It wasn't mano y mano. But you might have thought Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger were going face-to-face in hand-to-hand combat as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Edmonton Oilers squared off in the Western Conference Final.
It was a clinic in how defense in today's hockey world should be played, a heavyweight battle of two of the best defensemen in the game. Hard, tough defensive hockey, with all those beautiful outlet passes that started the flow up and down the ice throughout the five-game series thrown into the mix. Niedermayer doing it with speed, position, flair. Pronger with size, strength and a lethal quarterbacking ability from the blue line.
Both have won the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL, and here they were both playing 25 to more than 30 high-quality minutes each night. It was something every young defenseman should have been watching. It was edge-of-the-seat competition.
And now, just over a month after the Oilers beat the Mighty Ducks 2-1 in Game 5 on May 27, by the strangest of twists, the Ducks, who no longer have "Mighty" in their nickname, are more than mighty on defense after Anaheim acquired Pronger from the Oilers for right winger Joffrey Lupul, defensive prospect Ladislav Smid, who was the Ducks' first-round pick in 2004, a first-round draft choice in 2007, plus a conditional first-and second-round picks in 2008. That's a rather large package of futures for one of the top five or six players in the game.
It was a stunning turn of events that was made possible a few days after the Oilers lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to the Carolina Hurricanes, when Pronger told Edmonton General Manager Kevin Lowe that he wanted out, that he no longer felt he could play in Edmonton just one year after he was obtained in a shocking trade from St. Louis last August and became a "Mr. Do-It-All" on defense for the Oilers.
Just think about the possibilities. Niedermayer and Pronger together on the point on the power play or penalty killing. More important, think about a team playing against the Ducks, knowing that one shift they would have to face Pronger ... the next shift they'd have to go against Niedermayer. What a 1-2 punch of shutdown defenders! Sort of like Scott Stevens and Niedermayer for three Stanley Cups in New Jersey or Ray Bourque, Rob Blake and Adam Foote in Colorado in 2001 or Nicklas Lidstrom and Chris Chelios in Detroit for several more Cup wins.
The tale of the tap in the Western Conference Final series looked liked Ducks all the way on the stat sheet -- the Ducks took 62 more shots than the Oilers (183-121) over five games, had 10 more power plays, but the Oilers ... with the help of Pronger ... killed off 36 of 39 power-play opportunities in the series. In the end, the only numbers that ultimately mattered were on the scoreboard, where two of Edmonton's four wins were one-goal decisions ... and the other two two-goal victories.
The series was that close.
Ducks GM Brian Burke on the acquisition of Chris Pronger:
"Players of the caliber of Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger don't become available very often. When you have an opportunity to acquire this kind of player, you go at it aggressively."
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"That's hockey, nobody dies, but this still hurts," Ducks star right winger Teemu Selanne said afterward. "You work so hard all year, you get this far ... and it's over. Give them credit. They were like a wall in front of the goal. I still can't believe all the shots they blocked, more than I have ever seen."
Ducks General Manager Brian Burke was like a fighter who had just gone through a 15-round heavyweight decision.
"I know it's going to sink in that it's been a good year and all of that ... but I hate losing," he said afterward. "Falling one step short of the Stanley Cup Final is not easy to accept."
The next time I saw Burke was at the draft in Vancouver just over a week ago ... and I couldn't help but see the competitive juices flowing as he left us just before the draft began, discouraged that he couldn't get some action started. He reportedly was trying to deal J.S. Giguere ... without success. But, truth be told, he was just looking for some action.
"I still can't believe I'm going to walk away from the draft and all I'm going to have to show for it is the 19th pick in the draft," Burke said dejectedly.
And look at him now. Pronger and Niedermayer with an up-and-coming Francois Beauchemin and Vitaly Vishnevsky and Sean O'Donnell. That's strong.
Burke is a master at making the aggressive move, plus getting good defensemen on his side. He was the GM in Hartford back in 1993 and moved up to draft Pronger. He drafted Mattias Ohlund and traded for Ed Jovanovski in Vancouver. And now ... in successive summers ... acquired Niedermayer and Pronger for the Ducks.
Just one day before the draft, I recall Burke telling me how the St. Louis Blues were about to acquire a cornerstone player for their defense in Erik Johnson. He used phrases like "He's a horse. He's a presence. You start with defensemen who make an impact at both ends of the rink."
He could have just as easily been talking about Niedermayer and Pronger or Ohlund or Jovanovski.
Oilers G. Kevin Lowe knew he wasn't going to get a player of the stature of Pronger in return. But he got a lot of promise and talent for the future.
Lupul, 22, is an Edmonton native who is just coming into his own offensively. Drafted seventh overall in 2002, Lupul tallied 28 goals and 53 points this past season, a solid improvement on his 34-point rookie season of 2003-2004.
Lupul added nine goals and 11 points in 16 playoff games this past season, including a four-goal game against Colorado in the second round.
Smid, 20, was the Ducks' top defense prospect. The Czech Republic native, who went ninth overall in the 2004 draft, also has good size at 6-3, 204 pounds. He had 28 points and was a plus-14 with Portland of the American Hockey League last season.
"It was a steep price to pay for Chris Pronger," Burke said, "But ... ."
A big smile came across Burke's face, before he added, "Players of the caliber of Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger don't become available very often. When you have an opportunity to acquire this kind of player, you go at it aggressively."
Two of the top defensemen in the world ... on the same team ... playing side-by-side on power plays and penalty kills. Both among the truly impact players in game. Niedermayer and Pronger made for a marquee classic in the Western Conference Final. Now, Ducks fans will get to see these two skilled leaders shift after shift next season.
Opponents? You can't tell them the Ducks are no longer mighty. Not with Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger showing off their skills and shutdown talents night after night.
