When a team makes the playoffs it emphasizes that they are a good hockey team and can compete with the best. This sure is the case for the Anaheim Ducks. This club was an eighth place seed coming into this years playoffs. Upsets happen, but it’s rarer when an eighth place team surpasses the first. When they knocked out the San Jose Sharks, they took out the team with the best regular season record.
Knocking off the first seeded team in the first round of the playoffs, isn’t usually what anyone expects. The Ducks pulled off this upset in six games with their backup goaltender coming through with two shutouts and some timely saves. Jonas Hiller was put in between the pipes instead of the usual Jean-Sebastien Giguere and he stole some games for his team.
They have gotten major contributions from players like Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan, Corey Perry, and Scott Neidermayer in both the Sharks series, and their second round matchup with second placed Detroit Redwings. Both the Ducks and Redwings’ power plays and penalty kills have been pretty equal to each other. Anaheim’s power play is at 27% while Detroit’s is at about 29%. While Detroit is having the most successful power play, the Ducks are doing a good job killing them with a 79% penalty kill.
Now it’s almost the end of the second round, and the Ducks are facing a Detroit Redwings 3-2 series lead. They head to their home ice for game six at the Honda Center where they are 3-2 this post season. They upset the Sharks, so can they pull one on the defending Stanley Cup champs? We’ll just have to see.
Knocking off the first seeded team in the first round of the playoffs, isn’t usually what anyone expects. The Ducks pulled off this upset in six games with their backup goaltender coming through with two shutouts and some timely saves. Jonas Hiller was put in between the pipes instead of the usual Jean-Sebastien Giguere and he stole some games for his team.
They have gotten major contributions from players like Ryan Getzlaf, Bobby Ryan, Corey Perry, and Scott Neidermayer in both the Sharks series, and their second round matchup with second placed Detroit Redwings. Both the Ducks and Redwings’ power plays and penalty kills have been pretty equal to each other. Anaheim’s power play is at 27% while Detroit’s is at about 29%. While Detroit is having the most successful power play, the Ducks are doing a good job killing them with a 79% penalty kill.
Now it’s almost the end of the second round, and the Ducks are facing a Detroit Redwings 3-2 series lead. They head to their home ice for game six at the Honda Center where they are 3-2 this post season. They upset the Sharks, so can they pull one on the defending Stanley Cup champs? We’ll just have to see.
1 comments:
Hailey, I see an improvement in your writing mechanics with each post. You are doing an amazing job with the blog.
It would be interesting to know what other teams have come from bottom to top like that in a playoff series.
AmandaLyn
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