Takeaways from the Ducks 4-3 Win over the Golden Knights

It begins where it ended. The Anaheim Ducks opened their 2026-27 season on the road with a Pacific Division matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights, the team that defeated them in six games in the second round of the 2026 NHL Playoffs. 

The Ducks saw their elongated rebuild come to an end in 2025-26, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and winning a series for the first time since 2017. On Friday evening, the puck dropped on their brand-new season, where they look to improve upon those results despite a tumultuous offseason. 

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Game #1: Ducks vs. Golden Knights Gameday Preview (10/02/26)

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The Ducks entered 0-0-0, but the Knights entered this game having won their season-opener in a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.

The Ducks deployed a lineup full of new faces that featured two NHL debuts (Noah Warren and Judd Caulfield) and three other Ducks debuts (Travis Mitchell, AJ Greer, and Jeff Malott) Here’s how the Ducks lined up to start this game:

Greer-Carlsson-Gauthier

Sennecke-Granlund-Killorn

Nesterenko-Poehling-Vatrano

Malott-Washe-Caulfield

LaCombe-Luneau

Mintyukov-Mitchell

Hinds-Warren

Lukas Dostal got the start in the Ducks crease and saved 27 of 30 shots. He was opposed by Carter Hart, who stopped 16 of 20.

Game Notes

The first period of this game saw the Ducks hemmed in their zone quite a bit, but displayed decent coverage habits. They scored one in the dying seconds of the first and added three more in the first eight minutes of the second to take a 4-0 lead into the third. Vegas furiously attempted to mount a comeback, but came up just short.

The Ducks showed some surprisingly encouraging aspects of their game and revealed some unpleasant others in the process. If this is any indication of things to come this season, the Ducks will be one of the NHL’s most entertaining teams yet again. 

“I think it’s a big win for us,” Ducks head coach Joel Quenneville said after the game. “We had a strong start, pretty even, then all of a sudden, we started scoring some goals there. I thought that our pace was excellent. I thought we did a lot of good things pressuring up through all zones there to create some odd-man situations.

“Our speed was effective. Then, they got a little momentum, and then the challenge was against us. All of a sudden, the momentum changes and we’re hanging on at the end, but Dosty was really good tonight. He was excellent.”

Cycle: The Ducks established themselves as the league’s most dangerous team off the rush a year ago, but their cycle game left much to be desired. In this game, they were generating extended sequences low in the Vegas zone with clever puck movements that found their way to the point, where they consistently deployed a high third forward who could then attack downhill. 

Oftentimes, that third forward high was Leo Carlsson, who is the player on the Ducks roster who could most benefit from developing a cycle presence. He succeeded in that area in this game, as he was calculating with pucks on his stick, made quick decisions along the wall, and showcased some escapability from the small areas to the soft areas of the o-zone.  

Defensive Zone Coverage: The Ducks were an adventure in their end of the ice in this game. They are far less experienced than Vegas and the Knights’ veteran savvy forced a high number of mistakes from Anaheim in their end.

Retrievals, outlets, and exits kept the Ducks in their zone longer than they should have been, but for the most part, their coverage against the talented, effective Vegas cycle was a pleasant surprise. They were cohesive in their movements to retreat to soft ice and get sticks in lanes. They were stingy around their crease and didn’t lose many even-numbered battles in that area. 

Coverage showed a few holes as the game wore on, but Dostal made all the saves he was required to and gave the team a chance to win. The Ducks were most impactful high in the defensive zone, where their speedy, long forwards forced turnovers from Knights’ defenders and sprung odd-man rushes the other way.

AJ Greer: Greer, though far less skillful than his superstar linemates, filled in the gaps in their games, provided a forechecking identity, and did the dirty work on a shift-by-shift basis so they didn’t have to. By muscling his way to the front of the net and winning battles in that area of the ice, Gauthier and Carlsson were afforded much more time and space to operate in the offensive zone. 

He was one of the long, speedy forwards who caused chaos at the defensive blueline and his trap work in the neutral zone aided in the blueline denials that the Ducks benefitted from in this game. 

The Ducks will be back at it on Sunday, when they’ll host the Florida Panthers for their home-opener. 

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