Duck Season

The Anaheim Ducks have taken the Mighty out of their name, but yesterday, they were definitely, Mighty Ducks

The game started out great for the Ducks as they had 3 early power plays, and they scored on 1 to get a lead. Rob Neidermayer then scored on a beautiful rush to give the Ducks a 2-goal lead. After a period of the teams exchanging goals, the Ducks put the nail in the coffin scoring 2 goals to get a 4-goal lead. The Ducks held on for the rest of the game. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks are the 2007 Stanley Cup Champions.

For the first time, the Stanley Cup can enjoy an NHL western home, and the Ducks' victory came at the expense of Canada. The cherished trophy was born in Ottawa, but no team north of the border has won it since Montreal in 1993.

"Canada loves their hockey, and from what I heard out there, we have quite a few fans who love their hockey out here, too," said captain Scott Niedermayer, a four-time champion from British Columbia and this year's Conn Smythe Trophy winner.

When Scott Neidermayer raised the cup in front of the home crowd, the 1st person he gave it to was his brother, Rob. In 2003, it was much different, as the only things the brothers exchanged were handshakes, as Scott prevailed with the Ducks.

"I don't think I'll ever have a better feeling than that in my career," Rob said. "When he came here, I know he turned down a lot from New Jersey and he had a lot of fond memories there.

"I never touched it when he won. He's won so much, but he's never been a guy whose ever rubbed it in a guy's face. He's been rooting for me my whole career, and I'm just lucky to have him as a brother."

Teemu Selanne, who started his NHL career 15 years ago finally raised the cup over his head. "I was just like, 'I couldn't believe it, it's going to happen,"' Selanne said. "So much hard work, so many years to dream about that moment.

Possibly the player who has gone through the most adversity this year to win the cup was Chris Pronger. Even in this game, he played with a separated shoulder. "I just kind of got hit awkwardly there and went into the boards funny and separated it," Pronger told TSN.

He played the rest of the game, following a brief absence, before returning.

"I was going to be on the ice, no question," he said.

The "choke label" may be put on the Ottawa Senators again. They did get to the final, but didn't play like they did in their 1st 3 series and lost in 5 games. "They had more depth than us in this series," Alfredsson said. "We didn't play our best. We tried to come back in the second period, but that didn't last. It seemed like they were better than us."

Congratulations to the 2007 Anaheim Ducks

Game 1

82 games. 15+ playoff games, and now, it all comes down to this series. The Stanley Cup Finals. The Senators and Ducks were playing in game 1 yesterday.

The Sens started out great getting the 1st goal 1:38 into the 1st. But Andy McDonald tied up the game about 10 minutes later off an amazing shot to the top-corner. The 1st period ended with the game tied 1-1. The only goal of the 2nd was scored by Wade Redden off a bad giveaway. But in the 3rd, the Ducks made a comeback. 1st, Ryan Getzlaf scored on a backhand to tie it up. And then, with 3 minutes left in the game, Travis Moen scored to give the Ducks the lead. Ottawa wouldn't come back from that as the Ducks took game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The key to this game was obviously hitting. The Ducks gave Ottawa a pounding anytime they could. Another key to this game was the shots. Anaheim fired 32 shots at Emery, while Ottawa only got 20.

If Ottawa is going to win this series, they are going to have to get tougher. They can't get pushed around all the time and not fight back. And if they can't do that, than Anaheim will sweep this series.

Tonight May BeThe Night

The Ottawa Senators have had the best post-season in their franchise's history. If they win to night, they can extend that post-season to the Finals.

Right now, the Sens are up an amazing 3-0 against the Sabres. All they things Ottawa was in past playoffs, Buffalo is now. And everything Buffalo was in the regular season, Ottawa is now.

The biggest reason for this is Daniel Alfredsson. After being the goat in earlier playoff and earlier this season when the Sens were struggling, he is now the hero in Canada's capital. Alfredsson is the league leader in goals and 4th in points in the playoffs and that can all be credited to one thing. His short hair.

In past years with his long hair, he was, well horrible. But now with about 10 pounds of weight off his head, he is getting to pucks faster and scoring more goals.

But there is actually a real reason he is doing good. That reason is his line. Late in the regular season, Bryan Murray put Dany Heatley, Alfresson and Spezza together for more offence. There was a question whether Murray would keep them together during the playoffs. He did, and it's paying dividends.

Tonight, the line of Alfredsson, Heatley and Spezza can book Ottawa's trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Stanley Cup In European Hands?

Never. Never has a European player raised the Stanley Cup as a captain. But this year, 2 players have the chance to do just that.

For many years, the Detroit Red Wings have been a great team, and won 3 Stanley Cups while being captained by Steve Yzerman. But now that he is retired, Nicklas Lidstrom is now the captain of the Wings. His team is now in the middle of a Western Conference series against the Anaheim Ducks. If the Red Wings win the series, they will move on to the Stanley Cup Finals were they are historically very good closing out the playoffs.

The other player is Daniel Alfredsson, who is the captain of the Ottawa Senators. After years of criticism for not performing in the playoffs and multiple team failures, he and the team is finally looking like a team that can win the cup. After winning game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Buffalo 5-2 and having Alfredsson scoring a goal, it looks like this may be the year that the Sens go all the way.