Ducks, Senators seek respect in chase for 1st Cup

Anaheim played for the Stanley Cup in 2003; modern Ottawa hasn’t.

By TIM PANACCIO

THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

PHILADELPHIA — When the Stanley Cup Finals open on Memorial Day, the surviving clubs will share a mutual goal: respect.

The Ottawa Senators, longtime playoff pretenders, were once labeled a pack of “choking dogs” in Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe & Mail.

The Anaheim Ducks, an original creation of Disney before being sold to private ownership, have long been ignored by the snobbish, hockey establishment as a Left Coast fad. Ignore ’em, and they’ll go away.

Neither went quietly into the playoff night. Both have proven that tough, physical play can win in April as it does in October, even in the “new” NHL.

Ottawa and Anaheim are teams with skill that can also play a punishing game.

Heavy game

The Senators of the past could be intimidated into submission. This current group, however, led by Conn Smythe favorite Daniel Alfredsson, brought a snarl to complement its talent and literally pushed out highly-skilled clubs such as Buffalo and Pittsburgh because it can play a heavy game, too.

The “new” NHL isn’t obsolete because Anaheim’s Teemu Selanne can still dazzle by stripping the puck and going to his backhand for a killer overtime goal on Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek.

Yet the nasty hits laid by Chris Pronger prove the Ducks not only possess speed and skill but also size. And size is still relevant on the back end.

The Senators have become the favorites, breezing through every series in five games, although goalie Ray Emery hasn’t been tested nearly as much as the Ducks’ Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Canadian drought

If the Senators, under coach Bryan Murray, give Canada its first Cup since 1993, will respect finally be theirs?

“This organization ... has been a very competitive, good operation,” Murray said after winning the Eastern Conference crown. “Whether it be the luck of the draw, whether it be bad luck on the ice, whatever it may be, they haven’t gone as far as some people expected they might.

“So to get it done and get to this point at least is a remarkable achievement after the way we lost players last summer and the way we started the year, and I’m glad that we’ve rewrote all that and the comments that were made about this franchise will disappear for a day at any rate.”

The task is harder for Anaheim. General manager Brian Burke did yeoman’s work in acquiring the best two defensemen in hockey — Scott Niedermayer and Pronger. Yet the respect factor for teams on the West Coast will lag until someone wins a Cup.

Time-zone problem

“People on the East Coast, a lot of them don’t know we exist,” Burke told the Los Angeles Times last week. “I’ll talk to a broadcaster or someone about the league trophies, and they’ll say, ‘I only saw one period of your game before I went to sleep.’ It’s a time zone problem and a distinct lack of respect. There’s no question our group has not gotten the respect it deserves.”

If the Ducks defeat the Senators, that problem disappears into the ocean mist.

The series key? How Anaheim’s defense handles a tidal wave of rushes from Jason Spezza, Alfredsson and Dany Heatley, who simply dominated Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Buffalo.

Goalies are key

Anaheim’s Giguere has shown he can win games by himself. He’ll have to do that against a Senators team that has nine highly skilled forwards.

Emery has to prove he can steal a game. He hasn’t faced pressure because of Ottawa’s superior yet underrated defense that boasts a top pairing of Anton Volchenkov and Chris Phillips.

The critical matchup is Selke Trophy favorite Sammy Pahlsson’s line, with Rob Niedermayer and Travis Moen, shutting down the Spezza line. Pahlsson’s line forced Detroit to move Pavel Datsyuk off Henrik Zetterberg’s line in the Western final. That broke the Red Wings.