Nobody that’s still standing has played as much playoff hockey this
season than the Canucks, who emerged from a thrilling seven-game
first-round win against the Dallas Stars. In total, the Canucks played
seven games, plus six additional periods of overtime, essentially
competing in the equivalent of nine games in the first round. That’s a
lot of hockey, especially when you have a date with the fearsome Ducks
to look forward to.
Anaheim made quick work of the defensively sound Wild in the first
round and continued to flash their deep scoring attack. They can put
the puck in the net and they can play as big as anyone left in the
tournament. Their forwards love to hit and as impressive as the Ducks
are moving the puck around the rink, they’re just as happy to move
opponents out of their way, too. The Ducks are mean and nasty and
they’re on a mission, which could be a lot for the tired Canucks to
deal with.
Vancouver didn’t score much in the first round. But in the games they
scored at least a goal, they came out on top, thanks to the play of
Roberto Luongo in net. As good as Luongo was in the first round, he
wasn’t the best goalie in that series. The second-round matchup with
the tandem of Ilya Bryzgalov and J.S. Giguere might also be a classic.
The Canucks let the Stars back into the series and were forced to go
the distance in the first round. Could that lack of focus come back to
hurt them?
Anaheim Game Breakers
Chris Pronger
– He plays
defense, as we all know. But Pronger was Anaheim’s leading scorer in
the first round with two goals and six points in the one-sided series
win against Minnesota. In addition to helping produce on the offensive
end, Pronger was regularly seeing ice time (a team-high 28:27 per)
against the opposition’s top scoring lines. In the first round against
the Wild, Pronger helped put the clamps on an enemy attack that
mustered only nine goals in the series.
Scott Niedermayer
– With three
Cups on his resume and two of the quickest feet in the game,
Niedermayer can literally change a game with a coast-to-coast rush
from behind his own net. While Pronger brings the size and strength to
the Anaheim blue line, Niedermayer brings loads of playoff experience,
the ability to also take on the opponents’ top scoring threats, as
well as quarterback the Ducks’ power play, which was the top-ranked
unit in the postseason in the first round. Niedermayer was second on
the team in ice time behind Pronger with 27:32 per game.
Francois Beauchemin
– You’re
saying, ‘Where are all the forwards?’ But here’s the thing when it
comes to the Ducks: they have plenty of forwards capable of breaking
open a game. Few teams actually have three defensemen capable of doing
it, and Beauchemin is probably the most underrated player in the
League. Such is life playing behind two thoroughbreds like Pronger and
Niedermayer, but the 26-year old Beauchemin has proven to be every bit
as good as those two Norris-caliber defensemen. He plays one second
less per game than Niedermayer at 27:31 per, suffered a cracked jaw in
the first round and was still one of Anaheim’s best players with two
goals and a plus-1 in the first round. In his first game back after
the jaw injury, Beauchemin led all Ducks skaters with 28:32 of ice
time.
