It's a battle of fathers and sons tonight at Honda Center as the Ducks host the visiting Buffalo Sabres in the finale of a brief two-game homestand.
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As the Sabres come to town, on one side of the ice stands a pair of former first-round picks and blossoming NHL talents, defenseman Ryan Johnson and star center Tage Thompson.
On the other side are Anaheim's assistant coaches and a couple of proud dads, Craig Johnson and Brent Thompson, who will face off against their sons for the very first time in their professional careers.
Johnson, the second-ever draftee of the Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League, has played his first 27 NHL games this year, tallying five points and a +4 rating. The 22-year-old native of Irvine won a high school hockey national championship with his dad at Santa Margarita Catholic in 2018.
Meanwhile Thompson is in his seventh NHL season, his sixth with Buffalo, and last year finished 15th among league leaders with a career-best 94 points.
"It's a special moment for all of us," the elder Johnson said. "It'll be the first time for both [Thompson] and myself coaching against our kids...We look forward to watching our kids play. Obviously, we want what's best for our kids, but we really want to win for the Ducks.
"I guess the perfect scenario is we get a win and they play really well (laughs)."
Anaheim will be chasing that win in its third game in four nights after dropping both ends of a weekend back-to-back. The Ducks led 2-0 after one over the first-place Rangers Sunday night at Honda Center, but could not hang on to that advantage in the third, suffering their fourth loss in the last five games.
"We played a measured first two periods and they had a lot to do with it by punting pucks out and catching us on the foot races back up the ice," head coach Greg Cronin said. "I thought we were on our heels and we didn't have a lot of energy. So, we challenged them after the second period, just play on your toes and attack them. We did a little bit of that at the end of the second period, and then the third, I thought we started off pretty good. After [Anaheim's third goal] was disallowed, it kind of woke [the Rangers] up and they put the pressure on us."
Both of Anaheim's goals in the setback came from versatile veteran forward Adam Henrique, who was recently bumped up to the club's top line alongside Leo Carlsson and Troy Terry in the absence of the injured Alex Killorn. With back-to-back multi-point games since the promotion, Henrique now has nine points in his last eight appearances and ranks second among team leaders in goals (14) this season.
"Those guys create so much," Henrique said of his linemates. "They're hanging on to the puck, creating space, so I just try to be that supportive player with them. I try to find the holes, try to get to the front of the net. They see the ice so well. So, I'm just trying to play off of that.
"Me and Troy [Terry] played together in the past and I think Leo [Carlsson] has those tendencies as well. I'm just trying to be that supportive player and trying to work to do what I can to help those guys find space and open up our own game. It's been just a couple of games but, certainly enjoying playing with those guys. Hopefully, we can keep the chemistry going."
Anaheim now turns its attention to a Buffalo team looking to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. The Sabres, who kick off a three-game west coast trip tonight, have earned points in six of their last 10 games but fell 3-1 to the Lightning Saturday night on home ice.
“I thought we were just sloppy with the puck,” Thompson told NHL.com's Heather Engel. “I think we forced a lot of things through the neutral zone and kind of into their pressure, kind of making the game a little more difficult on ourselves and obviously that’s kind of how they got the first two goals, just kind of freebies for them.
"The game plan going in there was just to make them work and make them defend and I think we let them off a little easy tonight, gave them kind of an easy game."
The Sabres (20-22-4, 44 points) sit seventh in the Atlantic Division, nine points back of the Eastern Conference's second Wild Card position.
