Round 2 - Detroit Vs. Anaheim

Chris Pronger has his say on the series in the Orange County Register:

Pronger breaks down Detroit, SoCal

April 29th, 2009, by Curtis Zupke, Staff writer

Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger made one of his desultory visits into “The Jungle,” aka The Jim Rome Show, on Tuesday and broke down Detroit thusly …

“They play a very sound defensive game,” Pronger said. “I said this last year to somebody: They play so well defensively that a lot of times it gets overlooked because they control the puck, they control the play. They’re a very skilled team, but their defensive play gets overlooked because they score a lot of goals.

“You very rarely see Detroit give up a 2-on-1 or a 3-on-2. They’re very adept at playing defense, and because of that they’re able to turn the puck over and they have a great transition.”

On another topic, Rome also asked Pronger about playing in a less-intense hockey market like Southern California, specifically whether that atmosphere effects a player’s approach, and Pronger said it does.

“I think if you’re younger and you’re not seasoned, you don’t understand what it takes to play in this league, that can effect you,” he said.

“You might relax. You might take a couple of days off and not come and stay focused and be prepared. You’ve got to understand what it takes day in and day out to play the game.”

And what about playing in Southern California? Pronger said that, at this point in his career, after being under the microscope in Edmonton, he likes that it’s not as intense as, say, Canada.

“Coming here, you don’t really know what to expect,” he said. “It’s Southern California, there’s so much to do. But I’ve been pretty impressed with the way the fans know the game. They come and enjoy themselves … we’ve got a real loyal fan base, it’s just a matter of winning and getting more fans to come to the games. and get excited about hockey and understand what the Ducks are all about.

"Slowly, we’ve built that up … we’re creating that excitement again.”

So much for Pronger ever playing for the Leafs...or the Sens.

No way Anaheim are better than 2 years ago.

Selanne - macDonald - Kunitz
Perry - Getzlaf - Penner
Niedermayer - Pahlsson - Marchant
May - Moen - Thornton

Best forward squad in post lockout history IMO. Hot Giguere + basically the same Defense.

Wathcing the SJ/Ana series, Pronger and Niedermayer are still the ones making the differences, not Whitney and Wychiewski, in a long series anyway.

I say Detroit in 6. They don't play 2 bad games in a row, and Detroit's 2nd and 3rd lines are awesome.

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:

504Heater wrote:I was at HF Boards for 20 minutes or so earlier - and I was in the Detroit/Anaheim thread. I said that it was going to be an epic series and that I thought the Ducks would prevail in 7.

Literally, that's what I wrote. This is a PM I got back:

are you serious?

Ducks in 7? do you even watch hockey? you're ****ed in the head, son. get a mother ****in brain up in there.



Some loser took the time to write that to me and PM it. I love it. This time of year is awesome - even when your team isn't in it. :*:

Hey, don't call me loser!

That's why I don't post on those other boards which are almost invariably infested with morons.

Oh ... silly me, I thought it was because you post at an average rate of 745,156 posts per day here and that, along with necessary bodily functions, take pretty much most of the day.

wprager wrote:

davetherave wrote:[That's why I don't post on those other boards which are almost invariably infested with morons.

Oh ... silly me, I thought it was because you post at an average rate of 745,156 posts per day here and that, along with necessary bodily functions, take pretty much most of the day.

Now you know the truth...don't you feel better now? cool)

31.59 according to the stats, I see...and I'm sure you're not interested in details of bodily functions.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

Second-round preview: Wings vs. Ducks

By Scott Burnside, ESPN.com

These two teams last met in the 2007 Western Conference finals, and it was a dandy series. So don't let the Ducks' No. 8 tag fool you; this should be a good one, too.

The Red Wings went through Columbus like a hot knife through butter, disposing of the Blue Jackets in four games. They last played April 23, so they will face the challenge of ramping themselves up as though they were starting the playoffs again. The Ducks, of course, will be in fine fettle after knocking off Presidents' Trophy-winning San Jose in six games. Still, both teams can expect to face much different, sterner tests in the second round (hey, isn't that the way it's supposed to be?).

The Ducks will have their hands full with the Wings' top players, like Johan Franzen, who got a nice big contract extension before the end of the regular season and responded with six points in four games against Columbus. The Wings only played four games but still had six players who had two or more goals. Yikes.

And remember all that talk about whether Chris Osgood could deliver the goods in net? He allowed two goals in the first three games before giving up five in the wild series-clincher won by the Wings 6-5. Still, Osgood looks alarmingly (if you're the Ducks) like the Osgood that ran the table for the Wings in the playoffs last season after taking over late in the first round against Nashville.

Across the ice, Jonas Hiller is making believers in California. Not only did he supplant one-time playoff hero Jean-Sebastien Giguere as the Ducks' starter, but Hiller also responded with an otherworldly .957 save percentage and 1.64 goals-against average with two shutouts against the Sharks.

Two seasons ago against the Wings, the Ducks rode a couple of lucky bounces to a six-game series victory en route to a Stanley Cup championship. It wouldn't be a surprise if the same slim margin of error was present in this edition.

FIVE POINTS TO THE SERIES

1. Rust Never Sleeps versus The Exhale Factor. Teams that pull off the big first-round upset sometimes find themselves unable to return to that same emotional level when the second round starts. The Ducks have a solid veteran core led by Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger on the blue line and Teemu Selanne up front, so a letdown might be less likely than if they were a younger squad. As for the Wings, a long layoff might present its own problems, especially against a physical team like the Ducks.


The Ducks jumped on San Jose early, and the Sharks never got back in the series. Watch for Anaheim to try to do the same against a more talented Detroit team. The Ducks' best opportunity will be early in the series, when the Wings might be more prone to sluggishness given their extended layoff. The Red Wings will be rested, we know that, and Kris Draper, a key part of all four Wings championships since 1997, is hoping to get medical clearance to play in the second round after missing the Columbus series with an upper-body injury.

2. Lords of discipline … or not. Every series preview we wrote leading up to Anaheim's Cup win in 2007 included the warning that the Ducks would have to stay out of the penalty box or bad things would happen to them. Guess what? It didn't seem to matter then, and it doesn't seem to matter now, but it won't stop us from saying it again. If the Ducks insist on giving the potent Wings power play too many opportunities (Detroit went 7-for-22 in the first round), bad things will happen … very bad things. There, we said it.

Still, the Ducks did manage to control themselves somewhat in the first round, as they were short-handed a total of 24 times (four times per game). The Wings? They were short-handed just 14 times in four games and allowed three power-play goals. The Ducks will need to take advantage of whatever the normally disciplined Wings give them and limit the chances they give Detroit to stay in this series.

3. Hiller versus Osgood. We generally hate to pit goalies against each other when assessing how a series will play out, but both have a certain Cinderella quality to them. Osgood, of course, gets little to no respect for a guy that has won three Stanley Cups and is among the winningest goalies of all time. There will always be a group waiting for the pleasant Detroit netminder to turn into a pumpkin as the Stanley Cup clock ticks to midnight.


Hiller is virtually unknown, but stopped 220 of 230 shots in six games against San Jose. That's pretty darn good. Does the 27-year-old have it in him to keep up that kind of pace, especially given the traffic he will face from the Red Wings' big bodies? Hard to imagine. As for Osgood, he will get more work with a Ducks team that has some big bodies of their own in Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan, Selanne and Corey Perry. Bottom line: Both goalies will have to remain steady for their teams to succeed. And, oh yeah, if either of these guys goes off the rails, Ty Conklin and Giguere, the one-time playoff MVP, are waiting in the wings for the Wings and Ducks, respectively.


4. The depth chart. Look at the top of the Red Wings' scoring leaders so far this spring and you'll see Franzen (six points) and then Dan Cleary (five points) and Tomas Holmstrom (four points) and Jiri Hudler (four points). In short, you'll see depth. That's the Red Wings way, coming at you in waves: three dynamite scoring units and a blue line that can do just as much damage with Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski (a combined seven points in the first round). The Ducks? Not so much. The Perry/Ryan/Getzlaf trio put up nine of the Ducks' 18 first-round goals. Selanne had just one goal and one assist in the first round, and Andrew Ebbett -- a revelation down the stretch as yet another undrafted collegiate player unearthed by the Ducks' scouting staff -- also had just two points. That kind of scoring imbalance is simply not going to cut it against the Wings.


5. Big blue lines. One of the enticing things about this series is the talent that will line up along the teams' respective blue lines. The Wings have Mr. Norris (not Chuck, but Lidstrom, who is once again nominated as the top defenseman in the league), Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall and massive rookie Jonathan Ericsson, who chipped in his first playoff goal in the first round. The Ducks? The last guy to win the Norris Trophy not named Lidstrom is there (Niedermayer) along with a guy named Pronger, who in the first round looked a lot like the dominant player that many believed should have earned playoff MVP honors in 2006. Throw in hard-nosed Francois Beauchemin, just back from reconstructive knee surgery, and newcomers Ryan Whitney and James Wisniewski, who arrived at the trade deadline, and this is as imposing a bunch as you'll find … unless you're talking about the Red Wings. Both teams rely on their blue lines to jump-start the offense and will launch their defenders into the offensive zone with abandon.

KEY MATCHUP

• The battle in net. This series will be won or lost within about two feet of Hiller and the Anaheim goal. The Columbus Blue Jackets had no answer for the big, talented Wings, who made life miserable for Vezina and Calder Trophy candidate Steve Mason in goal. Will the Ducks be able to keep sight lines open for Hiller? Can they do it without taking too many penalties? The answer had better be yes if the Ducks want to stay close.

HOT AND NOT

• Detroit: Franzen had points in all four first-round games, including two multi-point efforts. Pavel Datsyuk, who had 97 points during the regular season and was named a Hart Trophy finalist, had just one goal and one assist in the opening round.

• Anaheim: Getzlaf had points in five of six games in the first round, including three multi-point outings. He also dropped the gloves at the opening faceoff in Game 6 with San Jose's Joe Thornton. Selanne scored in Game 1 against the Sharks and then went dry for the rest of the series, posting just one assist over the final five games.

PREDICTIONS

• This one should be fun, and tough. But there's simply too much offense, too much talent, too much Red Wings for the Ducks to come up with two straight major upsets. Red Wings in six.

Scott Burnside covers the NHL for ESPN.com.

Looking forward to this series... should be a good one.

Maggie likes Detroit on this one, which seems to the be the popular choice, I picked the Ducks.

It's evenly split here on GMHockey. 6-6.

I still think Anaheim will surprise and they may one more upset in them; but a LOT will depend on Detroit. Wang runs a tight ship and the only SURE-FIRE way Anaheim walks away with the W is if Detroit makes either one crucial mistake and cannot recover, or fumble during key moments in tight games.

I'm still sticking with Anaheim because:
1) my father ALWAYS roots for the underdog and it seems to have filtered it's way down to yours truly; and
2) ALWAYS expect the unexpected.

I must agree with Shabbs and DTR and the many other GM hockey faithful though in that this series will probably one of the nastier, more bodies flying to-and-fro than any other. I can't FREAKIN' WAIT!!

Updated: April 30, 2009, 1:02 PM ET

Draper unavailable for games 1 and 2

Associated Press/NHL.com

DETROIT -- Detroit Red Wings forward Kris Draper says he will miss Games 1 and 2 against the Anaheim Ducks.

Draper said Thursday his upper-body injury will be evaluated later this week. He did not play in Detroit's first-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Draper's plus-minus rating was a team-worst and career-low minus-13 this season for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Second-seeded Detroit will host the eighth-seeded Ducks on Friday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

After Game 2 is played Sunday at Joe Louis Arena, Draper hopes to be cleared to play when the series shifts to California.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Missing Draper is unfortunate for the Wings. He has proven in the past that he's a solid playoff performer.

Whether or not the Ducks peck away at Ozzy in Game One will be very telling.

From the Detroit News: Friday, May 1, 2009 by Bob Wojnowski

Humble Hossa earns his Wings

Detroit

He was quiet from the start, too quiet. Marian Hossa eased into the Red Wings' dressing room so deftly, it was easy to forget the screaming headlines when he made the shocking decision, disdaining millions to come to Detroit for a one-year contract.

None of that mattered in the early days of the season, when the Wings' hopes for Hossa were pretty simple. They just wanted him to shoot the dang puck.

"I don't know if he was trying to please his new teammates, but he was always making the extra pass," Nicklas Lidstrom said, chuckling. "We mentioned to him, 'You have a great shot -- take it.' Once he got over that hump, he was a perfect fit."

This is the story the rest of the NHL hates. This is the tale of how the defending Stanley Cup champs defied logistics and welcomed a superstar interloper, and then the oddest thing happened: It worked fine, no ego clashes, no problems. The New Guy was humble and hungry and didn't disrupt the winning chemistry.

As the Wings head into the second round tonight against Anaheim, Hossa is in the spot he always envisioned. He's needed and wanted but doesn't have to do it all, or even the bulk of it. No one on the Wings ever does. And really, of all the unusual reasons Hossa took the Wings' one-year, $7.45-million offer instead of long-term treasures elsewhere, this is the main one, for this time right now.

"Look around, you've got legends in here, and it's a great group of guys," Hossa said. "It's just fun to be a part of it. And they play the way I like, the puck-control game. Playing with so many stars, the pressure is spread, there's no focus on one guy."

Pressure? What pressure?

And there's the dichotomy of the Hossa Experiment. He came to Detroit to win his first Stanley Cup, and by accepting a one-year deal, he put enormous pressure on himself. But the truth is, it's actually less pressure than if he'd stayed in Pittsburgh for a reported $35 million, or gone to Edmonton for the rumored $80 million.

If Hossa is skating with a burden, he sure isn't showing it. He led the team with 40 goals in the regular season, and often was brilliant. He was clutch in the first-round clincher against Columbus, scoring his first two goals of the playoffs.

GM Ken Holland, relentlessly creative, hopes to keep Hossa with a long-term deal, after signing Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen to lengthy contracts. It will be tricky under the salary cap, and negotiations are on hold during the playoffs, but I bet Holland and Hossa get it done before free-agency July 1.

"Hopefully, if everybody's happy and things work out, I can re-sign," Hossa said. "If not, life goes on. I knew what I was doing when I signed. I like the way everything is going so far. I have no regrets."

Said Holland: "We want him to stay and I think he'd like to stay, and I'm hopeful we can find a cap number that works. I don't think he's all about money, he's made that pretty clear, and that says something about him. He's humble, respectful, hard-working. He's not arrogant, he's not loud. He just wants to fit in."

Chemistry

It's amazing it has worked so well, because adding a star to an established championship team could be a recipe for discord. But Hossa quickly exhibited what the Wings crave -- star skills without the star trappings. They like him not because he sacrificed long-term security, but because he's likeable.

"He's a typical Red Wing already," goalie Chris Osgood said. "He's laid-back and he doesn't have that superstar mentality where he thinks he's better than other guys. We've always had Steve Yzerman and guys like that -- great players who never put themselves ahead of anybody. Hossa gets along with everybody, he talks to everybody."

Well, actually, he triesto talk to everybody. Linemate Datsyuk, who uses a clever mix of broken English and unbroken Russian, is known as the dressing-room quipster, whether the joke is understood or not.

Hossa knew if they were going to enjoy unspoken communication on the ice, it had to work off the ice.

"When he tells a joke, it takes me a couple seconds, then I just start laughing," Hossa said, laughing. "It did take me through training camp to figure out what kind of style they want from me. But with Pavel it's easy, because he just tries to find me and throw the puck to the open spot. That's basically our game, and so far it's been working."

Working well enough that Datsyuk is a finalist for the Hart Trophy, and the Hossa-Datsyuk-Tomas Holmstrom line is as dangerous as any.

Hossa is a solid 6-foot-1, 208 pounds, a terrific skater with a wicked shot. He's only 30, and after a few years of playoff underachievement in Ottawa and Atlanta, he has a chance to find his peak here.

But first, he had to find his shot, and then he had to find his seat. Uh, that would be the seat in the rear of the team plane, where the elders gather. It took a while for Hossa to join captain Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Holmstrom and others back there.

Lidstrom said Hossa finally took Dominik Hasek's old seat, and likes the fit.

"I really think he feels comfortable here," Lidstrom said. "Seeing him on an everyday basis now, I had no idea how quick he was. I knew he had that shot, but I didn't realize all the other stuff, especially how humble he is."

With the Wings, all egos are checked at the door, and all must check on the ice.

No problem for Hossa, who gambled and brought his best shot to the team with the best shot, and now happily fires away.

bob.wojnowski@detnews.com.

That's hilarious. I'm the only one who voted for Detroit in 7 here. Am I going to regret it?

Well, I hope Detroit scores a few goals (I have a buttload of Detroit players in my work playoff pool) but I still stand by my prediction of Anaheim squeaking out victorious.

davetherave wrote:

wprager wrote:

davetherave wrote:[That's why I don't post on those other boards which are almost invariably infested with morons.

Oh ... silly me, I thought it was because you post at an average rate of 745,156 posts per day here and that, along with necessary bodily functions, take pretty much most of the day.

Now you know the truth...don't you feel better now? cool)

31.59 according to the stats, I see...and I'm sure you're not interested in details of bodily functions.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

I drink, therefore I am.
- Rene Descartes (paraphrased by Monty Python)

wprager wrote:I drink, therefore I am.
- Rene Descartes (paraphrased by Monty Python)

I can certainly see that you know your wine. Most of the guests who stay here wouldn't know the difference between Bordeaux and Claret.
John Cleese (Basil Fawlty)
Fawlty Towers