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Stanley Cup Playoff Preview - San Jose vs. Anaheim
04/15 12:19:41 ET (Sports Network)
It is put up or shut up time for the San Jose Sharks.
The club has been a fixture in the postseason for each of the last four seasons, but after a conference finals loss to Calgary in 2004 the Sharks have been ousted in the semifinals in each of the last three seasons.
That was the deciding factor to fire Ron Wilson prior to this season and replace him with Todd McLellan. The Sharks responded with a franchise season, setting new club bests in wins (53), points (117) and home victories (32) while also capturing the first Presidents' Trophy in team history.
McLellan now has a chance to become the first rookie head coach in 23 years to win a Stanley Cup. Jean Perron with Montreal in 1985-86 was the last to achieve such a feat.
San Jose was a dominating team at home, going 32-5-4 at HP Pavilion. That record was helped by a 20-0-2 start, tied for the third most games to start a season without a home regulation loss in league history.
The Sharks enter the playoffs with one of the more balanced offenses in the league with a roster of six 20-goal scorers. Patrick Marleau was tops on the club with a career-high 38, bouncing back from a 2007-08 season that saw him net just 19 goals.
Marleau, who missed five games late in the season with a lower-body injury but returned prior to campaign's end, got some unexpected help from second-year winger Devin Setoguchi. The eighth overall pick of the 2005 draft netted 31 goals and 65 points this season.
Also joining the 20-goal parade were Joe Pavelski (25 goals), Joe Thornton (25), Milan Michalek (23) and Ryan Clowe (22). Thornton added 61 assists to lead the club in scoring with 86 points, a total that was a bit on the low side for the playmaker but also a sign of San Jose's balance.
The Sharks will still look to Thornton for postseason offense, as he led the club in last year's playoffs with eight assists and 10 goals to give him 37 helpers and 48 points in his postseason career. Pavelski and Clowe were the leading goal scorers with five each last year.
San Jose finished third in the league by allowing just 2.43 goals per game, thanks in large part to netminder Evgeni Nabokov. The 33-year-old backstop, who posted a 2.18 goals against average in last year's playoffs, finished the regular season 41-12-8 with a 2.44 GAA and seven shutouts, ranking second in the league in wins.
Nabokov did miss 11 games this year due to a pair of separate lower-body injuries.
San Jose's offense ranked third in the league with 33.2 shots per game, but not all of them came from its forwards. Dan Boyle was tied for fifth among NHL defenseman with 15 goals to go along with a 57-point total that was sixth among all blueliners. In his first season with the Sharks, Boyle also notched 24 assists on a power-play unit that ranked third in the NHL at 24.2 percent.
Rob Blake adds a veteran presence on the back end. He had 45 points and a plus-15 rating in 73 games this year, while fellow defenseman Christian Ehrhoff and Marc-Edourard Vlasic had 42 and 36 points, respectively. Ehrhoff also donated 22 power-play assists in helping the Sharks become just the fourth team in league history to have four defenseman with at least 30 assists.
Blake has notched 24 goals and 43 assists in 67 lifetime playoff games, while Claude Lemieux (233 playoff games, 4 Stanley Cups), Brad Lukowich (65 games) and Boyle (45 games) all bring postseason experience that wasn't on the roster a year ago.
ANAHEIM DUCKS (8th seed, West)
REGULAR SEASON RECORD: 42-33-7
2007 PLAYOFFS: Lost to Dallas 4-2 in conference quarterfinals
The biggest question for the Anaheim Ducks heading into the postseason is who will be in net?
In 2007, Jean-Sebastien Giguere turned in an outstanding postseason in helping the Ducks to their first-ever Stanley Cup championship. He went 13-4 in the playoffs that year, notching a 1.97 GAA and .922 save percentage. Giguere has also shown an ability to win the close games, a huge attribute to have in the postseason, as his .923 win playoff overtime winning percentage (12-1) is the best all-time among goaltenders with 10-or-more OT appearances.
However, Giguere struggled this year to a 19-18-6 record and 3.10 GAA in 46 games and it was 27-year-old Jonas Hiller (23-15-1, 2.39 GAA) who was instrumental in leading the Ducks to a 10-2-1 record down the stretch en route to a playoff spot.
Hiller won seven straight games from March 19-April 4 and ended the season fourth among goaltenders in GAA and save percentage (.919). However, the second-year pro has never made a postseason start, meaning the Ducks have some decisions to make in net.
One decision the club won't have to make is who to put on the top line after the trio of Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan and Corey Perry combined for 17 goals and 21 assists in the team's last eight games. Getzlaf set a team single-season record with 66 assists, tied for third in the NHL, while his 91 points had him seventh in the league and also just the third skater in club history to reach the 90-point mark.
Ryan, meanwhile, also set new club rookie marks with 31 goals and 57 points and he led all NHL freshman in those categories despite not joining the club until November 15. Ryan was the second overall pick of 2005 behind only Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.
Perry added a team-leading 32 goals and was second with 72 points. That trio will get plenty of help from veteran Teemu Selanne (27 goals, 27 assists), who became the franchise's all-time assists leader this year while also becoming the 45th player in league history to reach 1,200 career points. Selanne totaled 16 goals on a power-play unit that ranked tied for fourth this year at 23.6 percent.
Selanne, part of the 2007 championship team, is the team's all-time leader in both playoff goals (22) and points (47).
The Ducks will also get plenty of offense from Scott Niedermayer, winner of the 2007 Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs. The 35-year-old had a pair of OT goals in that postseason and ended this season third among NHL defenders in average ice time (26:55), fourth in scoring (59 points) and was tied for third in assists with 45.
Niedermayer will team with Chris Pronger (11g, 37a) to give the Ducks a lot of offensive options at the blueline as well as solid defense. Trade deadline pickup Ray Whitney, acquired from Pittsburgh on February 26, added 10 assists in 20 games.
MATCHUP
The Ducks will be attempting to become just the eighth No. 8 team to defeat the top seed since 1994, something the Sharks have done twice in their history.
Anaheim tries to do so against a Pacific Division rival it split six meetings with this year, though it won just once it three trips to San Jose. The all- time series is just as close, as the Ducks and Sharks have identical 41-41-8 records against each other since 1993-94.
This marks the first meeting between two California teams in the NHL playoffs since the Los Angeles Kings beat the Oakland Seals in seven games of the 1969 quarterfinals.
It will also mark the first postseason matchup ever between San Jose and Anaheim.
Hiller went 1-3-0 with a 2.04 GAA in four starts versus San Jose this year, while
Giguere split the other two games with a 2.00 GAA. However, Giguere has 15 regular-season wins in his career against the Sharks, while Hiller is 1-5-0 all-time against them.
Getzlaf notched six assists in the 2008-09 season series, while Ryan and Perry each had a pair of goals.
Jonathan Cheechoo lead the Sharks with four points off three goals and an assist versus the Ducks this year, while Thornton, Marleau and Michalek all added a goal and two assists. Boyle had four assists versus Anaheim this year.
Nabokov started five of the six contests, going 3-2-0 with a 2.00 GAA.
These two clubs know each well and fans should be in for a treat given how close the season series was. However, it is the second round when the Sharks have their trouble, not the first, and the lack of a clear-cut No. 1 netminder for the Ducks spells trouble.
Sports Network predicted outcome: Sharks in 6
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