Nashville then killed back-to-back minor penalties before taking a 2-0 lead.
Josi kept the puck on his stick as he drifted across the high slot until he saw an opening and sent his shot off the inside of the right post for his fourth goal of the season, tying for the NHL lead among defensemen with Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues, Mikhail Sergachev of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Brandon Montour of the Ducks.
"I thought we had a pretty good period 5-on-5," Josi said. "It was a good first for us and, obviously, huge to grab a 2-0 lead."
Irwin made it 3-0 when he scored from the right point off a face-off win by Gaudreau in the offensive zone at 3:05 of the second period.
The Ducks made it 3-1 at 4:24 after Nick Ritchie sent a cross-ice pass to Ondrej Kase, who passed it back to the opposite side to Vermette, and he had time to settle the puck and score before Rinne could slide over.
Ritchie went to the penalty box with his third minor penalty of the game and Arvidsson scored on a one-timer from the right circle for a 4-1 lead at 17:20.
"I didn't think we handled the puck and controlled the puck at all. We were making passes at our teammates' feet," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "It starts with execution. If you can't make a tape-to-tape pass and share the puck with your teammates, you're going to have a difficult time getting through the neutral ice."