Nary a Quack

In the second round against the Colorado Avalanche, the Ducks made the Avs look old, slow and at times clueless, certainly not the Colorado team that once threw fear in the hearts of their playoff opponents (more on that later).

The Ducks' surgical precision against Colorado earned them at least a week's worth of rest awaiting the winner of the suddenly contentious San Jose-Edmonton series.

The Ducks went 0-3-1 against Edmonton and 4-2-1 against San Jose in the regular season. Although San Jose has better brand name recognition with the likes of Joe Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau, the Ducks are privately rooting for the Sharks to get off the deck and stop the Oil spill.

The Oilers' season has turned magical as they are the only remaining Canadian outfit left in the tournament and are the one team that possesses the man to man speed to match Anaheim. That fact alone makes them the more dangerous of the two potential opponents but the Ducks have observed that Dwayne Roloson is in a zone that could match Anaheim's netminder Ilya Bryzgalov save for save as well.

The question has been raised that perhaps the 7-10 days of idleness would hurt Anaheim coming into the next round. We argue just the opposite; this break couldn't have come at a better time.

Anaheim is a bit dinged up, but the way NHL PR departments disclose injuries these days, no one really knows who is hurt and to what extent, so physically, it's a welcome time to heal all the bodies in the room. It's not possible that Coach Randy Carlyle would let this team get distracted from the task at hand. Additionally, the two players that embody the heart and soul of this team, soon-to-be Norris winner Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne aren't spring chickens.

Despite what they may say in public, they're thrilled to have a week off from the rigors of a playoff match every other night. For those who say it hurts chemistry to have so much time off, the other side of the coin is that with two rounds under their belts, everyone on the team is accustomed to the pressure, everyone knows their roles. The forward lines and defense pairings are set and Bryzgalov will be the man between the pipes until the end. The Ducks finished with a rush and were in playoff mode since the Olympic break, to have a mental break after three grueling months can only help the psyche of this team.

When we analyzed the Ducks at the beginning of the playoffs, we thought their major weakness was scoring depth among the forward lines. Seven playoff goals later, Joffrey (amusingly mispronounced "Jeffrey" by the announcer at Denver's Pepsi Center) Lupul has answered that question.

The combination of Lupul, Todd Marchant and Dustin Penner was the Ducks' number one line from a production aspect in the Colorado series. Lupul's now legendary four goal game against the Avs was co-authored by his centerman Marchant. Marchant's speed creates space for Lupul around the net and while the center is not blessed with soft hands, his high hockey IQ knows how to get the second year player the puck at the right time.

Lupul, for his part, needs a stellar set up man as he doesn't possess the skill to go in to the corner and bring the puck out in front of the net. His game is more Luc Robitaille (although not THAT slow) than Alexander Ovechkin. Penner is the most intriguing of the threesome, at 6-5; 245 lbs. and netted a beautiful goal to clinch the series in Game 4. Maybe GM Brian Burke sees visions of the second coming of Todd Bertuzzi when he looks at the massive winger and hopefully Penner's smarter than the Vancouver bad guy.

While the on ice playoff performance of this team has been exemplary, there is one trait that confounds me, and it’s not Scott Niedermayer's hideous playoff beard. Someone needs to get in touch with his wife and tell him to lose the growth, damn the superstitions, it's gotta go. Facial hair issues aside, Phoenix Coach Wayne Gretzky recently gave Niedermayer his tribute.

"Unfortunately when you're in the West you play a lot of 10:30 p.m. Eastern games and I don't think Niedermayer got as much credit as he deserved in terms of how well he's played," Gretzky said. "I don't think I've ever seen him play as good as he's played. I know he's had a great career but I think this has been the best year he's ever had in the National Hockey League and his teammates are feeding off of him."

But back to my original point... I've covered this great sport of a better part of a decade and never seen a team less impressed by their accomplishments than this Anaheim team.

For a team that missed the playoffs in 2003-04 season, almost entirely turned its roster over and installed a new coach and GM, this achievement IS significant. I could understand a low key attitude from a Niedermayer or Jeff Friesen (who has a ring from his time with the Devils) or from a 36 year old Selanne, but the same mantra resonates from Bryzgalov, Lupul and Penner as well.

To see the youngsters interviewed from Colorado after eliminating proven playoff producers like Joe Sakic, Milan Hedjuk and Alex Tanguay, it was eerie not to see any of them even hint at a smile. The youngsters' eyes said it all; there is a lot more work to do before we're satisfied. It's as if the next game for them will be the 94th game of the regular season and not the first game of the conference finals.

END OF AN ERA

The Ducks sweep of the Avalanche drew attention away from a significant announcement at the Avs' end of the ice. The day after the Avs went down; Pierre Lacroix relinquished his role as Colorado's GM to remain solely as the team's president. What that really means is that he'll be able to whack GMs and coaches as the salary cap evens out the competition in the NHL.

Lacroix was a very smart man, for the past decade we'd grade him out neck and neck with Devils' GM Lou Lamoriello as the best in the business. Up until last year, he was still reaping benefits from a trade that was consummated when Eric Lindros ENTERED the league. He took a decent team in a crappy building in Quebec and made it a championship team in a crappy arena in Denver and because there are such rabid and supportive fans in Denver, they built the Avs a beautiful arena. He also had the good fortune of having an owner, Stan Kroenke, that was willing to pay the price to acquire and more importantly, keep talent.

Kroenke was always there to keep Sakic and Peter Forsberg together. He ponied up more green to bring Rob Blake in from the Kings and let Ray Bourque finally achieve the Holy Grail. But Lacroix always had a keen eye for young talent as well, finding a Hedjuk or Tanguay to replenish the system when others grew old or ineffective.

Then the salary cap came.

Bye-bye Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote (who would ever have thought a few years ago that Adam would leave Denver for COLUMBUS?). Sakic was still great but 36 years old. Lacroix's best move at this trade deadline was to move a mediocre David Aebischer for a mending Jose Theodore. Not exactly the bold moves that we could depend on Lacroix making at the deadline, as he was now handcuffed by the cap.

Poof, the Avs became ordinary, no Northwest division title and held on by their fingernails for seventh place in the conference, a level no one in Colorado is accustomed to.

"I can say I'm 58 and I'm 88 inside," he conveyed during last week's presser, probably aging the majority of those years during this non-productive season.

So because Lacroix didn't get stupid over the last nine months, he made the smart move and can now sit in judgment as others try to manage high expectations and live up to his legacy in the Rockies. We should all have that luxury.
 

Dennis Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The Fourth Period Magazine.