Since the 1985-86 season when the Presidents’ Trophy was introduced, only 7 of the winners have won the Stanley Cup in the same season. Of course, only four other Presidents’ Trophy winners had lost in the first round of the playoffs (the most recent being the Detroit Red Wings, who lost to the Edmonton Oilers in 2006). The Ducks became the fourth team to knock the Presidents’ Trophy winner out in the first round of the playoffs. Were they surprised? Not at all. The whole playoffs, the Ducks have been saying they didn’t think they were out of their league and they could beat the Sharks. Clearly, they were right. Throughout the playoffs, I didn’t talk to many people who had predicted the Ducks would win before the playoffs started. Most people I talked to before the playoffs thought my Ducks in 6 prediction was completely nuts. They told me how the Sharks had performed in April didn’t matter and their history of collapsing in the playoffs didn’t matter. I disagree. The Sharks ended the season just cruising and barely hanging on to their league best record and while I realize that history isn’t always a good indicator of the future since teams change, a lot of the current team were a part of the Sharks teams that lost in the conference semifinals the last few years.

The start of the night (Getzlaf dropping the gloves as soon as the puck dropped – 2 seconds into the game – and fighting Thornton) may have surprised a lot of fans and media, but Randy Carlyle & Ryan Getzlaf were not surprised. They had discussed the Thornton/Getzlaf fight idea and whether it was a good idea. Carlyle told Getzlaf it was his choice. He said he’s never been the type of coach to send a player out to fight, but he was happy with Getzlaf’s choice.

Hiller continued to look amazing in net and though the Ducks couldn’t stay out of the penalty box for long (12 penalties, 30 minutes) neither could the Sharks, who had exactly the same penalty minutes. Hiller kept the Sharks to one goal on the power play (they were 1-4), while the Ducks went 2 for 5 on the power play.

Since they’ve beaten the team with the best record in the NHL this season, the Ducks have a lot of confidence going into the series against the Red Wings. The Red Wings clearly have an amazing playoff history and swept the Blue Jackets in the first round, but the Ducks still believe they can compete at a higher level than they have so far and face the Red Wings with confidence. After saying that they’d think about facing the Red Wings tomorrow and for now they’d enjoy their win, Randy Carlyle joked that he decided he’d give the team a half hour to enjoy the win, then it’s back to work.

When the Ducks came back from being down 2-0 after 2 periods, it looked like they were going to buck the trend of the team that scores first winning the game in this series. The Sharks started off the scoring at 7:25 in the 1st period and added to that with a goal at even strength in the 2nd period. The Ducks scored two in the 3rd period (one just 55 seconds into the period, both at even strength) to tie the game and take it into overtime. The fact that the Sharks managed to come back and win it in overtime is a little surprising after giving up the lead. Historically, the Ducks have done much better in the playoffs than the Sharks, but these are different teams than the ones that created those numbers. The history is fun to think about, but it’s really not an indication of how a different team wearing the same jerseys will perform. Marleau scored the game winning goal at 6:02 in overtime.

Surprisingly enough, the Ducks and Sharks were even on penalties (3 each) and the Sharks scored the only power play goal of the game. The Sharks outshot the Ducks almost 2-1 again (48-25) in spite of having the same amount of time on the power play.

Hiller played very well tonight and allowed the Ducks the chance to fight back and make it into overtime, but the Sharks got the win in the end. The Versus announcers praised Hiller throughout the game. I’m not saying that he didn’t deserve it – he made some great saves, but I think the announcers were missing the fact that Nabokov made some really amazing saves, too. The Sharks did shoot the puck more, but they weren’t the only team trying to score.

Clearly, it’s always best to end a playoff series at your first opportunity, but the Ducks have been good at bouncing back after a loss and returning to the Honda Center for game 6 allows them the opportunity to advance to the next round in front of their home crowd.

The bright side for Ducks fans who live in southern California and have been attending the Ducks’ home games is that tonight’s game was the first away game televised in HD for Orange County, CA residents. Since the game was only on Versus, they did not block out the Versus HD feed. FSN Prime Ticket did air Thursday night’s game in HD, but for those who attend the home games that was only helpful for a replay here or there. So, at least they got to see their team lose in HD rather than having to watch the standard definition feed.

Plus, their team will return home Monday night and the fans can be there to see the Ducks advance in person to the next round. Clearly, the round isn’t over yer, but the Sharks would need to win the next two games when they’ve only won 2 out of 5 games in the series so far and haven’t won back to back games in the playoffs yet. It can be done, but less than 10% of the teams down in a playoff series 3-1 come back to win the series, so it’s pretty unlikely.

Jonas Hiller hadn’t played a game in the NHL playoffs until the first game of this series against the Sharks (April 16 – also his first playoff shutout). He’s played only 4 NHL playoff games and he has 2 shutouts. A lot of people seemed to doubt Hiller’s ability to handle the playoff pressure, but considering the fact that the Sharks have only scored 6 goals against him in 4 games and he shut the Sharks (the winner of the President’s Trophy for the best NHL season) twice. I think Hiller has shown he can handle playoff pressure. Sure, it’s early in the postseason, but if I were a Ducks fan, I’d be happy Hiller was in net.

Bobby Ryan, Calder Trophy (rookie of the year) finalist, scored Anaheim’s first goal of the game (and their second – scored right after the long break close to the middle of the 2nd period as the Honda Center crew jury rigged a solution to temporarily replace the glass between the benches). Tonight’s goals were Bobby’s first two non-power play goals of the post season. Because of tonight’s goals, Ryan co-leads the NHL in goal scoring (with Ryder, Malkin, & Kessel). Tonight was also only the second time in Ducks franchise history that a rookie scored multiple goals in a postseason game (the first was Francois Beauchemin, who scored 2 goals in game 3 of the conference quarterfinals on April 25, 2006 against Calgary. His three game goal streak (4-0) is tied with the longest playoff goal streak in the NHL so far.

Fans chanted “Bobby” after each of his goals and a couple times late in the game. They also chanted “Hiller” near the end of the game. I didn’t ask Hiller about the crowd chanting, but Ryan said it was really great to hear and that he realizes he’s come a long way since last year and the crowd’s cheers mean a lot.

Ryan Whitney’s 4-game point streak (0-4) is tied for the NHL point streak of the postseason (with Ryder, Crosby, Kessel, Martin, & Franzen). Getzlaf has scored in 3 of the Ducks’ four games and has 5 points so far (1-4). Whitney, Ryan, Hiller, and Getzlaf are definitely leading this Ducks team, which wouldn’t even have made the playoffs in the eastern conference, in shutting down the number one team in the regular NHL season.

Sadly, tonight’s announced attendance (always a lot less than the actual attendance) was only 16,830. That’s two home playoff games for the Ducks without a sellout. Considering the fact that they had some of their biggest announced crowds this season at the Honda Center, it’s amazing that they can’t sell out the playoff games. Perhaps the prices are just set too high given all the other options (Lakers playoffs being just one of them) in southern California. Whatever the reason, it’s sad that the games haven’t sold out. In my opinion, the games here in Anaheim were the most exciting games of the California playoff series.

The Ducks definitely played their best hockey of the postseason tonight. That’s one fact no one seems to dispute. Clearly, the Ducks want to carry this style of play back with them to San Jose and end the series in 5 games.

Fortunately, for all of you with HD (apparently, enough people complained that FSN Prime Ticket decided they should air tonight’s game in HD), FSN is not covering Saturday’s game. That’ll be three Ducks/Sharks playoff games in a row that those of us in southern California will be able to see in HD, since Versus has shown all of their playoff games in HD. Suffering through the first two games in standard definition was definitely rough for all of us who are spoiled with all the other playoff coverage, most of which we’re able to experience in HD.

When I predicted that the Ducks would win this series in 6 games, most people thought I was nuts. Some told me the Sharks would win in 5, some said 6. I’ve only talked to a couple other people who picked the Ducks to win the series. Clearly, the California playoff series is far from over. However, now that the Ducks have a 3-1 lead and need to win only one of the remaining 3 games to end the series and advance to face the Red Wings in the conference semifinals, a few people seem to be thinking that I might not have been completely nuts when I picked the Ducks to advance.

(In other news, not long after the first period ended, there was a 4.0 earthquake centered about 7 miles from Anaheim. Those at ice level didn’t feel it, but more than half of us in the press box noticed it.)

Enjoy the playoffs!

The Ducks were bound to lose a game to the Sharks. There was no way they could sweep the winner of the President’s Trophy.

See my HockeyBuzz blog about it.

Perhaps those of us who predicted the Ducks to win the series aren’t that crazy after all…

Even most Ducks fans I know picked the Sharks to win this series. Perhaps some of them are reconsidering at this point. The Sharks were completely dominant (32-5-4) at home this season, but the Ducks shut them out in game 1 and won game 2, too. The Sharks have only scored 2 goals against the Ducks in two games and have gone 0-12 in the power play. The Ducks’ regular season penalty kill wasn’t that great (23rd in the NHL) and the Sharks’ power play was ranked 3rd, but the Ducks have figured out how to stop the Sharks on the power play.

Hiller has been absolutely amazing for the Ducks. He stopped 35 shots in game 1 and 42 shots in game 2. He has definitely been their number one star. Perhaps he wants to prove everyone who doubted that he has what it takes to lead a team in the playoffs wrong. He was in the top 5 for save percentage most of the season (just dropping out of the top 5 at the very end of the season, but remaining in 6th place) and is clearly capable of handling the pressure of the playoffs and being peppered with shots in the visiting team’s arena.

The Ducks had more penalties in both games against the Sharks, which isn’t surprising given their history, but they managed to get away with killing all 6 of the Sharks’ power plays.

Anaheim shot the puck a lot more in game 2 (26 shots in game 2 compared to 17 in game 1), but so did the Sharks (44 shots in game 2, 35 in game 1). The Ducks blocked 21 shots, too. Clearly, Randy Carlyle will want his team to shoot more and prevent the Sharks from shooting quite as much when they return home to face the Sharks in game 3 on Tuesday. He’ll also want the team to take fewer penalties (he’s been working on that forever), but the Ducks are winning and you can’t really argue with that.

If you missed the game for some reason tonight, look online to watch the goals – some of them were really great, particularly Bobby Ryan’s dive for his own rebound on the first goal for the Ducks.

See the rest on HockeyBuzz.

As a side note, I think those of us in southern California who have HD should not be punished for living in southern CA. Since FSN has chosen to only air the Ducks’ playoff games on FSN PT and not their HD channel, those of us in the area can’t see the game in HD even though Versus is showing it everywhere else. I think if FSN is going to choose to air games in HD their ratings should suffer. I would pick the HD version of the game any day. Heck, I’d even pick the HD version of a Kings game over being able to have Bob Miller and Jim Fox’s comentary (though if given that choice I might try to watch more games live and have the sound coming from their broadcast).

See the blog on HockeyBuzz.

The Kings will finish the season with 79 points. Just 8 points ahead of last year’s finish of 71 points. Last season, the Kings were 15th in the western conference and 29th in the NHL. This season, they’ve moved up to 13th or 14th in the western conference and 24th- 26th in the NHL. (Games later today and tomorrow will control their final place in the conference and league. Not a significant improvement over last year, most argue. I can see that line of reasoning when you only look at the points and where they’ve finished in the standings. Not a big step forward. A lot of people at last night’s Ducks game were talking about how I should go to today’s Kings game and be sure to say farewell to Dean, since he’ll get fired. I hope not.

Did the Kings make the playoffs this season? No. Did they finish not far behind a playoff spot (as I thought they would)? No. However, they also didn’t finish that close to last in the NHL. Last season, they were tied in points for last place in the NHL, but won the tie breaker with Tampa Bay. This season, Tampa Bay finished in 28th or 29th place (we won’t know what place until later today or tomorrow and how many points ahead of the Islanders will be determined when the Islanders end their season tomorrow). They haven’t made many improvements, though they definitely spent a lot more money. Did they do a better job than the Kings as some suggested at the beginning of the season? Definitely not! Granted, doing a better job than the Lightning is clearly not a good argument for Lombardi being a good GM or for him to keep his job. However, it does show that Dean’s got a level head and is trying to build the Kings the smart way.

For the complete story, see the Defending Dean (Lombardi) HockeyBuzz blog.