight as well. That’s part of it. I said it this morning, and I said it sounded kind of cliché, but we need guys to fill those minutes and do a good job, and I thought everybody played pretty well.”
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Predators highlights]
John Gibson made 28 saves in the loss.
“Well I think really the turning point in the game from our standpoint, it seemed like what we thought was kind of a possible kneeing penalty on [Predators defenseman Matt Irwin] on [Ducks forward Kalle Kossila] kind of turned the game around,” Carlyle said. “From that point on, we took numerous penalties and it became kind of a game that we shouldn’t have played.”
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