The Ducks will settle in for three games at Honda Center, beginning Tuesday, which will follow a nightmarish season-long road trip that unraveled their recent progress. Although the Ducks have been the NHL’s lowest-scoring team and owned the league’s second-worst power play, they had not been blanked all season. That was until they took to the skies for six games, three of which were shutouts by their opponents and five of which were losses. The last defeat, 3-0, was at the hands of the reigning Stanley Cup champs, the Florida Panthers, whom they’ll confront again on Tuesday. “It was really hard, especially mentally, but I thought the guys were battling all the way to the end. I didn’t think a lack of effort was there,” captain Radko Gudas, who signed with the Ducks after reaching the 2023 Final with Florida, told reporters. “There’s things we need to work on. Obviously, we need to score more goals to win in this league.” The futility of the Ducks’ power play was again on display in Florida, where the Panthers’ leading scorer Sam Reinhart was given a game misconduct and a major penalty for kneeing Isac Lundeström. The Ducks’ inability to finish with the five-minute man advantage –– or at all ––was on prominent display once more. While Lundeström appeared destined to miss at least Tuesday’s match, the creative offensive mind Trevor Zegras was on the mend. Zegras, who underwent surgery for a torn meniscus on Dec. 12 and was expected to miss six weeks, has been skating all month. Multiple reports from practice indicated that he skated with the second line and second power-play unit on Monday. If the six-week timeline were strictly adhered to, Zegras would return in the second game of this residency, Thursday’s all-avian showdown with the Pittsburgh Penguins. It appeared, however, that Zegras recovered ahead of schedule, as even with a cautious approach he seemed to be a salient possibility to return Tuesday against Florida. After missing just eight games in two campaigns across which he scored 126 points, Zegras has just 25 points in 55 of a possible 124 games this season and last. Although Zegras notched just one power-play point, a goal in a 6-4 win over Detroit, the Ducks had clicked at a somewhat respectable 15.7% clip with him in their mix. Since his injury, they’ve produced an NHL-worst 8.6% conversion rate. In addition to Zegras’ return, some buzz was created around the potential arrival of another forward, 2020 draft pick Artyom Galimov. The 25-year-old has enjoyed a breakout season in Russia’s top pro league, posting 22 goals and 41 points in 46 games to date. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Ducks were close to signing Galimov. Even if an agreement were imminent –– there are no signals beyond the passing mention by Friedman –– it could not be signed until the end of the Russian postseason, pushing Galimov’s North American arrival to next season at the earliest. It’s tough to imagine one or even two players making the difference against an imposing, decorated Florida team that’s seeking to repeat as Cup champs and three-peat in the Eastern Conference, though the Ducks did trade punches with them for two periods on Saturday. Related Articles Anaheim Ducks | Ducks shut out by Panthers, lose third straight game Anaheim Ducks | Ducks to tangle with reigning champs to close 6-game trip Anaheim Ducks | Ducks fall to Lightning on Jake Guentzel’s shootout goal Anaheim Ducks | Battered on this trip, Ducks look to get another quality win against Lightning Anaheim Ducks | Ducks get Troy Terry back in shutout loss to Capitals The Panthers sit in second place behind Toronto in the Atlantic Division, with Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk spearheading their attack. On defense, they lost former Duck Brandon Montour in free agency to Seattle, and they’ve been without former No. 1 overall pick Aaron Ekblad since Jan. 8. Ekbland (upper-body) could come back during this upcoming trip, which will pit the Panthers against the Ducks and Kings back-to-back before giving them two days off and then launching them into another pair of consecutive contests. “I have done this for a while, and I have never seen a four-game road trip with double back-to-backs and two days in between,” Florida coach Paul Maurice told reporters.