The Ducks (3-0) will need these guys to step up as they go for the sweep against the Jets (0-3) tonight.
You want it. I want. The Anaheim Ducks want it. And the Winnipeg Jets certainly DO NOT want it.
Of course, I’m talking about a Full House revival on Netflix – wait! Hell no!
What I’m actually talking about is a sweep by the Ducks in their Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Jets.
Heading into game three, I was pretty confident that the Ducks were going to need five, maybe six games to close out the Jets. Everyone on the planet knew that The MTS Centre was going to be a madhouse, and that the Jets would respond by taking it to the Ducks all night long.
Yet – here we are, with the Ducks on the brink on an improbable sweep. Personally, I’m still skeptical – my money is on Winnipeg winning game four – but clearly the Ducks have a shot at closing this thing out and earning a few days off. It’s the best-case scenario for Anaheim . . . but it’s going to require some key contributions from many players, especially . . .
Ryan Getzlaf
The captain had a hand in three of Anaheim’s four goals in game one, but since then, Getzlaf has been largely neutralized. It makes sense – in any sport, teams look to shut specific players down – but that doesn’t mean it’s okay.
Whenever I look at a Getzlaf’s game logs and notice a total lack of penalty minutes, in a series that has been as physical as they come, I can’t help but feel like he is allowing the Winnipeg players to dictate the action, rather than the other way around. Getzlaf only had two shots on goal in Game 3, and worse, no hits – how is that possible, when there were 103 hits recorded by both teams?!?
I don’t want to see Getzlaf play reckless hockey, of course, but if the Ducks want to survive the furious rally that the Jets will certainly bring to ice tonight, the captain is going to need to take the fight to the Jets.
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I don’t have a problem with Andersen has played so far in this series, but I can’t say I loved seeing him give up four goals Monday night, either. I am going to predict that the Jets will win Game 4 if they score that many goals again – you heard it here first.
Andersen has been sharp in the third period and beyond of each of the three games that Anaheim has played – zero goals allowed, and he absolutely should have been arrested for robbing Bryan Little late in Game 3 with the score tied 4-4:
I’m loving Andersen’s late-game heroics, but if he is not sharp early in game four, those heroics will not matter.
The X Factor
It would be easy to list Corey Perry as the third player who has to be on top of his game tonight, as (his goal notwithstanding) he didn’t have an awesome Game 3, either.
Honestly, though, we all know that if the Anaheim Ducks wind up winning Game 4, it will probably due to the efforts of some Jakob Silfverberg, Ryan Kesler, Andrew Cogliano, Rickard Rakell,etc. Dustin Byfuglien and Adam Pardy are going to be hammering and harassing Getzlaf and Perry all night long, just as they did in Game 3, so it’s going to be up to Anaheim’s second and third shifts to score at least two goals if the Ducks want to skate out of the MTS Centre tonight, knowing that they will not have to play there again until next season.
Silfverberg, Cogliano and Kesler were huge in Game 3 – can they continue to befuddle the Jets? Or will someone else have to play hero tonight?
Game time: 9:30/6:30 p. Follow me on Twitter @pucksofafeather – I’ll try to entertain and enlighten ya! Lets go Ducks!