Dallas Eakins ducks coach relieves fatigue mid-season – Orange County Register

Like many coaches, Dallas Eakins worries about his players around the time of games between the Christmas break and the All-Star, which have been incorrectly called dog days of the season. NHL. Perhaps they were pushed too hard. Maybe they played too many games.

The Ducks reached the midpoint of Saturday’s 82-game schedule, when they faced the Blackhawks in Chicago. They have a reliable 19-14-7 record and are second in the Pacific Division after 40 games, but have fallen 2-5-1 since Christmas before taking on Chicago on Saturday night. .

Add the strain and stress of their COVID-19 outbreak and the uncertainty of their roster from game to game since Christmas and the Eakins have been concerned. Did he push the Ducks too hard in the rehearsals earlier in the week? Did he play them too many minutes to make up for the absence?

The Ducks have no doubt seemed sluggish in recent times, losing all the small battles that could lead to victory by the time the final whistle blew. They certainly lost a good amount of races for loose coins in Friday’s 7-3 loss to Minnesota Wild to begin their two-game trip.

Do ducks hit a wall, like a runner in the final stages of a marathon?

“It depends on the wall,” Eakins said. “Is it a mental wall? Is it a wall of fatigue? We have a couple of D-men who we’ve been running around because we had to because of COVID and the like. We had to try to run them to be able to stay in games or to win games. There is a price for that. You’re just not sure when the price will come. We might have run into a bit of that (Friday) night. ”

Eakins believes that the lack of quality practice time due to a tight schedule and uncertain fitness is also the reason why the Ducklings’ gameplay lacks sharpness. But did he push them too hard at the start of the week when they had a few days to practice?

“You get a couple of days of practice and you ramp up the intensity because you need to train for sure, but the boys are tired because they played too much and then we train and then we go out on the pitch. in such a game (Friday),” he said. “It’s such a dichotomy when to push and when not to push.”

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Center Lucas Elvenes made his debut Friday against AHL’s San Diego Gulls and scored a goal in a 5-1 loss to Abbotsford (British Columbia), the Vancouver Canucks affiliate. The Ducks announced he was exempt from the Vegas Golden Knights earlier in the week and assigned him to San Diego.