How the Ducks' league-worst offense has tapped into a scoring surge

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- For the first time since February 2016, the Anaheim Ducks have scored five or more goals in three consecutive games. Despite that, Anaheim is still the league’s backmarker in goal scoring.

How are the Ducks accessing this scoring surge?

When Anaheim returned from a season-long road trip last week and had been shut out for the first three times this season on the six-game trip, Ducks coach Greg Cronin was once again asked to dissect his team’s league-worst offense.

Why had the Ducks offense gone from inconsistent to nonexistent on the trip, and what more could be done to generate goals? 

“We're a rush team,” Cronin said on Jan. 20. “We haven't established an offensive zone, puck-possession personality yet. A lot of it's from we have some younger guys that don't maintain possession. They're not confident with bodies on them.

“This gets pretty technical. Other teams that are more mature that are playoff teams, they're okay with people on them. More importantly, they'll invite people to come at them so they can make plays under pressure. We're not there yet.”

Cronin continued by outlining that when the team had been winning games, they were scoring on the rush, but when that dried up, the team wouldn’t generate enough to win.

For as prolonged as Anaheim’s defensive play has been or how stellar its goaltending has performed, the Ducks live and die on their offense, as seen in their 20-0-2 mark when scoring three or more goals. Conversely, they’re 1-23-4 when scoring two or fewer.

Cronin said he wanted his team to get to a “ground game,” where the Ducks are able to get and keep possession in the offensive zone.

There are plenty of teams successful with rush offenses, such as the Vegas Golden Knights, Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils. Even still, those teams also have the extra gear of a forecheck to turn rush chances from one-and-done into flurries.

According to research by hockey analytics guru Corey Sznadjer, roughly 52% of goals scored in the NHL over the last couple seasons come off the forecheck and 48% off the rush.

“I want to be a possession team,” Cronin said. “Are we built for that right now? Maybe not. What we do do naturally well is we do come out of our zone well, and we do get chances off the rush, we do get chances off the neutral zone regroups, which is a speed game. So we can skate. We can play a track meet game, but we have to learn to defend the puck in the offensive zone.”

Since Cronin’s analysis, Anaheim now has scored 18 goals in its last four games. So, how are the Ducks doing it?

Of those 18 goals, three* have been on the power play (*Mason McTavish’s goal in Seattle was even-strength, but seconds after the man-advantage expired still in a power play set-up) and another two empty net goals.

Of the remaining 13 goals at five-on-five, six were pure rush goals, four were created by possession and forechecking and two were turnovers. The one remaining even-strength goal was McTavish’s second goal against Pittsburgh, which was technically on the rush but mostly created due to the odd bounce off the seam of the board glass.

All of that points to a mostly even split between rushes and possession goals–six goals on the rush, and six goals from the forecheck (the two goals off turnovers aren’t turnovers if the forechecker isn’t there).

“We're trying to strike that balance between being purely a rush team and trying to mix in some zone time,” Cronin said on Saturday morning between the Pittsburgh and Nashville games. “Since November, we're one of the top teams in the league breaking pucks out and doing those radical stretches. So I think that's given us the ability to get out of our own quickly and then use our speed and our skill to attack the offensive blue line.

“For us, (possession) has been a work in progress.”

In this goalscoring surge, there are two standout points.

First and most obvious is McTavish kicking into gear. The 21-year-old has goals in each of the last four games with six tallies in the stretch, doubling his total on the season to 12. McTavish has scored on the rush, off of possession and on the power play, and he finished and created, respectively, on the two turnover goals.

“It's funny when a guy who scores–like Mac’s a scorer, he's got an elite shot,” Cronin said after McTavish’ second two-goal effort against Nashville, “when they start scoring, their whole game picks up, right? 
They have more pace to their game. There's more confidence around the puck. I thought he was terrific.”

The second is on the four pure possession and forecheck goals, as each one was created off a low-high shot, where the forwards pass up to the defenseman for the trigger.

Cronin said the “low-high” play has become a staple of the NHL, and Ducks leading scorer Troy Terry thinks they have that play down. Terry sees that type of play as important in the debate of rush versus possession.

“Being a good rush team, you feel it, like some of these teams like Tampa or whoever, you can be playing as good as you want against them, and then it just feels like they get a few chances on the rush and you're down two goals,” Terry said. “That's definitely a part of this league, but you know, some games teams just aren't giving you rush chances. Like Florida, they backcheck hard. They limit your chances off the rush. 

“I think that's where we just need to–I know (Cronin) calls it a ‘ground game’ and I think that's a good term for it.”

With that established, Terry echoed Cronin’s sentiments about maintaining possession and holding onto the puck with bodies on you in the offensive zone. Terry sees an evolution toward breaking teams down and finding the space behind the defensive pressure.

“I think that's kind of our next step,” Terry said. “I think, for me, I just want to see guys feeling confident in their own ability to hold on to the puck and looking to want the puck on their stick and to make plays themselves, as opposed to just going low to high every time. I think that's just what I can see when I know we’re playing well offensively is these guys just look like they want the puck and holding on to it.”

Although a rush goal, Terry capitalized on that very type of hold play for Anaheim’s opening goal in Seattle. Frank Vatrano and Ryan Strome entered the zone together, but Vatrano was able to hold up and protect the puck for an extra second just inside the blue line.

This allowed Strome to find space low to accept a pass along the boards from Vatrano, and as the Kraken defense took alert to Strome, Terry streaked down the middle to receive Strome’s laser pass and finish the chance.

A veteran play by three veteran skaters, but it’s a perfect example for a young team to follow, even as this young group finds a spark in this offensive surge.

“When you have older players, they don't panic, they don't get moved off the puck,” Cronin said on Friday. “When we get into puck battles where the ice is squeezed, you have to fend off defenders, and you have to have your eyes up and find open targets. I would say over half our forwards have not matured yet to feel confident under that pressure.”

Anaheim continues to monitor those ebbs and flows of a season, but right now, the Ducks are riding the flow.

“That's a good example of us learning from it,” Strome said of the bounce-back games after the tough road trip, “but it's something that you really have to feel to go through… We want to play meaningful games as long as we can here and stay in this race.”

Anaheim is seven points behind the Calgary Flames for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference, and the Ducks are in Calgary on Thursday.