TORONTO — It was almost the smallest of media scrums in the hallway outside the Ducks dressing room Tuesday night after their 7-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs – two reporters and Ducks coach Dallas Eakins.

Eakins hit on a historical thread when Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News asked him how they can help the younger players deal with adversity. First, a reflective answer after one of the most crushing losses, thus far, in the Ducks rebuild.

“Adversity (stinks),” Eakins said. “It’s hard when you’re in it. But when you come out on the other side of it, you’re often quite grateful for that adversity. It teaches you great lessons. It callouses your brain. I think it’s necessary for a lot of parts of life.”

Then Eakins got to the historical reference: the not-so-distant past when the Colorado Avalanche went 22-56-4 (48 points) in 2016-17 and finished last in the NHL, 21 points behind the second-to-last team, the Vancouver Canucks. The Avalanche would go on to win the Stanley Cup championship in 2022.

After 30 games, the Ducks are 7-20-3 – only two road wins in 18 games – and the way things are trending, a 48-point season looks optimistic.

“The Colorado Avalanche had (Nathan) MacKinnon,” Eakins said. “They had (Mikko) Rantanen. They had (Gabriel) Landeskog. They had the same coach (Jared Bednar). Through that adversity, they built a very elite team.”

Bednar’s first season in Colorado was 2016-17, and the Avalanche won 21 more games the following season and made the playoffs. Management backed him – the patience of Joe (Sakic)? – when things were rough that first season amid the usual cry of “fire everyone.”

Not all managers are that imperturbable.

But Ducks GM Pat Verbeek indicated in recent interviews he would be giving the players and coaches some runway

Perhaps he is also a student of recent hockey history.

Also

So, what now?

The Ducks didn’t have a lot of options after goaltender John Gibson’s latest issue. Gibson sustained what appeared to be a lower-body injury in Toronto and left the game in the second period, requiring rookie Lukas Dostal to play the rest of the second and third in relief.

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The usual backup, Anthony Stolarz, is not on the trip because of a lower-body injury. That forced the Ducks on Wednesday to recall Olle Eriksson Ek, who has been with AHL San Diego. The 23-year-old Eriksson Ek is 0-5-0 with a 4.94 goals-against average and .844 save percentage with the Gulls this season.

Ducks at Montreal

When: 4 p.m. Thursday

Where: Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec

TV: Bally Sports SoCal