Battered Ducks have time to heal

Nasty series leaves winners black and blue

By: Ed Tait Posted: 12:27 AM CDT Thursday, Apr. 23, 2015

It takes 16 victories to capture the Stanley Cup, the toughest trophy to win in all of sports.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.

It takes 16 victories to capture the Stanley Cup, the toughest trophy to win in all of sports.

Read unlimited articles for free today:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/04/2015 (3793 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It takes 16 victories to capture the Stanley Cup, the toughest trophy to win in all of sports.

The Anaheim Ducks are one quarter of the way to their goal — everyone’s goal in the National Hockey League — and they’ve got the aches and pains to show for it, even after sweeping the Winnipeg Jets in four straight.

But the sweep will allow the Ducks to get on the training table and rest some weary bones prior to the start of their second round, against the Calgary Flames or Vancouver Canucks.

John Woods / The Canadian Press
Winnipeg Jets' Mark Stuart (5) hits Anaheim Ducks' Ryan Getzlaf (15) during first period. — John Woods / The Canadian Press Winnipeg Jets' Mark Stuart (5) hits Anaheim Ducks' Ryan Getzlaf (15) during first period.

And they’ll need it after wrapping up a violent series against the Jets.

“Coaches, when they’re looking, go ‘Who do you not want to play?’ ” said Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau. “They never want to admit it, but Winnipeg was the one team that was coming in with the hardest schedule coming down the stretch and they kept beating all these good teams. You knew it was going to be a real battle. I never expected it to be 4-0, quite frankly, in my wildest dreams. I thought it was a minimum six or seven-game playoff series.

“We’ve got some guys on the injured list that will probably be close to healthy by the time the next series starts. The physicality of this series… we’ve got a lot of guys with bumps and bruises and pains that, when it comes playoff time, they play where if it was the regular season they wouldn’t play.”

The Ducks got big-time production from their big-time stars in this series — Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry — but it was the deal GM Bob Murray made in the off-season to land Ryan Kesler that was critical in the first round. Kesler scored twice in Wednesday’s clincher and finished the series with five points in four games.

He also heard it from the warm-up to the final horn from Jets fans in Games 3 and 4.

“Amazing, especially when they’re heckling me,” said Kesler. “Obviously, we wanted to silence the crowd tonight and that’s what we did. It energizes me. You hear it, it’s great. Obviously, I’m doing something good out there. I fed off it and it helped my game.

“Good teams, they have to get scoring not just from their top line, but from all four lines and we did tonight. We’re going to need that the rest of the way. You can relish it tonight, but it’s one series. We didn’t come here to win one series. We came here for the whole thing.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait