EDMONTON – The Anaheim Ducks have spent much of the season in what head coach Bruce Boudreau calls “no man’s land.”
Too far behind the record-setting Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference standings, yet well ahead of the slow-starting Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division.
Now there are three games left and the Anaheim Ducks, despite a 3-1 win at Edmonton on Sunday night, haven’t entirely got the engine started.
Prior to the game, veteran Radek Dvorak promised that his Ducks could flip the switch, now that we’re closing in on Round 1.
“Oh yeah. For sure,” said Dvorak, a 1,200 game man who could not remember being on a good team that was unable to find its game when needed. “We always flip the switch. Always. If there was a time to do it, we did it. This team is capable of doing that. I strongly believe we will.”
One problem. Boudreau scratched Dvorak in Edmonton.
Anaheim won the game, but the Ducks’ effort was merely OK. They’ll need to dial it up significantly to avoid being a Round 1 upset when the playoffs begin April 30.
“It’s a step closer,” captain Ryan Getzlaf – whose line was the best on the ice – said of the win. “We still made a few mistakes, but it was a much-needed win. We needed to play, and we played hard.
“We’ve got to hit our stride. It’s all about playing the right way going into the playoffs.”
If Anaheim makes the same progress incrementally over their final three games, perhaps this team that beat Chicago in all three meetings this season can look as good in May as it did from January to mid-March, when the Ducks record stood at 22-3-4.
“I hope to hell we can dial it in in the last week. We haven’t played very well recently,” Boudreau said, pregame. “Everybody on every team has their own sense of urgency. I’m counting on that ours has finally set in.”
As of Sunday, in the first of back-to-back games versus the Oilers at Rexall Place, the Ducks urgency level was mediocre. But as the game wore on they pulled away from an Edmonton team that had more passengers than a double-decker bus.
As is the case when a good team gets on a slide, the Ducks’ best line dug them out Sunday. The Getzlaf-Corey Perry-Bobby Ryan line dominated Edmonton, a club that shies away from a big, physical line like this one.
But that big, physical line has to bring it, which they finally did as a three-man unit on Sunday, just four games from the regular season finish line.
“I think it’s a human nature thing,” Teemu Selanne said of a Ducks lull that culminated in four straight losses heading into Edmonton. “When we clinched the playoffs, the players, they started breathing a little more easily. You know, satisfaction is the worst enemy in this league. The day when you feel you’re a little too good, … that’s the first step backwards.
“There was a little breathing room, but now it’s time to get back to the action.”
It’s funny. Nobody picked the Ducks to be as good as they were this season, leading the Pacific Division from wire to wire. Now, the questions are all about whether Anaheim is the first-round upset club out West.
Because every year, someone with home ice advantage goes down in Round 1. The question is: which favourite will it be?
“Everything is about trying to build the momentum for the playoffs,” Selanne said. “In the past, we have been fighting in the last game to make the playoffs. Now, it’s a different situation. Almost too easy you know?"
“We have to make sure we’re all ready. That’s the only goal right now.”