Ducks not considering firing Carlyle as coach amid 11-game losing streak

WINNIPEG --The Anaheim Ducks are not thinking about firing coach Randy Carlyle despite losing their 11th straight game, 4-3 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place on Sunday.

"While it's not my preference to make comments on this topic during the season, our recent play has led to many questions," executive vice president and general manager Bob Murray said. "Our fans are frustrated, rightfully so, and deserve a response from me.
"At this time, I am not considering a coaching change. I am more focused on our players, specifically with who is going to step up in this situation. The way we played tonight was a step in the right direction, but we need much, much more. We have higher expectations for this group and they should expect more from themselves."
Anaheim (19-18-9, 47 points), which is 0-7-4 during the streak, is even with the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Wild have played 44 games, the Ducks 46 and the Canucks 47.
The Ducks' last win came on Dec. 17 at the Pittsburgh Penguins. At the time, it was their ninth victory in 10 games and they were in second place in the Pacific Division, three points behind the Calgary Flames.
On Sunday, Anaheim never trailed in regulation, leading 2-0 and 3-2 while outshooting the Jets 28-27. But Ben Chiarot tied it 3-3 at 14:05 of the third period, and Bryan Little won it on a rebound with 11 seconds remaining in overtime.
The loss followed a 7-4 home loss to the Penguins, a game in which the Ducks led 3-0 after the first period.
Carlyle, speaking before Murray released his statement, said the Ducks have been playing better despite the results.
"You just have to multiply and duplicate efforts like tonight," Carlyle said. "Because if we do that, we'll have success. And I think we can do some things better. But we were very competitive against a real good hockey club in a tough building and we lost a point."

The Ducks will try to end the longest losing streak in their history against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET, FS-D, Prime, NHL.TV). It will be the second of a five-game road trip for Anaheim, which plays nine of its next 10 games away from home.
"You never accept losing, but you can deal with losing when you know that you went out there and did the things that you were supposed to do," defenseman Cam Fowler said. "The game against Pittsburgh, we didn't do that. We left our goalie out to dry, we made it way too easy on them. Tonight, we did a lot of great things, and you're not always going to get the results that you want.
"Obviously, now with the stuff that we're going through, people are only looking at the results, but we came in here, we played a great road game. If we continue to do that and we continue to put forth the effort we did tonight, then we'll climb our way out of this thing."
The Ducks have struggled at both ends of the ice during the streak. They have been outscored 40-19, including scoring one goal or fewer six times (shut out twice), and have allowed at least three goals in nine of the 11 games.
Captain Ryan Getzlaf, who leads the team with 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists), has three points (one goal, two assists) in his past 11 games while forward Jakob Silfverberg, who leads the Ducks with 12 goals, has four points (three goals, one assists).
Injuries continue to affect the Ducks as well, as they have lost 262 man-games this season. Among those has been forwards Corey Perry, who has missed 46 games because of knee surgery, and Patrick Eaves (28 games, broken rib), Fowler (23 games, facial fractures) and goalie Ryan Miller (14 games, knee).
Forward Rickard Rakell, who led Anaheim in goals (34) and points (69) last season, scored his sixth goal of the season against the Jets in his third game back after missing 13 with an ankle injury.
Despite the setbacks, Fowler said the mindset for the Ducks is to focus on the next game without worrying about the past.
"I try and be as level-headed and positive as I can," he said. "We did a lot of good things tonight. I think it's important not to get down on ourselves and put forth the same effort on this road trip, because if we play that way, we'll be able to win a lot of hockey games.
"It's going to be up to some of us, some of the leadership group, to try to maintain a level head, look at it big picture, look at the things we did well, and there's always things we can clean up, but the overall picture is we came in here and played a strong, solid road game and we got a point. If we continue to take that along this road trip with us, we'll have a lot more success than we've had."

This is the second stint as coach of the Ducks for the 62-year-old Carlyle, who led Anaheim to its only Stanley Cup championship in 2007. He first coached the Ducks from 2005-2011, going 273-182-61, but was fired and replaced by Bruce Boudreau on Dec. 1, 2011.
After going 91-78-19 as coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2011-2015, Carlyle returned to the Ducks on June 14, 2016, replacing Boudreau who was fired April 29. The Ducks reached the 2017 Western Conference Final but were defeated by the Nashville Predators in six games. Anaheim reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season but was swept in the first round.
Carlyle, who is Anaheim's all-time wins leader with a record of 382-248-96 and has led the Ducks to the playoffs in seven of his eight full seasons as coach, said the coaching staff has been working hard to keep the mindset positive.
"But it is despair now because everybody's down," he said. "You can see it's real quiet. Everybody's hurting. But again, we can't be numbed by this.
"We can't be down. We can't change what happened (Sunday). We can just continue to build on it and take it as a building block and a staple of how we're going to have to play and get ready for Detroit."