Ducks’ McTavish: “It hasn’t been definitely my best at all. I know I got a lot more to give.”

IRVINE, Calif. – Mason McTavish did not shy away from his recent struggles at Anaheim Ducks practice on Tuesday at Great Park Ice.

The morning after he was demoted to the fourth line in the third period of the Ducks’ dramatic 3-2 overtime win over Utah, McTavish was one of just 10 skaters in Anaheim’s optional practice. The 22-year-old center is taking accountability and grinding to break out of an early slump.

“It hasn’t been definitely my best at all,” McTavish said. “I know I got a lot more to give. Just got to be more assertive with the puck, and less thinking out there, and just trust my instincts.”

After ending a training camp holdout with a six-year, $42 million deal and being tabbed as the franchise’s No. 2 center of the future, McTavish might have been the Ducks’ best player out of the gate this season.

McTavish was driving play with a hard forecheck and direct playmaking for 21-year-old sophomore Cutter Gauthier and 19-year-old Beckett Sennecke. He recorded four points in the first two games and six points in the first six games.

Now, the Ottawa native has just one point in his last six games and three points in his last nine games, with his only goal over that latter stretch being an empty-netter that Sennecke passed on in Dallas.

Anaheim is still 6-3-0 in that stretch with Gauthier netting five goals and 12 points (only two power play points) and Sennecke scoring three goals and eight points (one power play point).

The team is winning, and his linemates are producing. So, what’s the deal for McTavish?

Front of mind for him is staying out of the penalty box.

“For sure, penalties,” McTavish said. “I feel like, especially when we came home from that trip, we had a day off, and it was the only thing I was thinking about. Could not stop thinking about taking penalties, and that weighs a lot on our team and our players. Obviously, it hurts our chances to win. It’s definitely something I gotta clean up.”

McTavish is second to Ross Johnston on the team in penalty minutes, but Johnston is there with six fights. McTavish is by far the team’s leader in minor penalties with 13, more than double the next closest Duck (three players with six).

In Detroit last Thursday, McTavish took three penalties, and following a glaring defensive zone turnover which led to a Red Wings goal, Ducks coach Joel Quenneville benched him for nearly 18 minutes. McTavish earned another two penalties on Saturday in Minnesota, including a double-minor.

Those two games represented his two lowest ice times of the season, 10:14 and 12:17.

“That can’t happen, and I agree, I shouldn’t be playing if I take that many penalties,” McTavish said. “That’s just kind of the standard here, and I agree with that… I think I just gotta get my game back, be more assertive, and trust my skills, and not really think out there.”

To his final point outside of the penalties, McTavish is trying to get out of his own head and not get caught with indecisiveness, especially as the Ducks have transitioned to a higher-paced game under Quenneville.

Monday’s third-period demotion, where McTavish swapped places with fourth-line center Jansen Harkins, falls more in line with that aspect of the game.

“I just thought Harkey was giving us energy with some pace and Mac-T’s, the last couple of games been, you know, been okay,” Quenneville said on Monday. “We’re looking for a little more there, but at the same time, I think we’re usually trying to mix things up, and the line was getting a tougher matchup earlier on in the game, and we mixed that up, that was part of it.”

McTavish also mentioned that teams are starting to play the Ducks differently and adjust to Anaheim’s new systems, just as they are adjusting to their own. In that way, the early success of McTavish’s line also begins to draw new and tougher match-ups.

“I think that line, you know, a lot of the time they’re playing their top line, and they ended up in their end, in a couple long shifts,” Quenneville said, “and, I think that line would be way more effective than the other end, and doing what they like to do is make plays, and create offense. They didn’t get much of a chance of that. Split up the matchup a little bit as we went along, but I think that that line, not just Mac T, one of those nights where the puck, they didn’t have as much as we would like.”

Penalties and turnovers are the No. 1 enemy of any hockey player and any hockey team. It’s now up to McTavish to reverse his fortunes, as the Ducks did snapping a three-game losing streak on Monday.