Ducks need more than one-two punch on offense

Rickard Rakell and Ryan Getzlaf can’t continue to carry the scoring load by themselves.

That much is evident after the top-line pair accounted for all three goals in back-to-back defeats on the road. It’s been Rakell and Getzlaf who have spearheaded the attack all season, and especially lately.

The all-star winger is riding a six-game point streak into Monday’s contest against the St. Louis Blues, a similarly desperate club in a fight for a Western Conference playoff spot. Rakell has eight goals over that span (three assists). Getzlaf, the Ducks captain, has 12 points during that stretch — along with two goals — even though he missed one of those contests because of the flu.

They’re firing on all cylinders, but the well has dried up beneath them.

“It’s all about understanding the desperation that has to be displayed night in, night out, is only going to get higher or need to be higher,” coach Randy Carlyle said following Sunday’s practice. “We need more from people. In reality the only line that scored goals on the trip was [the top unit]. We need more from different areas of our lineup.”

The other forwards expected to produce have done so only in spurts lately. Second-line winger Jakob Silfverberg delivered a two-goal game earlier this month, but those are his only markers over the past eight games. Ryan Kesler, who isn’t 100% following offseason hip surgery, last scored on Feb. 9.

Even Ondrej Kase, the speedy Czech winger who was once scoring left and right, has gone cold with just two goals over the last 12 games. Adam Henrique has already hit the 20-goal plateau, but even he has just two goals in the last 10 games.

“I didn’t think we were a desperate enough hockey club for 60 minutes in the start of the Nashville game,” Carlyle bemoaned. “We played a lot more desperate in the third. We still made some reads that were incorrect. I thought we had a great start in Dallas, had a great first period, and then we stopped forechecking. We dumped the puck in and watched.”

Manson OK after scare

Around the midway point of the third period during’s Friday’s loss to the Stars, Josh Manson took a spill and he was greeted by a skate to the face. Remi Elie’s blade gashed the blue-liner right below the right eye, but Manson emerged Sunday with only a deep bruise following practice.

“I got away with one for sure, I’m very lucky,” said Manson, who didn’t require stitches and even returned to the bench during the game. “Once I saw it and I kind of knew what had happened, I asked Joe [Huff], my trainer, if there was any blood — because I just wanted to know if anything was cut — and he said ‘not really much blood.’ It was just coming from my nose.

“That’s when I knew that I really got away with one here. I think about an inch or so lower and I could have caught the steel in the eye and that would have been a little different story.”

DUCKS

VS. ST. LOUIS BLUES

When: 7 p.m. Monday

On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 830

Update: Blues goalie Jake Allen was shelled in two consecutive games before allowing five goals on eight shots in a third contest (and was pulled). He was benched in favor of Carter Hutton over the next two contests, but he returned to the net Thursday with a strong performance, and then delivered another one in a 7-2 victory over the Kings on Saturday. ... The Ducks are 2-0 against the Blues this season, but have yet to play them in 2018.