Sennecke learning on fly, helping Ducks make playoff push

Beckett Sennecke has experienced his share of growing pains during his rookie season with the Anaheim Ducks.  

And the Ducks have grown right along with him. 

The 20-year-old forward has gone through some intense on-the-job training, and it's paid off with Anaheim closing in on making the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017-18. 

"He's done a great job," coach Joel Quenneville said. "I know that right from camp, he's gotten better through camp, and he got off to a decent start and had a big stretch for us here. I think through the course of the season, the players were trying to be consistent in our game and with him, his high-end ability to do things that you don't see very often is fun to watch." 

With eight games left in the regular season, the Ducks (41-28-5) are first in the Pacific Division, two points ahead of the Edmonton Oilers. They can extend that lead when they go on the road to face the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT). 

"It's awesome, being on a competitive team is what we play for," Sennecke said. "We're atop the Pacific and we're having a ton of fun pushing for this playoff race."

Selected No. 3 by Anaheim in the 2024 NHL Draft, Sennecke has 57 points (22 goals, 35 assists) in 74 games. He is tied with New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer (22 goals, 35 assists) for second in the rookie scoring race, one point behind Montreal Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov (16 goals, 42 assists).

He is also tied with Bobby Ryan for the second-most points in a season by a Ducks rookie, just four behind Trevor Zegras, who had 61 points in 75 games in 2021-22. 

As is the case for most first-year players, Sennecke has to be reminded on occasion that the things he was able to do as a star with Oshawa of the Ontario Hockey League last season do not always translate in the NHL.

"I think you try to make sure there's a time and a place to apply those things and that's part of the learning curve with him," Quenneville said. "He's not afraid to try things and do things but it has to be respectful with the score, and the time, and the opponent. 

"There's a place for it and I think he'll get better as far as recognizing those situations as we go along here. We're not afraid to point them out, and neither are his teammates or linemates or as a group."

For the most part, Sennecke has been a revelation this season and is part of a young core that has the future in Anaheim looking extremely bright.  

The Ducks underwent a rebuild after getting to the Western Conference Final in 2017 and then were eliminated in the first round in 2018. They finished sixth in the division last season, 16 points out of a playoff spot. 

Considering nearly half of the players on Anaheim's current roster are 25 and under, it appears the Ducks are further along in their rebuild than some expected. 

Sennecke is part of a youth movement that also includes forwards Leo Carlsson, 21, Cutter Gauthier, 22, Mason McTavish, 23, Tim Washe, 24, defensemen Olen Zellweger, 22, Pavel Mintyukov, 22, Ian Moore, 24, Jackson LaCombe, 25, Drew Helleson, 25, and goalie Lukas Dostal, 25.

"I think we have a super solid group of young guys and older guys too that blend really well," Sennecke said. "We play fun hockey together, that's the best part. I think everyone in here is competitive and we all know each other well and it's definitely a family atmosphere in here."

Though Anaheim's success may be a surprise to some, the feeling heading into the season was that they were ready to make a breakthrough. 

"This has been a good team since training camp and the biggest thing is that we have that belief in ourselves that we're never out of a game," Sennecke said. "And I think that shows based on our results and that's the biggest part of our success." 

There's no quit in the Ducks this season, although Quenneville would prefer they get off to better starts.

The Ducks have eight game-tying goals inside the last two minutes of regulation which is an NHL record through 74 games. They have gone on to win six of those, which is also a record at this stage of the season. 

Anaheim also has 26 game-winning or game-tying goals in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime, which is also an NHL record at this point of the season. 

One came on Dec. 9, when Sennecke scored a short-handed game-tying goal with 0.1 seconds left in a 4-3 shootout win at the Pittsburgh Penguins. He became the first rookie in NHL history to score a game-tying goal in the final second of regulation while short-handed. 

"You don't really see that too often, a 19 or 20-year-old kid come into the League and have a ton of confidence and play with a zero (fear) factor," Gauthier said. "He's done a great job of that. Obviously he's made some mistakes and rightly so, the first year in the League you're going to make some mistakes.

"You're not going to be a perfect player when you first jump in and he's done a great job with the expectations that have been given to him and he's done a really good job in the production standpoint and things to help us some big wins."