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Coyotes hope to avoid record skid vs. first-place Ducks

Mar 3, 2015 - 4:02 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Anaheim Ducks bolstered their blue line ahead of the NHL trade deadline and may have one of those new faces in the lineup on Tuesday when they try to deal the Arizona Coyotes a club record-tying 10th straight loss.

The Ducks swung deals to acquire three defenseman on Monday, getting James Wisniewski from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Simon Despres from the Pittsburgh Penguins and Korbinian Holzer from the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Only Despres has a chance to play tonight as Holzer recently suffered a concussion, while Wisniewski could miss up to two weeks with a bone bruise in his left foot.

The 31-year-old Wisniewski had eight goals, including seven on the power play, and 21 assists in 56 games with the Blue Jackets this season and was acquired along with a 2015 third-round draft pick for forwards Rene Bourque and William Karlsson and a 2015 second-round draft pick.

Holzer, meanwhile, cost the Ducks the expiring contract of defenseman Eric Brewer and a 2016 fifth-round draft pick, while the 23-year-old Despres was traded to the Pens for defenseman Ben Lovejoy.

Despres had participated in a career-high 59 games this season with Pittsburgh, totaling personal bests of 15 assists and 17 points along with 64 penalty minutes.

The three blueliners join a Ducks club that has a 12-point edge over the Vancouver Canucks for first place in the Pacific Division and is two points behind the NHL-leading Nashville Predators in the overall standings.

Anaheim has won five of its past six games, taking down the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Sunday. Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf each had a goal and an assist, while Clayton Stoner also scored.

"The one thing we are is comfortable in one-goal games," said Getzlaf. "They came on strong. I have to give them credit. They came out really hard in the second period. I don't think we handled it the way we wanted to, but we got the job done.

Getzlaf reached the 20-goal mark for the fifth time in his career and also reached 669 career points to tie Paul Kariya for second place on the Ducks' all-time list.

John Gibson stopped a career-high 39 shots against the Stars and the rookie has never before faced the Coyotes. It is unknown if he will get the chance tonight or if Frederik Andersen is ready to make his first start since suffering a neck injury versus Tampa Bay on Feb. 8.

Andersen is 1-0-2 with a 1.27 goals against average and .951 save percentage in three career meetings with the Coyotes.

Anaheim will host the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday and is 6-0-2 in its past eight meetings with Arizona.

The Coyotes are set to play six in a row and nine of their next 10 at home. They hope to kick off that favorable stretch tonight by snapping a nine-game losing streak, a slump that is just one loss shy of matching the longest skid in club history most recently set from Feb. 6-25, 1994 when the franchise was still in Winnipeg.

Arizona went winless on a four-game road trip, losing 4-1 to the Boston Bruins on Saturday. Martin Erat had the only goal and Mike Smith yielded all four goals on 20 shots. He was pulled in the second period in favor of Louis Domingue, who turned aside all 14 shots he faced.

Head coach Dave Tippett admitted the looming trade deadline was probably impacting his club.

"It's a miserable feeling in there between losing and guys not knowing where they're going to be," said Tippett. "Hopefully we can get past that and come out of the deadline with whoever is in the lineup and get to work."

The deadline has in fact passed with the Coyotes making a trio of trades over a three-day span. They began the fire sale by dealing forward Antoine Vermette to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, then pulled off a huge deal on Sunday in shipping defenseman Keith Yandle to the New York Rangers.

The 28-year-old rearguard was the centerpiece of the deal that saw Yandle, along with fellow defenseman Chris Summers and a fourth-round draft pick in 2016 head to Manhattan for defenseman John Moore, forward prospect Anthony Duclair as well as a second-round pick in 2015 and a conditional first-round selection in 2016.

Yandle posted 41 points but was a staggering minus-32 playing heavy minutes against top competition (23:55 per game) over 63 appearances for Arizona this season, his ninth NHL campaign.

General manager Don Maloney then completed his rebuild on Monday ahead of the deadline, shipping injured defenseman Zbynek Michalek to the St. Louis Blues along with a conditional third-round draft pick for forward prospect Maxim Letunov.

The Coyotes also claimed forwards Tye McGinn (San Jose sharks) and Craig Cunningham (Boston Bruins) off waivers.

Smith is 9-6-2 in his career versus the Ducks with a 2.77 GAA, .905 save percentage and two shutouts in 19 games (17 starts) versus the Ducks.