Preview: Ducks Host Rival Sharks Tonight at Honda Center

The Ducks will cap a brief two-game homestand tonight against another division rival, hosting the San Jose Sharks at Honda Center.

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Anaheim gets back to work tonight looking to turn the page on a disappointing performance in a 4-1 loss to Los Angeles Sunday night on home ice. The season's first Freeway Face-Off was scoreless after 40 minutes until a pair of LA goals early in the third period would ultimately prove the difference.

"The way we played, you’re not winning shifts, you’re not winning games," head coach Greg Cronin said. "We had no pressure on the puck and we did everything half speed.

"The NHL is a fast game. If you don't skate to the finish line every time you're backchecking, forechecking, neutral zone regroups, you're not going to get the puck. It's that simple."

"They’re a big, mature team, but we could’ve made it harder on them by putting pucks in the areas where we can go get them," added Ducks captain Radko Gudas. "I think we could have made it a lot easier on us and harder on them, for sure."

Anaheim's lone goal Sunday came from the Ryan Strome, Troy Terry and Frank Vatrano trio, the club's most productive offensive trio through the season's first five games. Terry has found the scoresheet in four straight outings (3-1=4), while Strome has scored in each of his last two games.

"They're skating hard, they know where they are on the ice, they chase pucks down and they get pucks back," Cronin said. "They trust each other out there."

Between the pipes, despite the loss to LA it was another dynamite performance for 24-year-old Lukas Dostal, whose .930 save percentage sits seventh among NHL goaltenders with at least four starts.

"He’s been a huge part of our success," Gudas said. "Every opportunity he’s in the net, he’s giving us a chance to win those games, so we’re really happy we have him back there. I would like for our team to give him a little more room to breathe and not make so many tough games on him early to start."

The Ducks also welcomed veteran netminder John Gibson back to practice Monday at Honda Center. Gibson has been out of action since late September after an emergency appendectomy.

Meanwhile across the hall tonight is a San Jose team still searching for its first win of the new season, now 0-4-2 after a 4-1 loss to Colorado on Sunday.

"We've got to find a way to win a hockey game,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky told NHL.com's Max Miller. “We've done some really good things in probably four of our six games. You could arguably say our record could be different, but at the end of the day, a record is what it says, right? I know our guys are digging in, and we care. We're trying. It's going to come. We just got to keep plugging."

One of those six Sharks losses came at the hands of the Ducks in Anaheim's season opener at SAP Center. That game too went to the third period without a goal before Isac Lundestrom scored off the rush, providing all the offense Dostal would require in a 30-save shutout.