Rozner: Playoff preview? Ducks steal one from Hawks

In the NHL's Wild West, every conference game is a test.

And in the marathon that is the regular season, no early-season match is going to reveal anything about the postseason.

But there's no doubting that two teams expected by many to reach the final four in May were sizing each other up Tuesday night for the first time since the blockbuster deal that sent Ryan Kesler from Vancouver to Anaheim.

In a game dominated by rookie goaltenders, Devante Smith-Pelly slid a short-handed breakaway through the pads of Scott Darling midway through the third period and the Ducks defeated the Blackhawks 1-0 at the UC.

While Darling was good, Anaheim's John Gibson was even better, stealing a game in which the Hawks were the stronger team from start to finish.

"I think the Blackhawks are a team you want to measure yourself against," said Anaheim center Andrew Cogliano. "They were probably the better team tonight and we didn't play our best game, but if you're able to play with them, you know you can compete with any team in the league."

While Los Angeles and Chicago own four of the last five Stanley Cups, Anaheim might be as talented as those two clubs and is a popular pick to come out of the West this season.

"There's a lot for us to prove," Ducks GM Bob Murray said Tuesday night. "Chicago and L.A. are the class of the league, I think, and Minnesota and Dallas have improved tremendously in the West.

"We've got to catch up and that's why we made some changes in the summer. I knew we weren't close the way we were."

That was after a 116-point regular season and a seven-game, second-round defeat at the hands of the Kings.

"When you watch playoff games, us against Los Angeles, and even though it went to seven games, in my gut I knew we weren't there yet," Murray said. "We had to go a different direction."

That direction was Kesler, who has 7 points in 10 games and remains one of the best two-way players in the game, a player many Hawks fans coveted.

"In order to compete with the best teams, we had to have a No. 2 center behind (Ryan) Getzlaf," Murray said. "I tried really hard to get Kesler at the trade deadline last year and I thought we had him then.

"I knew to have a chance we had to get better down the middle."

The Ducks won seven of their first eight before a loss Sunday night at home to San Jose, and at 8-2 after Tuesday's victory, Anaheim leads the NHL in points even though the club has lost several players to injury.

Wingers Kyle Palmieri and Dany Heatley went out before the season and Heatley just returned. Patrick Maroon was playing very well when he was injured in the third game of the season and defenseman Ben Lovejoy broke a finger Sunday night and is out six weeks.

"We moved a few guys out, put some kids in the lineup and unfortunately some kids we were counting on haven't played yet because of injury," Murray said. "So we kind of don't know what we have yet. You hope you get healthy at some point so you can get a good look."

Murray might not know how good his club can be, but he's got plenty of time to figure it out and Anaheim is $7 million under the salary cap, making them a serious threat in the West.

They showed off some depth Tuesday, killing 2 penalties in the third period with their best defenseman, Sami Vatanen, sitting in the box. On the first power play, Brent Seabrook couldn't handle a bouncing pass at the blueline and that led to the only goal of the game.

"I gotta do a better job there," Seabrook said. "I had lots of time and I just lost it unfortunately."

The Hawks had their chances, and among Gibson's 38 saves was a brilliant stop of a Jonathan Toews one-timer - as he moved from post to post - that would have tied the game.

"I didn't know it was him," Gibson said. "But I knew someone was there and I was lucky it hit me."

The Ducks did have their share of good fortune Tuesday night, an interesting match in October that doesn't mean much beyond the two points at stake.

If they play in May, at stake will be nothing less than a Cup.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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