Tonight, the Anaheim Ducks begin their first true road trip of the season in Philadelphia, taking on the 5-3-0 Flyers.
This is already the second and last meeting of the season between these two teams. The Flyers beat the Ducks 3-2 in overtime at the Honda Center in Anaheim's second game of the year, giving them their first loss.
The banged-up Ducks are currently 3-3-1 and currently sit in sixth place in the Pacific Division, only ahead of the Edmonton Oilers and Arizona Coyotes. Anaheim has only played one road game to this point, which took place in Colorado and resulted in a 3-1 loss.
Although the injury bug continues to bite Anaheim, they are expected to see the return of two key players tonight. Defenseman, Hampus Lindholm, is set to make his 2017-18 season debut and Ryan Getzlaf is returning from a lower-body injury. Getzlaf has only played in two games so far this season.
The Ducks will get some players back tonight, but that does not mean they are out of the woods on the injury front. Anaheim will still be without Ryan Kesler, Sami Vatanen, Patrick Eaves, and now Cam Fowler who suffered a knee injury in the team's game against Montreal on Friday.
In regards to Eaves, he was hospitalized after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. This is an autoimmune disorder that attacks the body's peripheral nervous system. He was admitted to the intensive care unit of Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, CA, over the weekend. He has been stabilized and was moved out of ICU. Eaves is expected to make a full recovery.
The Ducks will be spending the rest of October on the road where they will make stops at Florida, Tampa Bay, and Carolina after their game in Philadelphia tonight. After this four-game road trip, the team will make their way back to California to begin the month of November against Toronto.
With all of the adversity this team has faced from the beginning, victories have not been easy to come by. The Ducks would love to go .500 this road trip, or better, and it all starts tonight against the Flyers.