Like many coaches, Dallas Eakins worries about his players during the period of games between the Christmas and the All-Star breaks, which are unaffectionately known as the dog days of the NHL season. Maybe they’ve been pushed too hard. Maybe they’ve played too many games.

The Ducks reached the midway point of their 82-game schedule Saturday, when they faced the Blackhawks in Chicago. They had a credible 19-14-7 record and were in second place in the Pacific Division after 40 games, but a lackluster 2-5-1 since Christmas before facing Chicago on Saturday night.

Add the stress and strain of their COVID-19 outbreak and the uncertainty of their lineup from game-to-game since Christmas and Eakins was concerned. Had he pushed the Ducks too hard in practices earlier in the week? Had he played them too many minutes to make up for absences?

No question, the Ducks have looked sluggish in recent games, losing all the little battles that can lead to victories by the time the final horn sounds. They certainly lost a fair number of races for loose pucks during their 7-3 loss Friday to the Minnesota Wild to start their two-game trip.

Have the Ducks hit the wall, like runners in the closing stages of a marathon?

“It depends what the wall is,” Eakins said. “Is it a mental wall? Is it a fatigue wall? We’ve got a couple of D-men who we’ve run ragged because we’ve had to because of the COVID and stuff like that. We’ve had to run them hard to either stay in games or to win the games. There is a price for that. You’re just not sure when the price is coming. We may have run into a little bit of that (Friday) night.”

Eakins suggested that a lack of quality practice time because of a heavy schedule and a lack of healthy bodies also has caused a lack of sharpness in the Ducks’ play. But did he push them too hard earlier in the week when they did get a couple of days to practice?

“You get a couple of days of practice and you bring the intensity up because you need solid practices, but the guys are fatigued because they’ve been playing so much and then we practice and then we come out in that game like that (Friday),” he said. “It’s such a dichotomy sometimes of when to push and when not to push.”

PROSPECT WATCH

Center Lucas Elvenes made his debut Friday with the San Diego Gulls of the AHL and scored a goal in their 5-1 loss to Abbotsford (British Columbia), the Vancouver Canucks’ affiliate. The Ducks claimed him on waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights earlier in the week and assigned him to San Diego.

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“Sometimes the guy needs a different voice, a different look,” Gulls coach Joel Bouchard told reporters when asked about Elvenes, who spent three seasons with the Golden Knights’ AHL teams in Chicago and Henderson, Nevada, scoring 20 goals and adding 62 assists in 116 games.

“Guys like to score, but there’s more to it,” Bouchard added. “For me, you have to play an overall game. Our goal is to develop players to be NHL players and make sure that everybody works into that sense here. So, we’re going to take the time and let him settle in and work with him.”