Duck-Red Wings Series Outlook
By Judd Hall
No. 2 Detroit Red Wings vs. No. 8 Anaheim Ducks
Series Price: Detroit -500, Anaheim +350
Series Format: Detroit, 2-2-1-1-1
Skinny: It’s not every day that you get a series that pits the last two Stanley Cup champions against one another.
Detroit kept its dream of a second straight title alive when they dropped the youthful Blue Jackets in four straight. The Wings had a few lucky bounces to get a couple of scores, but a plus-11 goal differential proves this team knows how to find the back of the net.
It’s really a matter of picking your poison when it comes to the Red Wings’ attack. They have five forwards that scored no fewer than 20 goals to go along with a pair of rear guards who have lit the lamp at least 10 times. Henrik Zetterberg has kept up the pace in the playoffs after tallying three trips to the red lamp district against Columbus. He’s just one of six skaters that posted two goals in the first round.
One thing you’re not going to see the Wings do very often is taking bad penalties. They found themselves shorthanded just 13 times in the conference quarterfinal, yielding just three goals. While those numbers are great, it has to be tempered by the fact that they were facing a team that was the worst on the power play.
If Detroit had any glaring weakness it would be in goal. Chris Osgood had a mediocre regular season campaign, but played like he was plugged into the matrix against Columbus. The Wings’ starting goaltender stopped 93.6 percent of the shots he faced with a 1.75 goals against average at this stage of the playoffs. And you can bet that head coach Mike Babcock likes the fact that Osgood went 2-0-1 with a 2.97 GAA against the Ducks in the regular season.
Anaheim is in the second round of the playoffs after tossing the Sharks as the eighth No. 8 seed to win a series. And in typical fashion, the Ducks did it with the same skill and toughness that got them a championship two years ago.
The Ducks’ power comes from their top line of Bobby Ryan (32 goals-40 assists-72 points), Ryan Getzlaf (25-66-91) and Corey Perry (31-26-57). That line won’t be bullied by many clubs as that trio has combined for 263 minutes in the penalty box. Anaheim can also beat you with finesse as Teemu Selanne had 27 goals during the regular season, but has just one score against San Jose.
Anaheim will be looking to get keep the Red Wings off of their game plan by pushing them around. The Ducks are pretty good at that as they were second in the league with an average of 17 penalty minutes per game.
The Quack Attack also had issues in goal this year with Jean-Sebastien Giguere, which is odd considering how big he’s played during the postseason. Lucky for them that Jonas Hiller has been up to the challenge during the playoffs. Hiller had a 95.7 save percentage and 1.65 GAA against the Sharks in the first round.
It’ll be interesting to see how Hiller handles the Red Wings’ attack as he doesn’t have a lot of experience against the champs. He’s 0-1 with a GAA of 3.17 in just 19 minutes against Detroit for his career.
Gambling Notes: The Red Wings had their way with Anaheim during the regular season in winning three of the four meetings. And they’ve got two playoff sweeps against the Ducks to their credit. The only problem is that those four-gamers came in 1997 and 1999.
Since that time, Anaheim has dominated the postseason contests. They’re currently on a 4-1 run and won the last two series these clubs have played (2003 and 2007).
The 2007 Western Conference Final between these franchises saw the ‘over’ go 4-2. We should expect that trend to continue as the Ducks have seen the ‘over’ hit eight of their last 15 games. Detroit leans slightly to the ‘under’ with a 7-6-2 mark in its past 15 tilts.
Anaheim has been a reliable underdog play recently, going 7-2 in the last nine games this year in that role.
Outlook: It’s hard to think that anyone is going to be able to stop the Red Wings from getting back to Stanley Cup Final. If there was any team that could dash their dreams, it definitely would be Anaheim.
Detroit and Anaheim are fielding essentially the same squads that met in the postseason just two years ago, which the boys from Orange County won 4-1. So while the edge might go to the victor of the last setting, I’m more inclined to believe that the Winged Wheels are going to use that setback as motivation.
This series could potentially be a killer for both sides when it comes to their performance for the conference final, given the hatred they have for one another. That’s not what we’re here for, we’re here to pick a winner for this series. I’m going to side with the Wings to win it in five games as they’re deep enough to handle any blows that the Ducks can dole out.
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