Analysis · NHL

Cutter Gauthier Has Nine Goals in Four Games. Somehow, That's Only Half of Anaheim's Story.

Gauthier's franchise-record scoring streak and Anaheim's remarkable power play have turned the Ducks into one of hockey's most entertaining teams.

By Tytan Durgan
November 6, 2026 at 1:23 a.m. · 3 min read

The Anaheim Ducks have found a pretty effective solution to their defensive problems lately. Score so often that the other team runs out of time to catch up.

It nearly didn't work Thursday.

Anaheim watched a 5-2 third-period lead shrink to one goal against the Edmonton Oilers, but held on for a 5-4 victory and its third consecutive win. Connor McDavid finished with four points, Leon Draisaitl scored with 45 seconds remaining, and the Ducks were left protecting a lead that had looked awfully comfortable just a few minutes earlier.

For all the excitement surrounding Anaheim's young forwards, there are still a few things this team needs to clean up. The offence, however, is becoming ridiculous.

Cutter Gauthier scored his ninth goal in four games against Edmonton, becoming the first player in Ducks history to accomplish that feat. He entered Thursday having recorded consecutive hat tricks, then added another goal and an assist against the Oilers.

Nine goals in four games would be an extraordinary stretch for anybody. For Gauthier, it's another indication of how quickly he's becoming one of Anaheim's most dangerous offensive players. And somehow, he wasn't even the only Duck having a remarkable night.

Beckett Sennecke and Pavel Mintyukov each scored twice and added an assist. Sennecke's second goal came on the power play early in the third period, extending Anaheim's lead to three. Mintyukov provided two goals from the blue line, including the one that put the Ducks ahead for good in the second period. Leo Carlsson also collected two assists.

Anaheim's young talent has been the selling point of its rebuild for years. On Thursday, the Ducks got a pretty convincing demonstration of what happens when several of those players start producing together.

The power play might be the most impressive part. Anaheim has scored 12 times on 19 opportunities over its past four games, a conversion rate of 63.2 percent. Seven of Gauthier's nine goals during that stretch have come with the man advantage.

That's an outrageous run of special-teams production, and one the Ducks obviously can't expect to maintain indefinitely. Even the NHL's best power plays don't convert anywhere near that frequently over an entire season.

But a hot streak can still reveal something useful about a team's offensive capabilities. Gauthier is finishing chances at an extraordinary rate. Sennecke is becoming another difficult matchup. Mintyukov can contribute from the back end, and Carlsson gives Anaheim another skilled player capable of connecting the pieces.

The Ducks don't need every one of them to produce at this pace for the offence to remain dangerous. They'll also need to find ways to win when the power play inevitably cools. Edmonton nearly made them pay for their defensive mistakes despite entering the final minutes three goals behind.

Anaheim is now 8-7-1, with three straight victories and a young offensive core giving opponents plenty to worry about. The Ducks still have work to do defensively. For now, their young stars are making that a little easier to overlook.

Tytan Durgan

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Past the Play. If you've read our about page, you know why I started Past The Play, but if not, I'll give you a quick explanation. Heading into the 2026-27 NHL season I had started contributing to The Hockey News occasionally, and had been doing a lot of work I felt was high-quality. Unfortunately, I didn't have a home for all of that work as I didn't have enough relationships within the industry to pitch pieces to a bunch of different publications. Instead of posting my work on a Medium or Substack account, I wanted to still have a publication behind my independent work to help it grow and maintain credibility. I was born and rasied in Brandon, Manitoba, where I fell in love with the game of hockey from a young age, even first skating at only 18 months of age. I've been fortunate enough to have been coached by former professional hockey players at multiple stages in my career and to have competed with and against plenty of talented players who went on to have professional careers. Growing up in a city with such a prevalent hockey culture has given me a different appreciation and understanding for the game that I will always be grateful for. I've also always been somebody who has loved all sports, ranging from any of the Big 4 professional North American team sports leagues to MMA and even the occasional golf event. As with the sport of hockey, I have always been somebody who's not only been interested in watching and competing but in truly understanding how the sports work and what makes successful teams/athletes succedd, as well as what makes them fail. I enjoy testing notions we've commonly accepted as fact in sports and seeing if there is any objective proof they exist, as evidenced by 2 of the first 3 pieces on this website being testing refereeing in both the NHL and UFC to see if a certain bias truly exists that had been accepted by the majority of fans and athletes as fact.

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