A doctor's assessment of Ryan Poehling after this dirty late hit is alarming
Ryan Poehling is headed into concussion protocol after a brutal hit from Brayden McNabb, and Joel Quenneville now has one less playoff weapon for Thursday's Game 6.
The Ducks dropped Tuesday's contest 3-2 in overtime at Las Vegas, and the bigger blow showed up on the boards. Poehling went down hard and didn't return.
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McNabb was assessed a game misconduct for interference on the play. Poehling left the bench area and never made it back to the ice.
Vegas now leads the second-round series 3-2. Anaheim heads home Thursday facing elimination, and the room is suddenly thinner up front.
The Ducks center has been one of the quieter playoff stories in the West. Eleven games, four goals, one of them a game-winner, plus a shorthanded tally on the penalty kill.
The video tells the story before the doctors confirm it. Poehling crumples face-down along the glass, gloved hand splayed on the ice, while official waves play dead and signals to the bench for help.
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What Anaheim loses without its penalty-kill ace
Take away a forward who logs PK minutes in May and the math changes fast. Quenneville built his bottom six around guys who can kill plays and chip in timely offense.
Poehling fits that mold perfectly. He had two shorthanded goals and two shorthanded assists during the regular season. That isn't depth scoring, that's identity.
Career-wise, the 27-year-old has bounced through systems, but this is the version that finally stuck. A penalty kill regular who can be trusted with a faceoff late in the third.
The Ducks went 43-33-6 to punch their ticket back into the postseason. They knocked off Edmonton in six. This run wasn't supposed to end in a freight-train hit along the wall.
Pat Verbeek's roster has depth, but not the kind that replaces a guy with playoff goals in May. Someone on the fourth line gets a promotion Thursday whether they're ready or not.
The doctor's prediction floating around social media suggests the Western Conference Final at the earliest. Game 7, if there is one, looks like a stretch.
Anaheim's penalty kill now has a hole in it. Vegas knows it. The Ducks have 48 hours to figure out who fills the boots, and whether their season survives the answer.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 12, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Josh Doan | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Cutter Gauthier | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Mason McTavish | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Beckett Sennecke | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Olen Zellweger | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||