Ryan Poehling’s absence has quickly become impossible for the Ducks to ignore.
Anaheim’s defensive specialist was injured on Oct. 10 against the Calgary Flames, and the sequence that ended his night also showed exactly why he matters so much to this team. With 15 minutes left in the third period and the Ducks on the penalty kill in a 2-2 game, Poehling jumped on a broken pass deep in the defensive zone and turned it into a shorthanded 2-on-1 with Nikita Nesterenko against Flames defenseman Zayne Parekh.
Poehling then sold the pass, got Parekh to take away the lane, and scored the go-ahead goal. But after he released the shot, Parekh’s slide tripped him, and Poehling crashed into the near post, suffering a lower-body injury that ended his game.
“He’s a huge part of the room, especially because he scores that big goal,” Ducks forward Alex Killorn said of Poehling. “He’s a big part of the team, PK, really liked.
So, it’s tough to see a guy like that go down, especially when he needs to get helped off the ice. It’s always tough.”
Since then, Anaheim has had to reshuffle its lineup, with Ducks prospect Roger McQueen stepping into Poehling’s third-line center spot.
The results have been rough. In the four games since the injury, the Ducks are 0-4-0, have been outscored 16-8, and their penalty kill has dropped to 66.6% - 10 for 15 - compared with 88.9% in the first five games of the season, when Poehling was in the lineup and the unit went 16 for 18.
To be clear, Poehling isn’t the only reason for Anaheim’s skid, and he’s not even the biggest one. But he is one of the more overlooked pieces in what the front office and coaching staff are trying to build, especially when it comes to defensive structure and how the lineup is deployed.
Among the Ducks’ opening night centers - Leo Carlsson, Mikael Granlund, Poehling and Tim Washe - Poehling was the best fit for head coach Joel Quenneville and assistant coach Ryan McGill’s pressure-zone defensive system and breakout plan. His skating lets him close quickly on opponents who settle into a cycle.
His stick work and reads break up plays. His positioning helps him support defensemen in puck battles or become an easy outlet.
Over the last year-plus in Anaheim, that recognition has often sparked transition chances or at least clean changes of possession.
He carries those traits into the offensive and neutral zones, too, whether he’s the first forechecker, the second layer or the third man back. His backcheck can erase rushes and odd-man looks on its own, which takes pressure off a young blue line.
In simple terms, when Poehling is out there, the Ducks spend less time trapped in their own zone. That means more exits, more time in the neutral zone and more shifts starting higher up ice for the rest of the lineup.
Now the burden spreads around. Carlsson will need to raise his defensive pace.
Granlund will have to compensate for a lack of burst with smarter play. McQueen has the tools to become a strong defensive center down the road, but he’s still only four games into his NHL career and will need time to develop the reads and habits that make that kind of impact repeatable.
The wingers and defensemen have to do more as well. Wingers will need to resist the urge to fly the zone too early, which would shorten outlet distances for the young defensemen behind them.
The defensemen will need cleaner exits, whether that means beating forecheckers more often, making better-weighted rims, or using chips and high flips into the neutral zone to push the puck up ice. If they lean more heavily on those chips and high flips, the forwards can leave early more often, but then they’ll need to win more of those puck battles once the puck arrives.
There is still time for Anaheim to steady itself. Poehling’s recovery timeline is now 4-6 weeks, and the Ducks are also expected to get veteran forward Troy Terry back at some point in the coming weeks or months, which should help their overall 200-foot play.
For now, though, the Ducks’ youngest roster in the NHL may need to simplify, survive, and find a way back into the win column before this stretch digs too deep.
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