The San Jose Sharks have looked impressive in several areas during the current NHL postseason but not where it counts the most.
Despite finishing the regular season with the league’s best record, the Sharks have watched the Ducks take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series that will continue tonight at Honda Center.
The Sharks averaged 39.5 shots to the Ducks’ 21.5 in the first two games.
The Sharks have spent large chunks of time in the Ducks’ zone, turning the sport of hockey into something resembling a lopsided, half-court pickup basketball game.
The …

Anyone who has watched a Ducks practice during the past four seasons would not have been the least bit surprised.
With his team preparing to take on the San Jose Sharks in Sunday night’s second game of an opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series at HP Pavilion, Coach Randy Carlyle halted Saturday afternoon’s proceedings to deliver some choice, and colorful, words.
Asked about it afterward in his meeting with reporters, Carlyle came clean.
“I yell everyday,” Carlyle said. “Just the building got quiet.”
Carlyle changed that in a hurry. No one at the Sharks Ice …

Ducks defenseman Ryan Whitney would love to repeat some history already made by his blue-line partner, Chris Pronger.
The Ducks landed Pronger in an off-season trade in 2006, two weeks after he had been in the Stanley Cup Finals with the Edmonton Oilers, only to come up short in Game 7 against the Carolina Hurricanes. Eleven months later, Pronger and the Ducks drank from the Stanley Cup.
“We’ve both been through the pain of losing in the Finals,” Whitney said Saturday. “Luckily, the next year he got the thrill of winning. Hopefully, …

With a two-day break in between games, there is  plenty of time to break down Game 1.
Specifically, it gives San Jose plenty to ponder what went wrong after its 2-0 loss to the Ducks.
And, as if it needed a reason to jump on star center Joe Thornton, media in San Jose are pointing to Thornton’s one shot on goal in Game 1.
Thornton (below) is perhaps the most scrutinized player of these 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs because of his perceived inability to both produce and take a team deep into the postseason.
Thornton has 11 goals …

The transition of the Ducks from a once-elite NHL team that had clearly lost its edge into a remade club striving to ascend back toward the league’s upper echelon can be illustrated with a simple compare-and-contrast exercise involving key penalty-killers Todd Marchant and Mike Brown.
A veteran of 76 post-season games over nine previous campaigns and one of 12 holdovers from the Ducks’ 2007 Stanley Cup championship run, Marchant represents what might be called the team’s “old guard.” A rookie in his initial NHL playoff go-round, Brown is part of what …

Game 1 was the exactly what I expect this series to be…
Physical, fast paced, an overabundance of Ducks penalties, too many Sharks opportunities, low scoring…and me screaming at the TV.
Physical? Oh you bet! Two guys flying under the radar on the Ducks roster right now, Todd Marchant and Mike Brown, were so crucial to the Ducks’ success last night. I don’t know what Marchants’ plans for the rest of his career are, but if he wants to “go out on top” this might be the time. He’s been amazing this …

With the San Jose Sharks having received six power-play opportunities to his team’s four Thursday night at HP Pavilion, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle anticipated visiting with Kay Whitmore, the supervisor of officials assigned by the NHL to the clubs’ opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
“He’s from Sudbury, so I know him,” said Carlyle, who also hails from the Ontario city.
Despite his club’s 2-0 victory Thursday, Carlyle probably has more pressing matters to discuss with Whitmore, a former NHL goaltender.
One of the Ducks’ power-play chances came late in the third period, after …

Numbers just keep following Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer.
Niedermayer’s game-winning goal in Thursday night’s 2-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks in the opener of a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series at HP Pavilion was his fourth in post-season play since he joined the Ducks in 2005. That ties Niedermayer with Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings for most among NHL defensemen during that time span.
All-time, Niedermayer is tied for fourth among defensemen with seven game-winning playoff goals, behind Lidstrom (10), Paul Coffey (8) and former New Jersey Devils teammate …

Center Ryan Getzlaf sealed Thursday night’s 2-0 Ducks victory over the San Jose Sharks by scoring a key insurance goal at 17:35 of the third period in the first game of an opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series at HP Pavilion.
It came nine seconds after Getzlaf had exited the penalty box — and followed some very anxious moments.
“It’s a long two minutes when you’re sitting there with a one-goal lead against a team like that with a dangerous power play,” Getzlaf said after the Ducks’ Friday afternoon practice.
After the Ducks had …

Whether it was coach-speak, true analysis or something in between, Ducks boss Randy Carlyle had an interesting take on his club’s 2-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Thursday night’s opening game of a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series at HP Pavilion.
“In a lot of ways, in reviewing, we were very, very fortunate to get the shutout and get the hockey game,” Carlyle told reporters after the club’s Friday afternoon practice. “A lot of things went our way — favorable bounces, posts, a crossbar, some of those things. At …

A lot of fans who tuned into Prime Ticket to catch Thursday night’s telecast of the Ducks-Sharks playoff game noticed that something was missing.
And it didn’t have anything to do with Sharks penalties.
Those who have grown accustomed to watching games in HD didn’t get the chance to do that on Thursday. I don’t know that I would be able to tell the difference but maybe that’s because I’m color blind to some shades of green.
There were obviously enough people who could tell the difference and didn’t like it.
A spokesperson for …