from Eric Stephens of the OC Register,

The turnaround didn’t happen for the Ducks, and the sorry start to their season continued. Their biggest stars were left searching for answers and their game.

Everything was back to normal Thursday night, and what’s become normal is now a horrible thing for the Ducks, who returned to being woeful offensively and threw in some shoddy work everywhere else in a 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena....

The Ducks (1-4-1) finally snapped out of their offensive funk to break through Sunday against Minnesota. Hope arrived in time for the challenge of a grueling five-game trip against the Central Division’s best. And then it all fell apart in the Predators’ three-goal second period.

“I thought the first period, we were very good,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “When they scored the first goal, it was like everybody’s shoulders sagged. When you’re having trouble scoring and the other team gets that first goal, you got to dig deeper.

“We sort of felt sorry about ourselves for the next little bit and the next thing you know, it’s 3-0.”...

Afterward, Getzlaf and Perry took to putting their team’s struggles on their shoulders.

“I take it all,” Getzlaf said. “We got to be better. There’s no excuse for what we’re doing and what we’re not contributing. We got to look at each other. Go out and play and compete and lead the way. Do things properly so that other guys know that they have to.”

Said Perry: “We got to be at the front of it. We got to face it and we got get ourselves out of it. The two of us, that’s our goal. Those are things that are on us.”

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