How They Got Here: Western Conference

Neal McHale
With the Stanley Cup Finals due to begin in roughly a week, all eyes are on the main event as one of Anaheim, Nashville, Ottawa or Pittsburgh will conclude the season with the elusive 16th win in the postseason...

Drama Is What We Do

Brian Kennedy
It took almost a full period just to figure out who was playing with whom on Saturday afternoon in Anaheim. Of course the whole (hockey) world knows that the Preds were without Johansen and Fisher. But the Duck...

Will Over Skill

Brian Kennedy
The following makes sense: Ducks fans don’t care how their team came back from a 2-0 deficit on Sunday night to even the series with the Predators. They only care that they did it. Nothing else about this game ...

Ducks Drop First Contest

Brian Kennedy
The story was supposed to write itself: the Predators would come in rested and confident, having dispatched the number one seed as well as another favorite in some minds. They wouldn’t have played since Sunday....

Window Wedged Open

Brian Kennedy
In the end, it wasn’t a bitterly disappointed Edmonton team that spoke to the media after their game seven loss on Wednesday night in Anaheim. It was a group that said the things they might have been expected t...

Comeback on Katella

Brian Kennedy
When I saw both Edmonton and Anaheim fans filing out of the arena seats with about five minutes to go in the third period on Friday night, I thought of the rule we used to talk about in my Montreal neighborhood...

We Have Adversity Now

Brian Kennedy
Could Edmonton’s supporting cast come up as big as they had in game one of the series with Anaheim? This was one question that needed answering on Friday night. No. But they wouldn’t need to, because as Todd...

How to Lose Hockey Games

Brian Kennedy
The storylines coming in were simple: the Ducks needed to contain McDavid, and they had just the guy to do it—Ryan Kesler. The Ducks needed to get their defense mobile again, and they had just the right guy ret...