Three Things the Anaheim Ducks Must Fix For Round Two

Sweeping the Jets was great, but here are the chinks in the armor that need a little Duck tape!

Here’s a fun fact I read the other day:

The fact that only 13% of the people who selected the Anaheim Ducks had enough faith in the team to pick it to sweep the Jets neither bothers me nor surprises me – we’re talking about the Ducks here, and beside, the Jets were a really tough first-round opponent.

Hell, I put up a poll the day before Game 4, and even knowing that the Ducks were already up 3-0, I still voted that the series would go five games.

I’m just excited that 78% – over 624,000 people – didn’t commit to the trendy upset pick and instead chose the Ducks to move onto the second round.  That doesn’t mean, however, that the Ducks will be bullet-proof against their Western Conference Round Two opponent, the Calgary Flames.  It might be tempting to say that the Jets posed the biggest threat to the Ducks outside of the boys from Chicago, and while that may be true, Calgary has the tools to pull off an upset IF the following three areas of concern are not fixed, soon.

Playing with a Lead

I’m torn here – Calgary won 10 games this season in which they trailed after two periods.  And we all know about Anaheim’s knack for late-game heroics: the Ducks set an NHL record by winning 18 games during the regular season in which they trailed at some point during the third period, and they blitzed the Winnipeg Jets for three-straight third period comebacks in round one.

The problem with playing with a lead is that some teams abandon their schemes and begin to play cautious when they have a lead; they nurse it, and allow the other team to take it to them.  The question of, “What would we rather see: the Ducks playing not to lose, or the Ducks playing to win?” has to be asked, then – but just because a team has a lead, doesn’t mean it has to play not to lose.

The Ducks went 30-0-2 during the regular season when they opened the third period with a lead.  If you think the odds of winning are better for the Ducks when they are playing from behind, your math scares me.  Playing with fire makes for good drama, but the deeper they go into the playoffs, the Ducks are going to need to get used to being on top, I mean playing with a lead!

Ryan Getzlaf‘s head

Shortly after the Ducks completed their sweep of the Jets, I was reading an article that basically said that the Jets were unable to contain Ryan Getzlaf.  The author’s proof was the four points Getzlaf scored in the series, and he went on to conclude that any team who allows Anaheim’s captain to score that many points in a series was going to hard-pressed to beat the Ducks.

Uh, did the author of that piece even WATCH the Ducks – Jets series?!?

Yep, Getzlaf had four points in the series – which isn’t exactly a ton, by the way – all of which came in Games 1 (3 pts.) and 2 (1 pt.).   On the road, in Winnipeg, the definition of “hostile territory” the Captain had zero points.  Obviously, he had a gigantic target on his back the entire series, but so did Corey Perry, and he had seven points.   Getzlaf didn’t look quite like himself during the last two games of the first round, so I hope he snaps out of his funk.

The good news?  Getzlaf (along with Kyle Palmieri) led all Ducks in scoring against the Calgary Flames during the regular season:

I expect this series to be a case of feast, not famine, for the Captain.

 Special Teams

The Ducks currently have one of the best power plays (27.3%) and penalty kills (84.6%) in the playoffs (stats courtesy of NHL.com).  That’s a great start – but during the regular season, Anaheim’s success rate on the power play was 15.7%, which was good for 28th in the league.

Things were slightly better for the Ducks when it came to killing off penalties – 81%, smack dab in the middle of the NHL.  Overall, though, the Ducks allowed more power play goals (52) than it scored (37) over the course of 82 games.  Compare that to the Flames, who scored 48 goals when they had a man advantage, versus only 36 allowed.

Goals are slightly more difficult to come by the deeper you get into the playoffs, so the Ducks are going to need to win the special teams battle against a Flames team whose confidence is growing in leaps and bounds this post season.

I like Anaheim’s odds of wining their second round series against the Flames, as this is another case of talents and experience trumping talent and youthful ignorance.  Still, if the Ducks revert back to their old ways on special teams, the Flames will have a distinct edge over our boys.

Next: Three Players to Watch on the Calgary Flames