2007 Stanley Cup Finals Game 1 Review

Posted on Thu May 31, 2007 at 10:21:32 AM EST in NHL
More on: Stanley Cup Finals, Ducks, Senators, NHL (all tags)

Ducks 1, Senators 0 To be perfectly honest, I didn't actually watch this game, because I was at a coffee bar in Hartford, CT trying to pick up some foxy ladies. It's a good thing, too - not that I failed miserably in trying to get girls (that's bad), but that I didn't watch it - because me, not being a hockey purist, probably wouldn't have appreciated this see-saw battle.

The only goal came from Samuel Pahlsson, interesting in the sense that Sami's main role in this series was supposed to be checking the hell out of good, scoring-centric Sens players. Now, for two consecutive games - that being 1 and 2, for those of you in the know - an Anaheim player mostly responsible for checking (Travis Moen in Game 1) has scored the essential goal for the Ducks, in the process giving them a 2-0 advantage and helping them to retain home ice advantage.

As we said earlier, no Canadian team has actually hoisted Lord Stanley's chalice since 1992, when the Montreal Canadiens did it. That's 15 years, which seems like an egregiously long period of time considering that Canada is probably the No. 1 thing you associate with hockey, at least in a geographic sense. For the Sens to make this interesting, here's what has to happen:

1. Emery has to enter complete lockdown mode, like Giguere was in last night. No mental mistakes.
2. Their first line - Heatley, Alfredsson, and Spezza - has to start lighting the red light frequently.
3. They have to take the Ducks checking lines and let them hit 'em, but don't let those guys get open looks at the net.
4. They have to somehow imagine the Ducks are, in fact, the Buffalo Sabres.

Brett Hull predicted this series would be over in five games. One win in Ottawa, and I'll go with him. Every Cup Finals since '01 with just one exception has gone seven games. I'd love to see this one join it, so long as we can get a few 5-4, 2OT finals in there as well.

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