Ducks showing there's more than one way to win in NHL
OTTAWA -- If there is one group that appears to have been influenced by complaints from the Ottawa Senators' camp about the way the Anaheim Ducks have played the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals, it's the media.
Given the water-cooler discussion after the Ducks swallowed the Senators whole in the first two games, punishing them physically and taking advantage of a plethora of turnovers, miscues and errors to take a 2-0 series lead, you'd think the clock had been turned back to pre-lockout days where rodeo hockey -- rope 'em and ride 'em -- was the norm especially in the playoffs.
The center of attention
It's been said the star of the Stanley Cup playoffs isn't a player or a coach or a GM, but the Cup itself. And there is much truth in that. This week, the Keepers of the Cup, those gallant men (and sometimes women) who risk life and limb to keep the Cup spotless and safe from harm at the countless parties, festivals and ceremonies the trophy attends during the course of a year, have helped create a lasting symbol of that star quality.This week, The Hockey Hall of Fame, the home base of the Cup in Toronto, and Fenn Publishing Company Ltd., released a delightful little travel book called "Travels With Stanley."
Although all of the Keepers of the Cup have stories galore to tell about deeds and misdeeds involving the Cup, this isn't a tell-all book, but rather a celebration of the mug itself.
Nary a player or person is present in the 168-page publication, but rather the Cup is the highlight, whether it's seen posing next to a sand-castle replica of itself in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in front of a rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, or in front of a giant statue of Vladimir Lenin in Archangelsk, Russia.
Our personal favorite? The photo of the Cup in an igloo in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, in the far Canadian north. Check it out.
-- Scott Burnside
But that view is too simplistic and not particularly accurate.
Despite the complaints from Ottawa coach Bryan Murray and his players that they're being held and obstructed on their way to the Ducks' zone, Anaheim has been penalized for its transgressions. Recall Chris Pronger being called for hooking in the final minute of Game 1? Recall the two long 5-on-3 power plays the Senators have been awarded in the first two games -- power plays they squandered?
As one top NHL official said Thursday, at some point a team has to stop complaining about the referees and look in the mirror.
The reality is this series is evolving into a fascinating clash of styles that may force teams around the league to rethink the necessary ingredients to make a winner.
Heading into this series, most observers believed the Senators held a significant advantage over the Ducks because they were fast, deep and talented, both offensively and defensively.
In that sense, the Sens resemble last year's up-tempo and skilled champions from Carolina, but with a little more sand and better defensive lineup. The Senators have proven they had the skill quotient needed to play with the best, dispatching the NHL's best regular-season team, Buffalo (another model franchise for the new "speed kills" NHL) in five games in the Eastern Conference finals.
But two games into these Stanley Cup finals, the Anaheim Ducks have stomped the life out of the Sens' creativity, creating in some quarters a feeling that the game has taken a step backwards.
But rather than reflecting the "old" NHL, where teams like New Jersey used to lie back in the neutral zone, grab onto opposing players as they tried to gain the offensive zone and thus limiting much offensive creativity, the Ducks seem to have found the perfect hybrid of the old and the new.
Under Anaheim GM Brian Burke's tutelage -- and making good use of prospects acquired by Murray when he was Ducks GM -- Anaheim has achieved success by using a lethal blend of size and speed to shut down the Senators.
As Burke is fond of saying, he wants a team that can do it all -- play with speed, punish opposing teams and, if push comes to shove, drop the gloves.
During the first 10 minutes of Game 2, the Senators tried to match the intense, physical play of the Ducks with that of their own. It was successful in the sense that players on both sides of the puck were rocked by big-time hits. But there were stark differences, too. The Ducks were able to translate big hits into fine offensive chances. The Senators were not. By the mid-point of the first period, the Ducks had outshot Ottawa 10-1. They have also enjoyed a monumental advantage in shots through the first two games (63-36).
Now, Senators apologists will suggest that disparity is the result of nefarious play by the Ducks -- holding, interference, and the like. And there have been instances. Francois Beauchemin, for instance, landed a nasty elbow to the nose of Mike Comrie early in Game 2 that left Comrie shaken and bloodied. No penalty was called.
But the real fact of the matter is the Ducks are dominating scoring chances because they have the puck all the time. And when they don't have the puck, they're busy forcing the Senators to turn it back over to them. That's not illegal, by the way, that's just tough hockey.
Even Murray backed off Thursday after two days of complaining about hacking and whacking by the Ducks, saying he thought the officiating was much better in Game 2.
"I didn't think there was much hold-up at all last night," Murray said when asked if the NHL should be concerned about the pattern being established in the finals. "I felt that the players decided the game last night. Anaheim, over the course of the game, played better than we did."
The question for the Senators heading into Saturday's Game 3, a game they simply must win, is whether they can find a way to balance the equation, to dominate with their skill in the same way the Ducks have dominated with their committed checking and physical play.
What message does the Ducks' success send to the rest of the NHL? Well, for those who lamented that the new NHL was devoid of hard-nosed physical play, this series should dispel that notion once and for all.
At the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, the Ducks, in spite of being built by the American-born Burke, are pure Canadiana. The joke in the Ducks' dressing room is that Game 2 scoring hero Samuel Pahlsson, a Swede, is really an honorary Western Canadian. The Ducks' lineup in Game 2 featured just two Europeans, Pahlsson and Teemu Selanne. For what it's worth, the Senators' lineup had five.
In the end, maybe the point isn't that the NHL has taken a step backwards with the success of the brawny Ducks, but rather they have revealed to all that there isn't one way to win in the new NHL, but many.
Scott Burnside is the NHL writer for ESPN.com
