Anaheim Ducks

The Toronto Maple Leafs traded goaltender Jonathan Bernier to the Anaheim Ducks on Friday in exchange for a draft pick. 

Toronto confirmed the deal on its official site. The team announced it will receive a conditional pick in the 2017 NHL draft in return.

Chris Johnston of Sportnet provided some details about the netminder's contract as he heads west:

The #leafs paid Jonathan Bernier a $2M signing bonus on July 1, so the #ducks are only on the hook for $2.15M in actual salary this season.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 8, 2016

It's the second trade between the teams involving a goalie this offseason. The Leafs acquired Frederik Andersen from Anaheim last month in exchange for a pair of draft picks. His arrival and the presence of Garret Sparks made Bernier available.

The 27-year-old veteran is coming off a lackluster season in Toronto. He went 12-21-3 with a 2.88 goals-against average and .908 save percentage across 38 games.

Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com spoke with the 2006 first-round pick after the Leafs traded for Andersen, and he admitted the move didn't come as a shock given his level of play.

"You know what, I'll be honest, I wasn't surprised on the trade to get another goalie," Bernier said. "I was expecting it obviously with the season I had last year. I'm sure I put some doubts in a lot of people's minds. That's the business, right?"

When asked about possibly getting moved, he told LeBrun: "At this point now I'm just focusing on myself and making sure I'm ready for training camp. Right now I'm under contract with the Leafs, and that's where my head is. If things change, well, that’s out of my reach."

He should receive a pretty defined role with the Ducks. John Gibson is the unquestioned No. 1 option heading into the season, but Anaheim is focused on keeping him fresh. General manager Bob Murray discussed the plan after the Andersen trade, per Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register.

"We don't want to overplay John yet," Murray said. "(The backup will) have to be able to play 25 to 30 games. Character and hard-working type of guy. There are a few of them out there."

It's a little less work than Bernier received in Toronto last season, but the schedule should be more clear after dealing with the uncertainty that surrounded the goaltending rotation with the rebuilding Leafs. He'll likely receive much of his work in back-to-back situations.

   

The Anaheim Ducks fired head coach Bruce Boudreau on Friday, two days after the Nashville Predators eliminated the Ducks in the first round of the NHL playoffs.

Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register passed along the news. Curtis Zupke of the Los Angeles Times provided a statement from general manager Bob Murray: "This was a very difficult decision to make. Bruce is a good coach and character person and we wish him the best of luck in the future."

Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.com added some insight into the next step for Anaheim:

My guess is GM Bob Murray will take his time hiring coach. Look at all options, both internal/external. Huge hire. Ducks in win-now mode.

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) April 29, 2016

Boudreau joined the Ducks around a quarter of the way through the 2011-12 campaign. The Washington Capitals fired him amid a sluggish stretch, and Anaheim wasted no time pursuing him, reaching an agreement just two days later.

He finishes his time with the organization sporting a 208-104-40 record across five years at the helm. The Ducks qualified for the postseason in each of his final four seasons behind the bench, but an appearance in the Western Conference Final last season marked their best playoff showing.

Anaheim got off to a miserable start to the 2015-16 season due to almost nonexistent offensive production for the first couple of months, but Boudreau orchestrated a major turnaround during the second half, leading the team to a Pacific Division title.

He explained to Corey Masisak of Sporting News that a more complete effort was key: "It is a weird thing. You can call it what you want, but when I'm talking to my wife it seems like a neat situation. I think the players play hard for me, and that's what it shows in the results."

However, the tremendous finish to the season may have played a role in his downfall. Expectations were high heading into the playoffs, which led to even more disappointment when the Ducks were sent packing in Round 1.

Boudreau has put together an impressive resume during his time with the Capitals and Ducks. His overall points percentage (.659) ranks second all-time among coaches of at least 100 games, slightly ahead of the legendary Scotty Bowman, per Hockey-Reference.

The lack of a Stanley Cup triumph while coaching two championship contenders is a glaring void, but Boudreau should get another chance elsewhere, even if it doesn't come as quickly as his last job switch.

The Nashville Predators will be playing their first-ever Game 7 on Wednesday when they visit the Anaheim Ducks, who have melted under pressure like this before.

Still, the Ducks are consensus -160 betting favorites (bet $160 to win $100) at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark despite losing a Game 7 at home in each of the last three postseasons.

Last year, Anaheim fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 in Game 7 of the Western Conference Final after leading that series 3-2. The Ducks find themselves in a similar position this time around, although they lost the first two games at home to Nashville before winning three straight.

The Predators won Game 6 by a score of 3-1 on Monday to send the series back to the Honda Center and pay off on the betting lines at the sportsbooks.

Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne made 26 saves at home to help his team avoid elimination and will try to play like he did in the first two games at Anaheim when he stopped 27 of 29 shots in each 3-2 win.

The third game there saw the Ducks win 5-2—one of three consecutive they won by exactly three goals in the series to take a brief lead. Frederik Andersen has taken over in net for Anaheim the last four games after John Gibson took losses in the first two.

Andersen lost Game 7 to the Blackhawks last May 30 and also did not perform as well as Gibson this past regular season.

For the Ducks to exorcise their Game 7 demons, Andersen must come through or risk getting an early hook, plus top scorers Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry cannot disappear in the spotlight again. Getzlaf leads the team with five points in the series on two goals and three assists, while Perry has just four assists after tallying a team-high 34 goals during the regular season.

The Predators are counting on a balanced scoring attack to continue to produce, as three players have two goals, and six others have scored once. Center Colin Wilson (one goal and three assists) and defenseman Shea Weber (two goals and two assists) lead Nashville so far with four points apiece.

DENVER — It would have been forgivable if the Anaheim Ducks' postgame scene after their first regulation loss in 15 games Wednesday night had gone something like this: "Hey boys, it was a real nice run. Can't win 'em all, and a night like this was bound to happen sooner or later. So let's just have a cold one and toast to the streak and get back at 'er tomorrow."

But that was nothing like how it actually went in the visitors' dressing room at the Pepsi Center, where the Colorado Avalanche had just shut out the Ducks 3-0. The reporters on hand came at Ducks players with those empathetic lines of questioning. But Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf would have none of it.

"We weren't prepared to play tonight. Simple as that," said Getzlaf, despite the Ducks outshooting Colorado 37-26 and winning 57 percent of the game's faceoffs. 

Another reporter asked if all the "battles" the team has been through of late, including a rough-and-tumble win over its Southern California rival, the Los Angeles Kings, on Saturday, might have been the reason for the off night.

"It's an excuse," Getzlaf said. "But we didn't show up to play."

It's been this kind of no-excuses atmosphere around the Ducks since Christmas, when, Getzlaf said, the team decided to get serious about commitment. While things are better for an Anaheim team that started the season 1-7-2, including four shutouts, Getzlaf sensed that just getting back to .500 was good enough. 

Getzlaf said a couple of team meetings took place right after the Christmas break where he, as captain, emphasized that anything less than full-tilt effort from there on out would not be acceptable in his dressing room.

"Coming out of the Christmas break, we decided to play like we can," said Getzlaf, who leads the Ducks in scoring with 10 goals and 42 assists. "A lot of guys stepped up their game individually, and as a group, we started connecting together, started playing the right way. [As captain], I'm going to take the criticism when it's there and the positives when they're there, and part of [the turnaround] was me doing my job. I had to be better as an individual, and a few [other] guys in here. We came back with that mentality that we weren't going to be stopped and were able to get things turned around and get ourselves back in the race here."

The 14-game point streak (12-0-2) included a franchise-record 11 straight wins from Feb. 13 through March 7. Former Hart Trophy winner Corey Perry, who went scoreless his first 11 games of the season, now has 28 goals through 66 games, which is just over one goal every two games on average since that streak.

Goaltender John Gibson took the loss in Denver, but entering the contest, he led all NHL rookie goalies in save percentage (.920) and shutouts (four). 

But perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Ducks' resurgence is that they've done it largely without Getzlaf and Perry playing on the same line. Since joining the Ducks together in 2005, Getzlaf and Perry went together like peanut butter and jelly, forming a dominant duo that regularly placed among the NHL's top-10 scorers. 

But after the Ducks acquired right wing David Perron from Pittsburgh on Jan. 16 in a deal that sent Carl Hagelin to the Penguins, Perron moved onto a line centered by Getzlaf. The two found instant chemistry, with Perron notching 19 points in his first 22 games as a Duck. Perry moved onto a line centered by 22-year-old Swede Rickard Rakell, and that has worked well for coach Bruce Boudreau. Rakell's ascension means Boudreau can utilize veteran center Ryan Kesler on a strong third line with Andrew Cogliano and Jakob Silfverberg, a line that excels at both ends of the ice.

Getzlaf and Perry are still on the ice together when the Ducks go on the power play, and they've shown the chemistry is still there, with Anaheim entering Thursday third in the league on the PP at 23.1 percent.

Boudreau, who reached 400 victories faster than any coach in NHL history (400-186-77) with the win over the Kings Saturday, said one thing he has learned from early in the season, when everything was going wrong, is not to be afraid to try new things. He could have stubbornly kept Getzlaf and Perry together, for instance, but indicated change was good for everyone.

"I think every year, you find different angles. You just [try] to get better as a coach all the time," Boudreau said. "Every year is a little bit different."

Like his captain, Boudreau wasn't in any mood to marvel at the 14-game point streak, which was the NHL's longest since Boston went 15-0-1 from March 2-30 in 2014. The scars from early in the season are still too fresh for any self-satisfaction to creep into the locker room.

"We got away from the way we've played. We gave up more odd-man rushes in a five-minute span than we have the last 15 games," Boudreau said. "It's no excuse. It's our job, every day, to come out and play the right way. You can't sit back and say, 'Well, we've won a lot and it was time; it was due.' Those things don't really enter into my thought process."

The Ducks' next game is Friday in St. Louis, a matchup of two of the league's hottest teams. The Ducks figure to be good and ready.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report

For the first half of the NHL season, the Anaheim Ducks were a shoo-in as the league’s most disappointing team. After pushing their way to the Western Conference Final a year ago, the Ducks floundered out of the gate, falling so far behind the rest of the league that even in the weak Pacific Division they still find themselves outside the playoff picture.

That poor performance has obscured an absolutely stunning performance from the team since November 1.

Month	October	November	December	January
Record	1-7-2	8-4-3	6-4-1	7-3-1
Goal Diff.	-17	3	-5	9
5v5 SA Fenwick	46.5% (27th)	54.5% (3rd)	57.0% (T-1st)	57.2% (1st)

The Ducks’ record and goal differential are self-explanatory, but it is the bottom row on the chart above that should be of particular interest.

Score-adjusted Fenwick, at least in my view, is the gold standard of shot metrics. It rewards teams for being good at blocking shots and getting their shots through, because it includes shots and missed shots but excludes blocked shots. It doesn’t penalize them for playing with the lead because it incorporates score effects (teams with the lead often see their share of shots fall; the reverse is true of teams trailing).

By that metric, the Ducks have authored a remarkable turnaround, going from being one of the worst teams in hockey to start the year to literally first place in the NHL over the last two months.

Shot metrics aren’t the be-all and end-all of hockey analysis, but spending as much time as possible in the opposition’s end of the rink is a very good place to start, and the Ducks have that down after struggling with it early. There are other good signs, too.

At its best, Anaheim has one of the top offensive duos in the league anchoring its top line. Corey Perry has a 50-goal season and a Hart Trophy under his belt, while Ryan Getzlaf was the runner-up for the award in 2013-14. Both were mired in a terrible funk to start the year, combining just four points in 18 games. Since the end of October, however, the two have rebounded significantly:

• Perry: 37 games, 20 goals, 10 assists, 30 points
• Getzlaf: 35 games, 3 goals, 27 assists, 30 points

Both Perry’s assist rate and Getzlaf’s goal rate are likely to improve dramatically if the latter can start finish some of his shots. He’s a career 12.0 percent shooter and is firing at just a 3.5 percent clip this season. His shot rates are down a bit, but we’d normally expect him to have 10 goals based on his shot totals and instead he’s stuck at just three.

The duo has been split up recently to give the Ducks more balanced scoring, and Anaheim is 3-0 with them on separate lines. That may not last, but in concert with the Ryan Kesler-Jakob Silfverberg pairing on the third line, it has given the Ducks the ability to create matchup problems for the opposition.

Newcomer David Perron helps, too. He’s been given a spot on the top line with Getzlaf and Chris Stewart and has picked up at least one point in each of the four games he’s played with Anaheim. The Ducks could still use an infusion of offence, but if Perron’s rejuvenation holds and Patrick Maroon and Andrew Cogliano (both well below their career shooting percentages this year) can start finishing their chances, the Ducks could be considerably better off up front.

The Ducks also have considerable strength on the back end, both defensively and in net.

On the blue line, the return of Simon Despres and the recent successful audition of rookie Shea Theodore (13 games, six points, 18:31 average ice time) give Anaheim almost unparalleled depth with eight legitimate top-six options.

Pending restricted free-agent Sami Vatanen is often seen as a logical trade target, but the Ducks’ real depth is on the left side, where between Despres, Theodore, Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm and Clayton Stoner, they have five good players.

John Gibson seems to have taken over the starting role in net, capitalizing on a bad couple of months from incumbent Frederik Andersen. Both players are plausible No. 1 goaltenders in the present. Andersen has a .917 save percentage on the season, while the 22-year-old Gibson has gone 11-7-2 with a .923 save percentage. The Ducks have tried to be patient with the latter, but he's forced his way up the depth chart far more quickly than could be reasonably expected. 

Just for good measure, the Ducks have veteran Anton Khudobin (seven games, 3-3-0, .908 save percentage) waiting in the wings.

At this point, the only thing separating the Ducks from being recognized as a contender is their poor start to the year and a lack of secondary scoring. This is a good puck possession team, a club with high-end talent at every position and a squad with significant depth in net and on the blue line.

It’s a legitimate contender, particularly if general manager Bob Murray is able to parlay some of his defensive depth into offensive skill at the trade deadline.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com, Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com, Puck On Net and NaturalStatTrick.com.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.

The National Hockey League suspended Anaheim Ducks center Shawn Horcoff for 20 games Tuesday after he violated the performance-enhancing substance program.  

Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register passed along the news. Frank Seravalli of TSN Sports noted the forward will lose more than $350,000 in salary as a result of the suspension.

Yahoo Sports provided the official league statement:

Here's the #NHL press release on Shawn Horcoff's 20-game suspension, which costs Ducks' forward $357,527 in salary pic.twitter.com/pkIqVEdLlI

— Yahoo Sports NHL (@YahooSportsNHL) January 26, 2016

Craig Custance of ESPN The Magazine reported no appeal is expected. He also relayed comments from Horcoff about the situation:

Horcoff's PED use came while recovering from injury: pic.twitter.com/09CimWJm6R

— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) January 26, 2016

Ducks general manager Bob Murray released a statement through the team's official site:

This morning we were made aware of the situation regarding Shawn Horcoff. The Anaheim Ducks organization fully supports the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. We will also continue to support Shawn as a player and person throughout this process. We will have no further comment at this time.

Horcoff, 37, is playing his first season in Anaheim. He spent the first 12 years of his career with the Edmonton Oilers before a two-year stint with the Dallas Stars.

The veteran forward has spent most of his time in the Ducks' bottom six. He's tallied 10 points (six goals and four assists) in 45 games while averaging just over 13 minutes and 30 seconds in ice time.

Although his overall role has been limited, his absence does create a void on the penalty kill. It could thrust Patrick Maroon and Nate Thompson into more special teams work for the time being.

If Horcoff does accept the punishment, as Custance reported, he'll be available to return March 11 when the Ducks face off with the St. Louis Blues.

The Anaheim Ducks announced the acquisition of Ryan Garbutt from the Chicago Blackhawks early Thursday in a trade for fellow winger Jiri Sekac.

Anaheim confirmed the agreement on its official site. 

The Hawks acquired Garbutt from the Dallas Stars in July as part of the Patrick Sharp trade. The 30-year-old left winger scored just six points and racked up a minus-seven rating in 43 games with the team before being dealt again.

He'd made a bigger offensive impact over the previous two seasons in Dallas, tallying 25 goals and 32 assists across 142 contests.

The Ducks will hope he's able to rediscover at least some of that scoring touch. They struggled mightily to find the net during the first half of the campaign and currently rank at the bottom of the league in goals per game (1.98).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3tutbEIyhc

Meanwhile, Chicago gets a younger asset in Sekac, 23, who's still trying to find his way in the NHL. He had just three points in 22 games for Anaheim this season. His shooting percentage (3.4 percent) does suggest he should be in line for a little more "puck luck" over time, though.

It's a trade that makes sense for both sides, especially with both players needing a spark after failing to make their presence felt so far this season.

The Ducks get a player more prepared to help them right away, and Garbutt's numbers should improve if he's placed in a more offensive role. On the flip side, the West-leading Hawks couldn't find a consistent place for the veteran and can take a chance on Sekac without needing much from him in the short term.

Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf underwent appendectomy surgery on Oct. 28 and is on the verge of returning to the ice.

Continue for updates.

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Latest on Getzlaf's Playing Status

Friday, Nov. 6

The Ducks announced Getzlaf will be in the lineup against the Blue Jackets.

Getzlaf's return is in line with the projected four-to-12 days recovery window following his surgery, noted by Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register on Oct. 28.

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Getzlaf Comments on Surgery 

Friday, Oct. 30

"It got to the point where we were worried about it rupturing at some point," Getzlaf said, per Mark Millard of the Score. "It wasn't sore on a daily basis, but I had three or four episodes where I was in pretty extreme pain."

"I don't imagine it being too long. Today was a lot better day than it was yesterday, so as long as I can keep moving forward right now it shouldn't be very long," he continued.

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Getzlaf's Impact on Ducks

The 30-year-old led the Ducks in points in each of the last three seasons. In 2014-15, he scored 25 goals and assisted on 45 more as Anaheim reached the Western Conference Final for the first time since its Stanley Cup-winning season.

Expectations were high for the Ducks heading into the 2015-16 season, making their slow start out of the gates slightly disappointing. They still have plenty of time to turn things around, but they did themselves no favors in the first few weeks.

Getzlaf is one of the team's best threats going forward, so adding him back to the equation undoubtedly helps the offense, even one as deep as Anaheim's.

Ryan Kesler still had one year remaining on his contract with the Anaheim Ducks, but the team announced Wednesday that Kesler signed a six-year extension.  

Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register reported the fresh deal is worth $41.25 million. Kesler will make $5 million in 2015-16 before his lucrative contract extension takes effect, per Spotrac.com.

The Ducks provided comments from Kesler, who spoke about the deal:

.@Ryan_Kesler: "Looking at some of the guys we picked up - I'm excited. We're close. Now, we have to go out there and do it."

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) July 15, 2015

.@Ryan_Kesler: "This isn't my last contract. I want another one after this. Right now I'm sitting here saying, I won't be done.”

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) July 15, 2015

.@Ryan_Kesler: "This group is not satisfied until we win a Cup. When we win, I don’t think we’ll be satisfied. We’re gonna want another."

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) July 15, 2015

Kesler also spoke about the way last season ended, via Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register and Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles News Group.

I think we need a killer instinct in Game 6. We didn’t have it. ... We could sulk about it or we could learn from it.

[...]

It proved to me the owners want to win. They didn't have to prove it to me. ... The way the season ended left a sour taste...

The 30-year-old veteran logged 20 goals and 27 assists in his maiden season with the Ducks after spending the first 10 years of his NHL career with the Vancouver Canucks. He also had 13 points in 16 postseason contests.

Offense isn't where Kesler's value shines through the most, though. Anaheim got all it could have expected out of Kesler in 2014-15. His tremendous two-way play and tenacity on defense helped the Ducks beat out Kesler's former Vancouver club for the Pacific Division crown.

Kesler's contract is paid out entirely through base salary, per Chris Johnston of Sportsnet:

Ryan Kesler contract breakdown: $7.875M, $6.675M, $6.675M, $6.675M, $6.675M, $6.675M. Entirely paid in base salary.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 15, 2015

Johnston weighed in on what Kesler's deal means for the Ducks' financial future:

So, in 2016-17, the #ducks will have $23.75M in cap space tied up in 30-something forwards Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 15, 2015

In April, Ducks general manager Bob Murray spoke about how Kesler embodies the team's identity, per the Los Angeles Times' Lance Pugmire: "This team is not built to play talent- and skill-wise. It's a hard-nosed team. There's no other way to play the game. We have to play inside other team's nets, we have to get to the net, have to play hard hockey. Ryan Kesler does that—every night, he's a great example."

This extension ensures Anaheim will have a venerated on-ice enforcer for years to come—at least in theory.

Kesler has a rather reckless style of play. The physicality that defines his game may not be sustainable as he gets later into his contract. Some may be concerned that he won't be playing at a high level at the end of his contract. 

But the future is now in Anaheim. The Ducks have a deep team and pushed the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks to seven games in the conference final. They seem to be on the precipice of glory, and Kesler can be a prominent contributor to push Anaheim over the top.

The Anaheim Ducks missed an opportunity to eliminate the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final on Wednesday, generating many takeaways going into a win-or-else Game 7 on Saturday.

After Frederik Andersen allowed a total of nine goals in Games 4 and 5, Anaheim needed its goaltender to hold his own in net in Game 6.

He looked fine in a scoreless first period, but things unraveled after the intermission. Andersen surrendered three goals in the span of about four minutes and the Ducks fell behind 3-0. As the Ducks so often do, they came back and cut the deficit to 3-2, but Andersen put them in too deep a hole to come back from on Wednesday night.

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau thinks his team lost its composure when handed a deficit, per Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register.

"They scored the one goal. It was like, 'Ah what's going on?'" Boudreau said. "We started scrambling all over. They got the momentum."

Andersen played a big role in that momentum shift Boudreau was referring to.

Concerning for Ducks fans is that two of those three goals should have been saved.

On the first goal, Brandon Saad got a good look on a breakaway, but Andersen could have been in better position as the puck went right though his legs.

Patrick Kane's stellar stick-handling led to the third goal of the period, as he danced through the Ducks defense and snuck the puck into the back of the net. Had Andersen been better positioned, he could have completely stopped the shot instead of just getting a piece of it and allowing a goal.

This now makes three poor showings in a row by Andersen, and if he has a fourth in Game 7, there may not be a chance to have a fifth—not in this postseason at least.

Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith was the catalyst for Chicago's offensive outburst against Andersen, assisting on all three second-period goals.

The game changed when Keith kept the puck in at the offensive blue line and made the pass to Kane that led to the third goal.

Teammate Patrick Sharp talked about Keith's passion for the game, per Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun Times.

Sharp: "I sit next to Duncan Keith [on the plane], and he always wants to talk about hockey. I pretend to sleep and put the headphones on."

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) May 28, 2015

Keith's love of hockey is on display whenever he's on the ice. Teammate Jonathan Toews said Keith always finds ways to make plays, per Josh Cooper of Yahoo Sports.

"You can definitely count on him stepping up and being one of our best players, if not our best player," Toews said. "He's all over the rink. Seems like he never runs out of energy. Pretty amazing game tonight."

Keith's 16 postseason points are tied with Toews for second-most on the team behind Patrick Kane, who has 17. His 14 playoff assists are five more than anyone else on the Blackhawks.

So while Keith doesn't get the recognition of the heralded goal scorers, he's been a big-time playmaker during Chicago's playoff run and they can use his astute passing in Game 7.

This has been too good a series not to go seven games.

It's a pretty safe bet that this one will go down to the final seconds, and considering the rocky play from both goaltenders thus far in the series, this will be another high-scoring battle.

In his headline on NBCLosAngeles.com, James Neveau asks, "Could Andersen be benched after struggles vs. Blackhawks?" While John Gibson is a serviceable young backup with a .914 save percentage on the season, it's hard to imagine Boudreau making a switch this late in the series.

Boudreau and the Ducks have no choice but to roll with the incumbent and hope they can contain the Kane-Toews-Saad trio.

As the Orange County Register's Rich Hammond noted, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville would rather not use Kane and Toews on the same line. But he did so sporadically in Game 6 and they played well together, so expect to see them on the ice together in Saturday's must-win game.

Toews and Kane—who carried the Blackhawks to championships in 2010 and 2013—have the experience coaches lean on in these kinds of games. That the Blackhawks have guys who are used to playing in high-pressure situations will come into play on the road in Game 7.

Carrying over the momentum from their Game 6 victory, the Blackhawks will win Game 7 6-5 in overtime, capping off a nightmarish stretch for Andersen.

By Saturday night, Chicago will be getting set to play the New York Rangers or Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, while the Ducks start making their offseason plans.