Do The Anaheim Ducks Possess a Killer’s Instinct? We’ll Find Out in Game 6!
Slow starts and long stretches of soft play have made life tougher than it has to be for the Anaheim Ducks. Will they put together a hardcore 60 minutes tonight?
When is 21 greater than 40?
Just ask the Anaheim Ducks, who won Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals 5-4 despite only playing 21 good minutes of hockey, as opposed to the 40 minutes the Chicago Blackhawks put in.
When will 21 NOT be greater than 40?
Tonight, as Game 6 of the WCF heads to the United Center. The Blackhawks are on the ropes, are angry about losing Game 5, and are determined to add to their legacy as a team that just won’t go away.
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The Ducks, on the other hand, head into tonight’s game one win away from heading to the Stanley Cup Finals. Everyone who follows sports knows that the toughest game to win is the close-out game – back an opponent into a corner, and watch him scratch and claw and do whatever it takes to stay alive – so Anaheim must out strong and play merciless, go-for-the-throat hockey.
Going for the throat? Easily said, but not so easily done for the Ducks. Anaheim absolutely had the Blackhawks on their backs, ready for the killing blow Monday night, when the Ducks scored three goals in the first period and only allowed shots by the ‘Hawks.
Instead of keeping their foots on the throats of the Blackhawks, however, the Ducks relented, playing to not lose, instead of to win. The result was a too-close-for-comfort 5-4 victory that required overtime, when in reality the game should have been a rout that was over by the start of the third period.
Granted, goaltender Frederik Andersen was THE biggest reason that Chicago had life in Game 5. Freddie picked a terrible night to, ah, suck, gifting three goals to the Blackhawks and allowing them to brag about how they never quit, even though a few routine saves would have allowed Anaheim to win convincingly.
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Still, the blame cannot be laid entirely at the feet of Andersen. When a team is as tired and physically sore as the Blackhawks must be, you don’t lay off – you crank up the pressure and pound them into submission. In a way, Chicago did the Ducks a favor by expending so much energy during its comeback Monday evening, but I cannot say that I saw a potential Stanley Cup Champion wearing black and orange during the second and third period of Game 5.
The United Center will be hostile. The Chicago Blackhawks will be angry and desperate. if the Anaheim Ducks want to win Game 6 and play for the right to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup, they are going to need to show us something we have only seen brief glimpses of: a ruthless, cold-blooded, killer instinct.
The time is now: Let’s Go Ducks!
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