NHL Playoffs: Anaheim Ducks vs. Calgary Flames Prediction.

NHL Playoffs Start on Wednesday, A Few Teams Surprised Us All and Made it in the Big Show. But Who Will Finish as the Stanley Cup Champion? Follow This Prediction Series to Find Out!

BREAKDOWN OF THE TEAMS SEASON:
Anaheim got off to a slow start to the season but quickly turned things around heading into the NHL playoffs. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry finally kicked their play into gear. The biggest surprise(s) from the Ducks season has to be the fact Jonathan Bernier posted one of the best records his entire career going 21-7-4. And seeing forward Nick Ritchie knock Jakob Silfverberg from the top line. Which is a line the Ducks will likely use in the playoffs, a playmaker, scorer, and a grinder? Getzlaf only put up 15 goals on the season but finished with 58 assists totaling 73 points. Another surprise is the fact that Perry only finished with 53 points while Rickard Rakell finished just two points behind him. The Ducks also experienced a little pre-season drama, when they spent months trying to sign Hampus Lindholm, but they finally reached an agreement and he came in and played solid all season. Calgary also had themselves a solid year but was off to a rather shaky start. Brian Elliott wasn’t comfortable in his new city and backup Chad Johnson had to play the majority of the games through the first few months and did rather well but somewhere down the road Elliott changed and took over the team. Johnny Gaudreau missed ten games due to injury but was on fire from the moment he came back to the moment the season ended finishing with 61 points and the team lead in scoring. Another couple of surprises for the Flames was the breakout of Mikael Backlund and Dougie Hamilton. Many thought Mark Giordano would lead the team in scoring for defenseman again but Hamilton was out to prove everyone wrong, and he did.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

Anaheim struggled on the power play this season finishing 17th in the league at 18.7 percent which is a rather odd when you look at who they have up front. But to help with this the team brought in forward Patrick Eaves from Dallas who has more than 20 power play points this season. So will they be able to get a new power play strategy worked out in time? They should. Their penalty kill was much better though with finishing fourth in the NHL at 84.7 percent. But when you have defensemen like Cam Fowler, Sami Vatanen, Kevin Bieksa, and Lindholm, it’s not too surprising.

Calgary did great when it came to special teams, both finished near the top ten in the league with the power play coming in 10th at 20.2 percent and the penalty kill coming in at 12th at 81.6 percent. Regardless it’s going to be hard for the Flames 10th ranked power play to hold up against Anaheim’s fourth-ranked penalty kill, but stranger things have happened. Where the Flames will have some success when it comes to special teams is the penalty kill, since they have guys like Hamilton, Giordano, T.J. Brodie, Deryk Engelland, Michael Stone, Matt Bartkowski, Micheal Ferland, Curtis Lazar, Alex Chiasson, and Troy Brouwer, those are all guys who can stop the puck tremendously well. So if this series comes down to special teams, Anaheim better hope that a new strategy can get past this Flames defense.

EDGE: Calgary

OFFENSE:

Now when it comes down to sheer offensive talent, the Flames and Ducks are almost even, almost. The Flames have Sean Monahan, Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Curtis Lazar, Michael Frolik, Sam Bennett, and Troy Brouwer, the Ducks though have Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Andrew Cogliano, Patrick Eaves, Jakob Silfverberg, Rickard Rakell, Antoine Vermette, Ryan Kesler, and Logan Shaw. Four scoring lines compared to the Flames three is always better, cause in the playoffs that’s exactly what you need.

EDGE: Anaheim

DEFENSE:

Now when it comes to defense the Flames have what looks like a better core but Anaheim has more skill and speed. Calgary has Matt Bartkowski, Dougie Hamilton, T.J. Brodie, Michael Stone, Deryk Engelland, and Ladislav Smid against the Ducks Cam Fowler, Shea Theodore, Josh Manson, Kevin Bieksa, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen, Simon Despres, and Clayton Stoner. It’s almost too close to call.

EDGE: Anaheim

GOALTENDING:

Another part of this series that is too close is goaltending, while John Gibson is an all around better goaltender than Brian Elliott, Elliott does have more experience in the league. But Gibson has proven to win games on his own while Elliott has shown this season he can go from very cold to very hot with no in between. As for the backups, Jonathan Bernier is a tad bit better than Chad Johnson but both have been playing amazing all year. So this will definitely come down to which starting goaltender will be able to keep the puck out less, and if I was a betting man, my money’s on Gibson.

EDGE: Anaheim

Next: Red Wings Say Goodbye to the Joe

SERIES OUTCOME:

This is going to be a wild series which will showcase two very hot and solid goalies squaring off against each other with two offensive cores and two defensive cores that are almost nearly identical. So what will the series come down to? Who plays tighter defense and which power play will be able to succeed since both teams possess a highly skilled penalty kill.

FINAL SERIES RECORD: Anaheim wins 4 games to 2