The Anaheim Ducks will look to rebound from a franchise-worst 58-point campaign in 2022-23 when they open the regular season in a few days against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. While 2023-24 also figures to be a challenging year, hockey that counts is right around the corner, and with that, a sense of hope and excitement permeates arenas and fanbases.
The Ducks have a slew of games that are worth watching this season, their 30th in franchise history. Let’s look at five matchups worth tuning into (hint: it starts with the opening puck drop).
Season Opener Against the Defending Champs (Oct. 14 – Vegas Golden Knights)
Opening your season against the defending Stanley Cup champions is a tall order for any team, let alone the Ducks, who finished dead-last or near-last in almost every statistical category last season.
Related: Anaheim Ducks 2023-24 Projected Lineup
They also face many questions. Rookies Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, and Tristan Luneau have officially made the opening night roster. Jamie Drysdale hasn’t played in a year and acknowledged his first game back might feel like his NHL debut all over again. Radko Gudas and Ilya Lybushkin are making their Ducks debuts, and Greg Cronin is making not only his Ducks coaching debut but his NHL head coaching debut. To top it all off, the Ducks are far less than fully healthy. Talk about a lot happening at once.
Trotting out a new-look (but incomplete) roster and being a first-time head coach against a team as dynamic as Vegas is the definition of being thrown into the fire. But, I’ve mentioned this exact phrase ad nauseam now: the Ducks should be fired up and chomping at the bit to play meaningful hockey games. If being the laughingstock of the league last season wasn’t enough motivation, then how about an opportunity to rain on the champs’ proverbial parade early in the season?
Despite the tough challenge, this is a must-watch game, because, let’s be honest, what fan won’t watch their team’s first game of the year? Hockey is back! Every team begins 0-0. Drysdale, a budding star, is back playing hockey. Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, and Mason McTavish are the undisputed offensive leaders of this team and are loaded with stat-packing potential. John Gibson, as under-appreciated as he is, can still be that guy. Exciting rookies are finally getting a chance to replace stopgap veterans. These are reasons alone to tune in on Oct. 14.
Ducks Debut the 30th Anniversary Jersey (Oct. 15 – Carolina Hurricanes)
The first of many games the team will wear its 30th-anniversary jersey, which honors their past, blends it with the present, and celebrates three decades of hockey in Orange County. Home openers are always special: they captivate the fanbase’s imagination, generate excitement about the season ahead, and mark the beginning of the march toward the game’s ultimate prize – the Stanley Cup.
On the ice, it will be another challenging contest. The Ducks draw the Carolina Hurricanes for this one, the second night of a back-to-back against championship contenders to open the season. But will it, or should it, keep you from watching? No. They’ll look sharp in their new threads, and they should feed off the home crowd to deliver a strong effort in their first of 41 home games.
First Meeting Between Carlsson & Fantilli (Oct. 24 – Columbus Blue Jackets)
This will be a fun one. Adam Fantilli, University of Michigan star and 2023 Hobey Baker Award winner, fell to Columbus at third overall after the Ducks surprisingly took Leo Carlsson with the second pick in last summer’s draft.
While Carlsson’s potential and credentials certainly justify his draft position, his selection over Fantilli creates a fun storyline between two teams that don’t typically generate a ton of headlines when they play one another. Now, the progression and development of each player will come into focus over the next three to five years, and make the two matchups each season between the clubs worth watching. Both project to be top players for years to come, and both made their respective opening night rosters, meaning we could see this matchup for the first time early in the season. It is worth noting that Carlsson will miss a few games to start, so it’s possible we will have to wait until their next meeting to see this individual matchup.
First Meeting in Chicago Against Connor Bedard (Dec. 7 – Chicago Blackhawks)
This one will be interesting on a few levels. There are some fun storylines, like the new-look Ducks facing off against franchise legend Corey Perry once again, for example. There’s also the Zegras-Brent Sopel drama. Over the offseason, Sopel claimed he’d slash Zegras in the face if they ever ended up on the ice together, which Zegras laughed off, referencing an infamous saying from Ben Stiller’s Dodgeball. Will Sopel’s comments sour Zegras to the Blackhawks faithful? Will Zegras doubling down on his commitment to have fun with the game and be himself out there earn him a few boos? We’ll see. He’s must-watch TV, regardless, and these antics make this game a bit more fun.
More significantly, though, is that this matchup is the first between Connor Bedard and the Ducks, who famously missed out on the opportunity to select the phenom by one spot in the draft order. His first game against every team will be noteworthy, but perhaps even more so for the Ducks, who have now missed out on two of the last three most hyped prospects in recent NHL history by one draft pick. Bedard will recognize at least one face on the other side, as he wore the Team Canada crest with McTavish at the World Junior Championship. It’s also possible by this point in the season that Bedard’s other former teammates Nathan Gaucher and Olen Zellweger are playing for the Ducks, too. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Any of the Four Freeway Faceoff Games (Los Angeles Kings)
Ducks and Kings fans alike will always tune into this rivalry. To date, these teams have only met in the playoffs once, but this battle for regional bragging rights always makes for good matchups, and that includes their regular season ones.
At present, a significant competitive gap remains between the Ducks and Kings, who appear to be playoff regulars once again after a three-season lull from 2018-21. The Ducks, meanwhile, remain a couple of seasons behind. We all long for the days of the early- and mid-2010s, when there was room for both clubs in the postseason. Until then, it’s just regular season games, and we’ll be treated to four of them this season. All will be worth watching, especially the first two while the season is young.
Young Talent Serves as Top Reason to Watch Ducks This Season
If you’re searching for reasons to tune in, you really need to look no further than the healthy dose of young talent that the Ducks have. After all, at the moment, they don’t have much else to offer. If you have the patience to persist through the inevitable mistakes and painful losses, then you’ll witness the next generation of Ducks hockey, which, at some point in time, projects to be really good. That talent will be on display from the moment the first puck drops on Oct. 14.
