At this late juncture of the season, a lot of bubble teams like to declare that the playoffs have already begun for them, emphasizing that every game is do or die. As a club chasing down top spot in the one division that remains up for grabs, the Anaheim Ducks would seem to be safe from the need for such hyperbole. But while the Ducks locked down a post-season berth long ago, no front-running team should be fighting harder for the points still up for grabs than the Orange County crew.
Heading into Thursday night’s action, the Ducks were one of four teams to have hit the 100-point barrier, along with the Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues and the squad that leads Anaheim’s Pacific Division, the San Jose Sharks. Both the Ducks and Sharks have a real shot to win the Pacific, with Anaheim trailing by two points while carrying two games in hand. With the Los Angeles Kings locked into third place, whoever doesn’t win the division gets a date with the 2012 champs. And while both San Jose and Anaheim would no doubt prefer to start their playoff odyssey against a wild card team, you have to think avoiding that matchup is more imperative for the Ducks.
The Kings—who would also be fighting it out for the division lead if not for a rough quarter in which they went 5-14-2—are a nasty first-round draw for any team that does well enough to get home-ice advantage. But San Jose came within a hair’s breadth of beating L.A. last year, losing a tight second-round series in seven games. The sizable Sharks are a little better prepared to handle the Kings’ grinding style and break through their stingy defence. The Ducks are certainly capable of cracking Los Angeles’s winning formula too—they boast a 3-0-1 record against the Kings this season—but they’d really benefit from a warm-up round before taking on a legit Cup contender.
That’s all the more true because Anaheim, in general, would do well to experience the happy side of a handshake line. Since winning the Cup in 2007, the Ducks have advanced past the first round just once, in 2009. Last year, a second-seeded Anaheim club was knocked off in seven games by the crafty Detroit Red Wings, losing the decisive showdown on home ice.
That team, like this one, was coached by Bruce Boudreau, who would surely like to break with a couple of playoff precedents of his own. Boudreau guided some regular season powerhouses in Washington, but the Capitals were bounced in the first round in two of his four playoff seasons there and never advanced to the conference final. (And, to be fair, haven’t since he’s left, either.) Last season’s battle with Detroit was Boudreau’s first foray into the post-season as Ducks head man and the game seven loss dropped his career record in winner-take-all contests to 1-4.
Add it up and you start to understand why Anaheim could really use a Pacific Division crown and likely date with the Minnesota Wild. There’s no such thing as a soft touch in the playoffs—particularly in the West—but the Wild are nowhere near the matchup nightmare L.A. is.
In addition to the pair of extra games it holds on San Jose, Anaheim also has three dates with the cellar-dwelling Edmonton Oilers, and two additional home games against non-playoff clubs. The Ducks will also host the Sharks in what should be a mammoth contest in the last week of the season.
There will likely be a lot of talk about a playoff atmosphere when San Jose rolls into Southern Cal for that tilt. And for the home team, that sentiment should be especially true.