ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Ducks went through practice on Wednesday with the same lines as yesterday, with Ross Johnston and Max Jones both filling in the fourth line spot alongside Sam Carrrick and Brett Leason.
On the blue line, Cam Fowler and Radko Gudas were paired together in the absence of Jamie Drysdale. There hasn’t been an update on Drysdale’s status yet, but the likely scenario is that he’s dealing with a minor injury.
Here’s how Anaheim’s lines looked this morning:
Zegras-Carlsson-Terry
Vatrano-McTavish-Strome
Henrique-Groulx-Silfverberg
Johnston/Jones-Carrick-Leason
Fowler-Gudas
Mintyukov-Lyubushkin
LaCombe
Vaakanainen/Luneau
Gibson-Dostál
One of either Urho Vaakanainen or Tristan Luneau is expected to slot in for Drysdale tomorrow night against the Dallas Stars, but it’s unknown at this time which one of them it will be.
The like for like substitution would be the right-handed Luneau, who made the team out of training camp after a terrific year in the QMJHL last season and has yet to make his NHL debut.
Another option would be Jackson LaCombe shifting over to to play his off-side—as he often did while playing NCAA hockey for Minnesota—in order to accommodate the insertion of Vaakanainen.
Without Drysdale, the formation on the power play has been slightly altered as well. Leo Carlsson—who returned to practice yesterday after being out with a lower-body injury—and Pavel Mintyukov were inserted into the first power play unit while Cam Fowler and Mason McTavish dropped down to the second unit.
Here’s how the formations looked:
PP1
Carlsson
Terry-Strome-Zegras
Mintyukov
PP2
Henrique
Vatrano-Silfverberg-McTavish
Fowler
Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg rotated between the bumper and netfront positions on the second unit.
Carlsson said this is the first time he’s ever been in a netfront role on the power play. “I’m pretty big too so I can (screen) the goalie pretty good as well.”
The penalty kill formations will change as well with Drysdale out. LaCombe and Gudas have spent ample time on the penalty kill through the first two games and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ilya Lyubushkin see more time on the penalty kill alongside Fowler in Drysdale’s absence.