Pick Cup lines

Ducks' Giguere stands a series away from Conn Smythe

As the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Mighty Ducks prepared for their Stanley Cup finals series, set to begin May 27, SI.com spoke to Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber about which team he sees winning this unlikely matchup.

SI.com: We pick this story up after the Devils slipped away from Ottawa. How did New Jersey escape? And how will that help the Devils in the Cup finals, beyond the fact that they weren't eliminated?

Farber: New Jersey has escapability because of Martin Brodeur. He is going to keep the Devils in every game by making saves at the right time. In that way, Brodeur is the spiritual successor to Ken Dryden as a goalie who makes big saves at big times. Brodeur rarely has the best save percentage in the league, but few goalies have been as important to his team over such a long period as Brodeur has been to the Devils.

With regard to how this might help New Jersey, well, the Devils were tested and they passed. At some point, every Stanley Cup winner hits a bump in the road and negotiates it. It's not necessary for a team to face those bumps, and no one in his right mind wants to play a Game 7 or play any extra hockey, so you don't go looking for them, you just negotiate them as they occur.

SI.com: Who is it again representing the Western Conference? It’s been so long. How will the layoff affect the Mighty Ducks?

Farber: Let's remember that they didn't get worse. The Devils are not the best team Anaheim has faced in the playoffs. Detroit was a better team than New Jersey. Dallas was on par and probably more talented. New Jersey is only the second- or third-best team Anaheim has faced. And it does seems as if the Ducks haven't played since the Harding Administration. Maybe they're more rested, but they're not worse.

The eternal rest-vs.-rust argument bores me. Game 1s are rarely great. They're always overshadowed by what follows, so Game 1 is not a major deal. There's going to be a lot more happening in the series, and the opening game is just an hors d'oeuvre.

Though I do think it's important for the Devils that they benefit from the extra day. Emotionally, it's very difficult to come back and start a new series in two days. Anaheim was greatly aided by Minnesota's having to play 36 hours after eliminating Vancouver. Anaheim, which didn't seem to play well with rest that time, survived a double-OT in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, and the Wild never got into the series.

SI.com: What do you find compelling about this meeting? It’s not as if there is a great contrast of styles.

Farber: These teams are as close to mirror images as you're likely to find. I liken it to two boxers, both of whom are counter-punchers looking for mistakes, but two teams that don't make many mistakes.

It's not a particularly scintillating matchup going in, but the drama inherent in the Stanley Cup is always something of value. This is not a Tuesday night in November in Nashville. It's the Stanley Cup, and that is inherently dramatic.

SI.com: Does that extra weight favor one team over the other?

Farber: New Jersey has more experience, clearly, and can use that in situations, just as we saw in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Devils also have one of the outstanding leaders of his generation in captain Scott Stevens, whose evolution from young hothead at the start of his career to tough, poised veteran has been one of the great undertold stories in hockey over the past 15 years.

Stevens is still a menace, but he's reined in that raw anger that once marked his game. He's still a lethal hitter, but there's a calculation to his game. As Pat Burns said, Stevens is the glue that holds that team together. There is no defenseman who has been that relentlessly physical at a similar age; in his own way, he's every bit as effective as Ray Bourque was during his days in Colorado.

SI.com: Can that sometimes-nasty game lead to something more important in this series, playing to the notion that the Ducks can be pushed around?

Farber: The answer is yes. In fact, Dallas in Game 5 of its series provided a blueprint to beating the Ducks, but no one else has been able to duplicate it. The blueprint is to run 'em. Forecheck hard. Get in Jean-Sebastien Giguere's kitchen. And muss up the Ducks a little bit. In that game, the Ducks looked terrible and Giguere was yanked after two periods.

The Ducks are not an overly physical, overly emotional team. They don't do rockhead kinds of things. They don't lull you to sleep, but it is a tough team to work up a hatred for. Head coach Mike Babcock is an emotional guy, but the team is even keeled. The problem is that the Devils will hit you, and they have two very physical defensemen in Stevens and Colin White, but the scheme is not to send two guys in on the forecheck. They'll send one in, but it's not a team that forechecks wildly. We'll have to see how aggressive they do forecheck. Anaheim's defense is solid, and you don't hear a lot about Keith Carney, Niclas Havelid and Ruslan Salei, but even solid players make mistakes under an intense forecheck.

SI.com: It's almost amazing that we'd be talking about the Mighty Ducks and get to the names Keith Carney and Ruslan Salei before Paul Kariya. What has his role in Anaheim become?

Farber: Kariya is not the picture now. He's part of it, but not the whole thing, though he does represent almost a quarter of the payroll. Any comparisons to Steve Yzerman are way overblown. Kariya is a better two-way player, but he's not about to win a Selke Trophy. Some of the talk is rationalization for the fact that he scored only 25 goals when his talents suggest something like 40. Though he has worked exceedingly well with Adam Oates and Petr Sykora.

SI.com: Does either team have a decided edge in talent? Or is playoff grit more important to the series?

Farber: Right now I think there's more high-end forward talent on the Ducks. Kayria and Sykora are the two most skilled scorers in the series, which we might not be saying if Patrik Elias would heat up. Oates had a miserable beginning to his season but is still a very effective contributor. These guys have high-end skill.

Both penalty-killing units are very good, and both struggle on the power play, which means each team will have to find a way to make something out of five-on-five situations.

People talk about the grit of New Jersey, but name a grittier player than Steve Rucchin, a shutdown center who works very hard and has been very effective. Put him on a line with Rob Niedermayer, who returned from the dead, or worse, Calgary. He's not going to score a lot of goals, but if you're looking for a player to contribute, watch Rob Niedermayer.

SI.com: Which is the more important Niedermayer in the series?

Farber: I think New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer is more important. The Devils aren't blessed with a plethora of natural goal scorers, with the exception of Elias. They need help from the back end, and the key is Niedermayer, who is the best skater in the game, certainly the prettiest. Niedermayer needs to help create offense from the back because this is a team that can stop scoring in a heartbeat.

SI.com: What will Anaheim do well to frustrate the Devils?

Farber: The Ducks get in shooting lanes; they'll block a ton of shots, and they're willing to sacrifice their bodies to do so. Some of that is coaching and some is the willingness to do it. You see everybody collapsing around Giguere, almost forming a moat around him to help him clear rebounds. And Giguere has been coached to not automatically direct everything to the side, and he'll often direct rebounds back to the slot, where he might have four guys instead of one.

SI.com: We're going to hear a lot about this being a battle of French-Canadian goaltenders. How do you characterize the goaltender matchup in this series?

Farber: Everyone has seized on the idea of two Francophone goaltenders, but there would have been a much greater similarity if Ottawa had advanced. Essentially, Giguere is playing the classic Quebec butterfly style -- percentages, angles, dropping down. Brodeur stands up far longer. His style is almost more that of a goalie from the '80s, although his puckhandling is far beyond what even Ron Hextall and Tom Barrasso were doing. Many will talk about the comparisons, but to me the contrasts are far more interesting. The similarities are birth and language. The contrasts are far more revealing.

SI.com: Whom do you like to win the Conn Smythe Trophy? Any chance, if the Ducks lose, we see the first recipient from a runner-up since Hextall?

Farber: If a goalie doesn't win it, I'll be shocked. But it doesn't necessarily have to be Giguere. Brodeur is right there with him. Giguere had a tougher road, but unless he picks up three shutouts and loses four one-goal games in OT, Brodeur is certainly there.

SI.com: If you had to make a prediction, whom do you like to win the Cup?

Farber: Anaheim. New Jersey should be favored, with its experience. Each team carries players with similar speed, and their goaltenders are similar. The Devils have proven to be resourceful and they have home ice. And, historically, midnight for the Cinderella team usually strikes in the finals. But I think that in terms of raw talent, this might be the least talented of the New Jersey teams to play in the Cup finals. Anaheim has proven itself equal to or better than the Devils' opponents and has been hardened by playing in the tougher Western Conference. So while the Devils probably deserve to be favored, the Ducks are an admirable, if lesser known, team.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Michael Farber covers the NHL for the magazine and is a regular contributor to SI.com.

 

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