1. The Ducks are done, but boy, these guys didn't go down without a fight. I didn't expect anything less from a team led by such accomplished players as Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and Teemu Selanne. Those are three names you will someday see in the Hall of Fame. For my money, Niedermayer might be the best defenseman I've ever seen. I don't know if he's going to retire, but I hope he sticks around.
At the start of the second round, I figured the Ducks were the second-best team. In the conference semifinals, they had the misfortune of playing the No. 1 team on my list. Still, they took it right to the end. In Game 7, on the road, they had their chances (two 5-on-3 man advantages) and some good luck (where the heck did that broken stick come from?). Still, somehow, the Wings found a way to win. That's what great teams do.
There was a lot of hype around the Caps-Pens series, and deservedly so. The Sidney Crosby-Alex Ovechkin showdown was something special. But the matchup between the Ducks and Wings provided some of the best, toughest, most competitive hockey you'll ever see. In the end, it was decided by one puck squeaking over the goal line. That's about as much distance as there was between the teams in the series.
2. An interesting stat: The Ducks were outshot in each of their 13 postseason games. If you wish, you can be fooled by that. If you watched their games against the Sharks and Wings, you likely noticed many of those shots came from the perimeter. The Ducks' D did a terrific job, for the most part, of keeping opponents to the outside. Yeah, they occasionally surrendered good chances and rebound opportunities. But more often than not, the Sharks and Wings were reduced to firing shots from the perimeter. Young goalie Jonas Hiller did a great job making the first save.
The 27-year-old Swiss-born netminder seems to have a promising future. GM Bob Murray will likely give some consideration to his goaltending situation in the offseason. Hiller is due to earn $1.3 million in the final year of his deal. Veteran Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who made just one mop-up appearance in the postseason, has two years and $13 million remaining on his contract, which accounts for $6 million against the cap.
At the other end, Wings goalie Chris Osgood gave his team enough big saves to win. He made a particularly timely stop on a James Wisniewski chance from the lower right-wing circle at the 4:40 mark of the first period. Wisniewski had moved down from his right-point position, shook free of his check (Dan Cleary) and seemed primed to give the Ducks an early lead. Osgood would have none of it, though. The poised veteran goalie quickly slid from right to left and smothered the shot. After a long regular season -- and another year of dealing with doubters -- Ozzie again has found his way in the spring.
Here's some news for all you Osgood doubters: With each playoff win, he gets another step closer to the Hall of Fame. Some might say the easygoing netminder doesn't belong, but his numbers are writing a different story. For now, I imagine, he'll worry about beating Chicago.
3. In the playoffs, you really learn about players. You learn about good players and you learn about great players. "In the playoffs, there's nowhere to hide out there," said Wings coach Mike Babcock in his post-Game 7 news conference. As usual, he's bang on.
I bring that up because I thought I learned a little more about Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara in this playoff spring. Chara is a big and gifted defenseman. He's very good. But, for me, he's not in the same class as a Nicklas Lidstrom, Niedermayer or Pronger. Hey, then again, how many guys are?
In the Bruins' conference semifinal series against the Canes, there were moments when his team really needed him to step forward. I don't think he did that enough to be considered among those very elite guys. I think if Chara had been better, the Bruins might have been able to find a way to move past the never-(ever!)-say-die Hurricanes. I'm not putting the series loss on his back. I just think he could have been more of a difference-maker for his team during the course of these seven games. Fair or not, a player like Chara -- who's paid like he is -- is held to a higher standard.
4. With the big markets and big stars in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Hurricanes have advanced way under the radar. While sensational center Eric Staal and clutch stopper Cam Ward have gotten some of their due, I wanted to give a shout-out to defensemen Dennis Seidenberg and Joni Pitkanen.
In Game 7, the former Flyers draft picks really came to play, as they've done for each of the club's two series. On the night, Seidenberg finished with two assists, five hits, six blocked shots and a plus-2 rating in 30 minutes, 32 seconds. That's a full night, eh? Pitkanen, meanwhile, contributed with a pair of assists, six shots and a plus-2 rating in a game-high 35:33.
Pitkanen, who was run out of both Philadelphia and Edmonton, seems to have found his way in Carolina. The fourth overall pick in the 2002 draft, Pitkanen was thought to be a little flaky or a bit of a noncompetitor by management groups in both stops. Maybe he just needed to mature.
If you watch him now at age 25, you'll see a different player. He was a vital cog in both series victories. Against Pittsburgh, he and his partner, Seidenberg, will have their hands full dealing with either Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. I get the feeling they're excited about the challenge.
5. I'm not really digging the schedule for the conference finals. In each series, there will be three two-day breaks between games. I would imagine this is being done to accommodate television schedules. It might be good for TV, but I think each series will lose some momentum because of the extra time off. And I'm pretty sure the players and coaches aren't too excited about killing that extra downtime between games.
Finally, the old-schoolers must have been thrilled with the overtime officiating from Dave Jackson and Kevin Pollack during the B's-Canes Game 7. It was pretty clear they weren't going to call anything in extra time. There were probably a dozen or more fouls that could have been called. It made for an exciting finish, but it was a long way from the standard the league has been trying to uphold during the season.