Lucic, Stone score in 3rd to rally Flames past Ducks 5-4

The Flames are priced as a gigantic favorite on Sunday night to beat the visiting Ducks, who have dropped seven consecutive matchups after a 7-0 pummeling last night in Edmonton.

This is essentially a “must-win” game for Calgary as it looks to steal the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. from the Jets.

Anaheim Ducks
While I would never argue that players and coaches are “tanking” in the NHL, it is clear looking at the current lottery picture that GMs can certainly set teams up for failure.

As Connor Bedard begins to light up the WHL playoffs, Anaheim, Chicago and Columbus have combined to lose 19 consecutive games. The bottom 10 teams in the league have combined to lose a shocking 38 of its last 41 contests altogether.

Anaheim, in particular, has been far from a scrappy underdog down the stretch. Over the last 15 games, the Ducks have played to a shockingly poor xGF% of 38.34, and now holds an overall expected goals rating of 39.34 on the season. They’ve allowed a whopping 39.17 shots against per 60 over that span. No team has finished with an xGF% below 40% since the 2014-15 Sabres, which conveniently enough occurred in Connor McDavid’s draft year.

Anaheim’s defensive play has undoubtedly been historically bad. At this point, there’s no reason to expect things will change 75 games in. Troy Terry is likely to remain out for tonight’s contest, and is a massive loss to an extremely thin offensive core bearing few playdrivers of any sort.

Lukas Dostal is likely to start in goal for the Ducks. He has played to a -0.9 GSAx and a .901 save % in 15 appearances.

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