ANAHEIM — At With a new coach, the second overall pick in the draft, proven leadership imported from a top franchise and an abundance of promise, the Ducks are seeking to build momentum toward a return to relevanceone point, the Ducks were considered a model NHL organization, when in a 14-year span they reached the conference finals five times, won the West twice and raised the Stanley Cup.
But in the past six years, the Ducks have qualified for the playoffs just once, producing a first-round exit that gave way to five straight campaigns of calculating draft lottery odds.
This season, with a new coach, the second overall pick in the draft, proven leadership imported from another top franchise and an abundance of promise, the Ducks are seeking to build momentum toward a return to the top. But the club will have some questions to answer along its ascent.
WHO IS GREG CRONIN?
This is a question that any attentive observer should be able to answer in short order, as the Ducks’ first-time NHL head coach is hardly timid. One thing anyone who’s met both men will realize instantly, his demeanor and approach both stand in stark contrast to those of his predecessor, Dallas Eakins. Suave, loquacious, inquisitive and always with an illustrative anecdote at the ready, there exist multiple levels to Cronin’s connectedness with his players. At 60, he’s worked in almost every other capacity of coaching and was exceptionally proactive in connecting with his group when he got his first NHL coaching job.
Cronin traveled to various locales to meet with his players and get to know them. Veteran winger Frank Vatrano described Cronin as a “breath of fresh air” that invigorated the team in terms of its morale but, perhaps more impressively, its focus. Tristan Luneau also expressed enthusiasm about playing for Cronin, who described the rookie defenseman as “a thoroughbred” moments later. If Cronin has been able to connect positively with veterans, he’s also made them grow through some discomfort: his drills defending without a stick consternated slightly 22-year-old Trevor Zegras and 33-year-old Alex Killorn alike, and he’s willing to challenge even established pros when necessary.
“When you have that common ground, and you get to know them, I can design a conversation that’s going to be able to get into those deeper areas where people listen intently to the conversation, and then to be able to coordinate goals for them to achieve that standard that they’re trying to meet,” Cronin said.
WE TALKIN’ ’BOUT PRACTICE?
The Ducks will be among the last teams to start the regular season, but they will have not one but two tall orders this weekend when they visit the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and host the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday in their home opener. That has meant more practice time, and the Ducks have taken full advantage. With a group largely consisting of players 25 or younger and multiple new veteran additions, the Ducks have had long, intense practices whenever feasible as they attempt to refine habits and retain loads of information from a new system.
In the contemporary NHL, it has been considered fashionable, progressive, smart or all three to err toward fewer skates and practices. But Cronin counts on his sports science experts to get a feel for when the team needs rest, and he expects them to deliver unwavering intensity on those days when they give his staff the green light.
“(Cronin) wants us to practice even harder than we play, and create those habits, create that mentality that will help us this year, and moving forward, to win games,” Luneau said. “Winning battles, maintaining structure, playing fast, things like that, just little concepts that, if everyone keeps doing them in practice, will make us a much better team.”
CAN THEY STOP THE PUCK?
This isn’t a section about veteran goalie John Gibson or his backup Lukas Dostal, because after facing a modern-record number of shots per game last season and receiving limited offensive support, it seems unfair if not impossible to evaluate the Ducks’ netminders.
The Ducks’ longest-tenured player, defenseman Cam Fowler, said the upcoming season offers “a fresh start for us after a tough couple of years” and he is eager to help integrate the multitude of new actors from Cronin and his staff to the veteran additions to rookies like No. 2 overall pick Leo Carlsson (Carlsson, like winger Brock McGinn, appeared destined to start the season sidelined by a lower-body injury). Even with Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Mason McTavish and a host of younger prospects seeking to add their names to a list of aspiring offensive stars for the Ducks, the club will have to commit to its new defensive system. It mirrors that of the Colorado Avalanche, whose minor-league affiliate Cronin most recently coached, and the Carolina Hurricanes, another highly successful team in recent campaigns.
“More man-on-man, trying to stay with your guy and limit time and space. Less thinking out there and knowing your responsibility so you can get more in guys’ faces,” winger Troy Terry said. “In the last few years, we were giving some of the elite players in the league a little too much time, and they were hurting us. The defensive side has been the big focal point of our camp.”
