Ducks vs. Sharks playoff preview

by Dirk Hoag on Apr 15, 2009 4:22 PM EDT

The Blogs

The San Jose Sharks, fresh off of winning the first Presidents Trophy in team history, host the Anaheim Ducks in the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The Storyline

Todd McLellan left the Red Wings after winning the Stanley Cup as an assistant, and put his imprint on the Sharks right away. Dubbed "Detroit West", San Jose dominated using a puck-possession style with a "fire at will" mentality from the blueline. Will this formula solve the problem of previous playoff failures?

The Ducks, meanwhile, struggled at various points of the season before kicking it into gear over the final month to beat out Minnesota and Nashville for the final playoff spot.

The Numbers

	Anaheim		San Jose
Record	42-33-7	17th	53-18-11	1st
Pts %	.555	17th	.713	1st
Goals For/Game	2.90	14th	3.06	7th
Goals Against/Game	2.87	18th	2.43	3rd
5-on-5 GF/GA	1.09	9th	1.09	9th
PP%	23.6	4th	24.2	3rd
PK%	79.7	23rd	83.3	5th
Shots/Game	30.3	11th	33.2	3rd
Shots Against/Game	30.5	19th	27.2	1st
FO %	49.8	17th	53.8	2nd

Frankly, I don't think there's any significant area where you can claim Anaheim has an advantage over San Jose. Perhaps their best hope is to keep the game at 5-on-5 and avoid the penalty box, but come on, this is Anaheim we're talking about. They've been 1st or 2nd in the NHL in Penalty Minutes in each of the last three seasons.

Goaltending

Anaheim

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Jean-Sebastien Giguere	46	2458	19	18	6	3	127	3.10	1274	1147	.900	2
2008 - Jonas Hiller	46	2486	23	15	1	6	99	2.39	1217	1118	.919	4

San Jose

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Evgeni Nabokov	62	3686	41	12	8	0	150	2.44	1663	1513	.910	7

Penalties

No OtF preview would be complete without a look at Penalty Plus/Minus, to see which players will head to, or send other players to, the box:

Anaheim	Penalties Drawn			San Jose	Penalties Drawn
Player	Draws	Fouls	Pen +/-	Player	Draws	Fouls	Pen +/-
Corey Perry	52	48	+4	Joe Thornton	45	26	+19
Ryan Getzlaf	36	50	-14	Devin Setoguchi	37	11	+26
George Parros	33	33	0	Ryan Clowe	34	18	+16
Bobby Ryan	27	15	+12	Joe Pavelski	33	19	+14
Teemu Selanne	17	13	+4	Dan Boyle	26	25	+1
Todd Marchant	17	16	+1	Travis Moen	26	27	-1
	Penalties Taken				Penalties Taken
Ryan Getzlaf	36	50	-14	Rob Blake	10	42	-32
Corey Perry	52	48	+4	Jody Shelley	25	36	-11
Chris Pronger	10	39	-29	Christian Ehrhoff	21	30	-9
George Parros	33	33	0	Brad Staubitz	24	28	-4
Scott Niedermayer	15	30	-15	Travis Moen	26	27	-1
Rob Niedermayer	4	21	-17	Joe Thornton	45	26	+19

Yes, Rob Blake is right there down at the bottom of the Penalty Plus/Minus standings, but he's outweighed by the positive numbers of his mates up front. San Jose had the 4th-most power plays in the NHL this year, while Anaheim was ranked 28th. Similarly, Anaheim had the 4th-most penalty kills, while San Jose ranked 26th.