Bye, Bye Boudreau
The Anaheim Ducks knew the stats. The ones that suggest that getting off to a slow start in game seven is certain death. They knew their own history, too. The last three years, they’ve blown series wins by losi...
Some Penalties OK
The Anaheim Ducks’ coach, Bruce Boudreau, was angry with his team after their loss to Nashville on Sunday night, miffed at the number of undisciplined penalties they had taken. The numbers were telling: six min...
Two Mistakes
Think about this: you play however you want, no defense, score your a$$ off all season long, then with about ten games to go, you switch up to a more defensive style and lock down your playoff fortunes, then go...
Messages of the Wrong Sort (Mostly)
If I were heading to the NHL playoffs like the Anaheim Ducks are, I’d be using the last few games of the season to send some messages. What would they be? That we’re a tough team that won’t be pushed around. Th...
Perry Beats the Kings
It sure felt like the playoffs at Honda Center on Sunday evening with the LA Kings in town. For one thing, the place was full and raucous from the warm-up. Maybe it was the unfamiliar 6pm start (Anaheim games u...
Benched and (Almost) Redeemed
The Ducks have five fewer points that the Ottawa Senators, but they sit one spot in their division higher than the Sens sit in theirs. Ottawa was 6th in the Atlantic with 46 coming into Wednesday. The Ducks wer...
Black Friday After All
The first year you live in California, assuming you move there as an adult, is weird. The calendar says “Thanksgiving,” and people are acting like it’s late November. But you’re driving around with your car’s a...
Simple DeDucktion
Aside from the specifics of what happened in the Chicago-Ducks game Saturday night, which I detailed in my story “Down for the Three Count” at IH, other things stand out from this series.
First, the Blackhaw...
Down for the Three Count
Three things needed to happen for the Ducks to win against Chicago Saturday night. Their coach needed to be smarter than the Blackhawks’ Quenneville. Their goalie had to be at least solid if not great. And thei...
Four-Inch Vertical Leap
Bruce Boudreau never thought it was going to be easy. After all, he was trying to do something that he’d never done before, which was eliminate another team to end round two. He’d only ever been eliminated befo...