Sweeping across the Pond

What an amazing -- and gratifying -- sight to see. All of those white

uniforms swarming the bench, jumping on Steve Rucchin and

Jean-Sebastien Giguere and celebrating the improbable -- a Mighty

Ducks sweep of defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings.

To use an overused cliche, “What a long, strange road it has

been.” But I have to say that every step seems worth it with that win

on Wednesday night.

My biggest congratulations have to go to Rucchin. Nobody deserves

to have scored the game-winning goal last night more than Stevie.

After all of the ups and downs that he has gone through, it is a

great thing for him to finally be healthy and playing his game.

The Ducks might have started out slowly on Wednesday, looking

tentative in the first period and letting Detroit dictate the tempo

of the game, but something Mike Babcock said in the locker room

between periods must have hit home. They came out a different team in

the second period, creating plays and making passes. They used the

entire ice surface and started to play their game. The goal by Henrik

Zetterberg slowed the Ducks progress, but I loved the way that they

fought back and stayed in the game.

Adam Oates has been an excellent addition to the Ducks lineup this

year because of his creative play making and the way that he sees the

ice. Bryan Murray has been given a huge amount of credit for this

acquisition during the off-season, and I have to add to it. Oates’

set-up of Paul Kariya to tie the game at 1-1 was a perfect play, and

Kariya truly took advantage of the situation by blasting the shot

past Curtis Joseph.

Once the Ducks tied the game up, they went into overdrive. Those

guys were all over the ice, taking the body, creating plays, forcing

Detroit to make turnovers and keeping them off of the puck. That is

the kind of hockey that you need to play in the playoffs, and the

Ducks finally came through in the clutch.

The Ducks really seemed to be dictating the tempo of the game and

were able to take advantage of that with their second goal. I was

glad to see Jason Krog score his second goal of the playoffs, and it

was a beautiful one. Beating Curtis Joseph far side the way he did

was picture-perfect. Jason Krog has really come a long way this year

and worked hard enough to deserve that goal.

The second goal that Detroit scored was pure Federov, with an

unlucky bounce added in for good measure. The team kept its focus and

played out the remaining two-plus minutes, then headed into overtime

ready to play all-out.

When those guys took the ice for OT, it was so great to see the

reaction of the crowd at the Pond. Everyone was on their feet with

the fowl towels, and the cheers were so loud that the place was

practically shaking. So often this team has been overlooked and taken

lightly. It happened slowly over the years while I was still there,

as we could never quite produce on the ice, and the fans started to

lose faith. This year has seen a huge difference from the past few,

and I’m glad to see that Orange County has come out in full support

of the team.

Watching Rucchin score that OT goal was great. Right place, right

time, right player. As I said earlier -- nobody deserves it more. I

was just hoping that no one got hurt in the victory celebration.

I can’t say enough about the outstanding play of Giguere in this

series. The kid has been amazing between the pipes and just doesn’t

seem fazed by anything. He really stayed focused, played his game and

kept giving his team a reason to want to score.

In only his third full season in the NHL, J-S has put together one

of the best years I have ever seen. I was sorry to see so many of my

records broken this year, but I’m glad that he was the one breaking

them. Eight shutouts in one season and 237 minutes of shutout hockey

are amazing marks. I wish that I could have hit them in my playing

career.

Now the guys have a bit of a break ahead of them. Plenty of time

to rest and refocus for round two. I’m looking forward to the next

round of the playoffs and plan to be there every step of the way,

cheering these guys on. I hope that you will, too.