Before one can believe in the best side that was revealed against last spring’s playoff nemesis, the Anaheim Ducks showed what the flip side looks like. It was downright ugly.
A complete reversal occurred Friday night at Honda Center. As well as the Ducks played in their domination of Nashville two nights before, they were as horrid in a dismal 4-0 loss to Columbus.
The announced 15,841 in attendance should have been required to read a warning label before viewing the horror show that was the following 2-hours. The gruesome sights came at them immediately and were unrelenting.
It took less than four minutes of the first period for the carnage to take place. The Blue Jackets scored four times within that span, with Sam Gagner wrapping his two goals around the two that Brandon Saad also put past Ducks goalie John Gibson.
None of it was a fluke. There were no unfortunate bounces or bouts of hard luck from the home squad. Columbus simply beat the Ducks (3-4-2) to the punch from the first drop of the puck and a four-game unbeaten streak was laid to rest.
The Ducks showed they didn’t need Ryan Getzlaf in their 6-1 rout of the Predators, a team that ousted them in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in April and a sexy pick by many to emerge out of the Western Conference again this season. And it figured that Getzlaf’s return Friday from an arm injury would be an added boost.
Against a team that often takes up residence more toward the bottom of the standings, the Ducks only showed that they can use the two newly-minted Swedes, Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell, as soon as possible.
Rakell could make his season debut sometime next week as he has already started working in contact drills with teammates. Lindholm, who signed a six-year contract Thursday, still needs to secure a visa and might not ready to play until the Ducks hit the road again November 9.
Ducks coach Randy Carlyle tried to offer a warning in his meeting with the media Friday morning. His point of emphasis was to not get too caught up in Wednesday’s big victory over a team that was off from its star goalie Pekka Rinne on out.
“We can’t feel comfortable in any way, shape or form that we’ve arrived with this group,” Carlyle said.
“We’ve got lots of moving parts right now. We just have to go out and be prepared to out-work the hockey club we’re going to play against tonight. If we don’t do that, then we’re going to be in trouble.”
The message got lost in translation. Gagner scored first on a simple rebound after the Jackets were planting themselves right outside Gibson’s crease. Saad got his first just 21 seconds later with a rising sniper shot.
Saad came back with his second when he was left alone to come down the right side to put a shot on Gibson and then bang in his own rebound. Gagner followed up with a power-play tally and the Ducks were down four before they could fully assess what had just happened.
Gibson stopped 28 of 32 shots and also was on the receiving end of three Blue Jackets running into him, with assistance from Ducks teammates that couldn’t keep them from charging hard to the net. Carlyle finally pulled him, bringing back Dustin Tokarski in with 9:47 remaining.
The Ducks couldn’t keep from being blanked for the first time. Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves for his 14th career shutout and second this season.

RESULTS
Chicago   3 New Jersey    2 (OT)
Carolina   3 NY Rangers    2
Winnipeg 1 Colorado         0
Calgary    5 Ottawa           2
Edmonton 2 Vancouver      0
Columbus 4 Anaheim         0