It Could Happen
TFP Columnist Dennis Bernstein explains why the Anaheim Ducks will be in the Stanley Cup Finals.
  

Short of these four occurrences, you'll see the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup Finals in a couple of weeks.

At this point, given the ease of how they've dispatched Minnesota and Vancouver, the Conference Finals will be a formality, a coronation for this team that is deep, tough and of primary importance, hungry.

Looking ahead to the next round, the Ducks' likely opponent is San Jose. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Sharks, the players and the organization are great, but 2-6 in the regular season smells like the only blood in the water will be Shark flavor come next week.

If Detroit somehow gets off the canvas and rallies to defeat San Jose, their 2-2 record in the regular season against the Ducks convinces no one they're a match for Anaheim, either. Detroit looks too soft, too old, and too European to compete with a team full of young power forwards, smart and physical defensemen and the best goaltender in the playoffs. If the Sharks hadn't taken a snooze in the third periods of Game 2 and 4, they'd be gearing up for the Ducks.

Last week, I went on The Fourth Period Radio Show and made a bold prediction: Five, Five and Five, somewhat reminiscent of Moses Malone's Fo, Fo, Fo (I have better command of the English language, I'm a writer, you know) during a Philadelphia 76ers championship run in the '80s.
 

With a goal putting Vancouver in his sites, Selanne evened it with a little over five minutes remaining on a rebound graciously given up by Luongo. The Finnish Flash has been battered and bruised since the playoffs have started. He joked that a high stick to the mouth he received in Game 4 was "an upper body injury," a silly phrase now in vogue that Anaheim among other teams, report their injuries but delivered when the Ducks needed him most.

Had I been in Vegas at the moment Selanne cashed in that rebound, I would have run to a sports book and got a proposition bet on the game. If you're a hockey fan, you've been to those games, the bad guys score a goal, the crowd goes silent, your team sags, etc. Vancouver held off the Ducks for the balance of the period but you felt it was only staving off the inevitable. So when the Ducks closed the game out just 2:07 into sudden death, it wasn’t a surprise but the man who netted it certainly was.

If Moen is going to score overtime goals for Anaheim, all the remaining teams in the hunt for the Stanley Cup are in bigger trouble than I thought. Moen cashed in another Luongo rebound from the slot and as the puck hit the back of the net you could hear the air rush out of GM Place and the Canucks playoff hopes. The one question that revolved around Anaheim was the depth of their scoring after the first line of Selanne, Andy McDonald and Chris Kunitz. With Moen's marker and the performances of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf (potentially the best player on the team within the next three years) and Samuel Pahlsson, the vastly underrated checking line center who added two assists in Game 4, the answer is apparent.

It looks like the Ducks won't waddle into the Finals; it'll be more like a storm.

AND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY

Ancient playoff hockey saying: It ain't the best team, it's the team that's playing best. Here's an example...

Those sixth-place Rangers aren't looking so bad against Buffalo. Even the most ardent of Blueshirt fans have to admit that they deserved that sixth place regular season finish.

Yes, there are those sparkly names like Jaromir Jagr, Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka, but the rest of the lineup looks like an AHL reunion. Callahan, Girardi, Ortmeyer, BRAD ISBISTER?! That cat is still in the league? I thought he was playing in Ecuador.

Michal Rozsival, Marek Malik and Paul Mara are the top three defensemen? This roster isn't going to make anyone forget the 1976 Canadiens anytime soon.

The truth of this series is that Henrik Lundqvist has matched Buffalo's Ryan Miller save for save throughout, and although the Sabres are much faster and deeper along the forward wall, I get this nagging feeling that the Rangers can come out of that 2-0 and still win the series.

What convinced me weren't the two home victories the Rangers cashed in at MSG; it was their performance in Game 2 in Buffalo. The New Yorkers clearly outplayed their state cousins throughout and if it weren't for a rally led by, who else, Mr. Clutch Chris Drury, the Sabres would be looking at a 3-1 deficit Thursday night.

Conversely, the Rangers just aren't deep enough to go two more rounds, their flaws on the blueline and lack of scoring after Jagr and Shanahan (let me gleefully point out that through three game, Sean Avery has no points and is a -3, atta boy, Puppy!) don't make them a finalist.

AND FINALLY

It's been thirteen years since the Cup has returned home to Canada. If you're a Canadian, aren't you kinda depressed that you last hope rides with the OTTAWA SENATORS? Not exactly clutch, eh? Make that fourteen years.
 

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