ANAHEIM — If the Ducks thought they could ease their way into their first game after an extended All-Star break, if they thought they could get comfortable and work out the kinks before charging into the figurative second half of the season, they were dead wrong.

All it took was a 12-second span in the opening minutes to snap the Ducks back into reality on Friday at Honda Center. They gave up a goal on the first shot on goal they faced, then witnessed a heavyweight fight at center ice on the ensuing faceoff and then scored a goal on their first shot on net.

In the end, the Ducks weren’t sharp enough after their 10-day layoff, weren’t efficient enough, weren’t resilient enough, and they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Seattle Kraken on Jordan Eberle’s go-ahead goal at 18:18 of the third period. The Ducks simply lost track of Eberle.

Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf complained that Eberle should have been penalized for slashing him on the hands in the offensive zone, which created a turnover and led to the Kraken’s charge in the other direction. That didn’t absolve the Ducks from their duties to retreat defensively, though.

“He felt Eberle had his stick up on his hands, which is a legit concern,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said of Getzlaf.

The Ducks had moments of brilliance and moments of despair in their first game since a 2-1 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 29. Their energy was good from the opening faceoff, they clicked on a second-period power-play chance and they killed two short-handed situations.

“I thought it was even(ly played),” Eakins said. “I thought we had a lot of good gas early on in the game. That was the part I was worried about. We had good execution, mostly, throughout. We had a bit of a brain cramp on the last goal, a couple of them, and it cost us the game.”

The Ducks had three days of spirited practice after reconvening following the All-Star weekend, determined to smooth out some of the rough spots in their game. True, they went into the break with a 4-0-2 record that included a 3-0-2 mark on a five-game swing through the Eastern Conference.

But that wasn’t enough to satisfy Eakins.

“The reality is, even though we’ve been able to bank some points – and goaltending has been a big part of it and timely goals – over the last five or six weeks … our game has fallen off greatly,” Eakins said beforehand. “We’ve spent the last couple of days trying to get some good habits back.”

The Ducks found themselves in a fight almost from the opening faceoff.

Literally, in fact.

First, Seattle’s Ryan Donato sent a one-timed shot past All-Star goaltender John Gibson to give the Kraken a 1-0 lead two minutes into the game. Then, the Ducks’ Nicolas Deslauriers fought Jamie Oleksiak at center ice at 2:02. Then, Isac Lundestrom scored to tie it 1-1 at 2:12.

How’s that for a warmup?

Things settled down eventually, but not all the way.

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The Ducks scored twice in a three-minute span in the opening minutes of the second period, taking a 3-2 lead on goals from Lundestrom and Rickard Rakell (power play). But an unlucky bounce off a referee’s skate led to Donato’s second goal of the game and a 3-3 tie at 13:35 of the second.

“It was a great reminder that every moment is critical in the game,” Eakins said.

Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler shouldered some of the blame for the Ducks’ first loss in regulation play since a 2-0 defeat to the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 19. He was on the ice for three of the Kraken’s four goals, including the tying goal by Donato and the tie-breaking goal by Eberle.

“Physically, I felt fine,” Fowler said. “There’s always going to be areas of the game that you’re trying to get back after a long layoff like that. I need to play much better. I wasn’t very good, and the team relies on me to play in all situations and I have to find a way to do a lot better job than that.”