When it becomes a game of inches -- like it so often does in the Stanley Cup Playoffs -- you want a skilled player on your side to give you the edge, a player who can turn a game around, a player who can pull you out of your seat and turn a seemingly harmless-looking play into a home run.

While killing a penalty late in the first period of Game 2 between the Calgary Flames and Mighty Ducks, Anaheim defenseman Scott Niedermayer nudged the puck out of his team's zone to ease the pressure with the Ducks leading 1-0. But, like a player with that game-breaking, game-of-inches edge, Niedermayer saw an opening and took advantage of it. Using his sprinter's speed to gain control of the puck and pull away from Calgary's Matthew Lombardi and Dion Phaneuf, Niedermayer skated in alone on goalie Miikka Kiprusoff for a goal.

"They have a lot of quick guys, but he might be the quickest in the game," Flames captain Jarome Iginla said. "I've played with him at the Olympics, and, up close, you see how fast, how quick, he really is. He's a real difference-maker.

"It's amazing that he plays nearly 30 minutes a night when it's an important game and yet he looks like he's just gliding out there. He's so smart out there that he's able to make a crucial play on offense or defense with his skills. And he never puts himself in position to be hit. That's not bailing out. That's smarts."

The 2-0 Mighty Ducks lead provided by Niedermayer in Game 2 was enough to help Anaheim coast to a 4-3 victory and even up the first-round series at one game apiece. Calgary won Game 3 Tuesday night and leads the series, 2-1, heading into Thursday night's Game 4 (10 p.m. ET, CBC).

Niedermayer has clearly stamped his face on the makeup of the Mighty Ducks -- a winning presence in which he is the only player in the game who has won a Stanley Cup (three of them), an Olympic gold medal, a World Cup, World Championship, World Junior Championship and Memorial Cup titles.

That fact that Niedermayer bypassed this year's Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, to have a procedure done on his aching right knee and then not miss a single game after the Olympic break and play better than any other NHL defenseman down the stretch is a testament to Scott's dedication to the Mighty Ducks and his passion to the game.

Leader. Calming presence. Offensive wizard. Effortless skater. Difference maker.

In this new world of hockey, split-second decisions are made every game, every shift, both on and off the ice. And each decision is judged on dollars and sense in today's salary-cap mentality.

Mighty Ducks General Manager Brian Burke made a bold move in November, when he traded a former NHL MVP for a journeyman forward and a prospect. But the decision to trade center Sergei Fedorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets for center Tyler Wright and defenseman Francois Beauchemin wasn't just a salary dump. Consider it a redirection of funds.

Every salary on a team's roster has to have meaning -- and salary-cap dollars can't be wasted. And if you've followed Burke's history in Hartford, with the NHL front office and in Vancouver, you will see that the top dog on his "how-to" blueprint begins with a defenseman who can quarterback both the offense and defense.

Burke's transformation of the Anaheim roster began last August when the GM went to Cranbrook, British Columbia, on a fishing trip to try to snag New Jersey Devils defenseman Scott Niedermayer, the reigning Norris Trophy winner as the NHL's best defenseman in the 2003-04 season.

"I told Scott to give me a list of the things he wanted before he would sign," Burke recalled. "He and his wife, Lisa, gave me that list -- and there were some well-thought-out things on that list. The last thing was: 'I'd like to play with my brother, (Rob Niedermayer).' "

Burke just smiled. "I thought to myself: 'There are 30 teams and I'm the only GM who can check off everything on that list.' "

Great athletes often make breathtaking plays in a split-second. Tom Brady standing firm in the pocket -- defenders breathing down his neck -- while he calmly does his progression from receiver to receiver. Tim Duncan set up a pick and either get the ball and drive, work the pick and roll, or go to the basket for a slam.

Through three games, Scott Niedermayer has registered a goal and two assists in the Ducks' first-round playoff series against Calgary.

In hockey, it's usually a center or a skilled offensive defenseman who puts himself in the same kind of quarterback situation and can make the split-second decision to make an immediate impact on a game.

Scott Niedermayer is that kind of player.

We saw it first on the big stage in Game 2 of the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals when, after quickly getting to a loose puck first, Scott stickhandled through Detroit's Kris Draper and Darren McCarty. All that was left between Niedermayer and Red Wings goalie Mike Vernon was a soon-to-be Hall of Fame defenseman, Paul Coffey -- Scott's boyhood idol. It was at this point that Niedermayer shifted into a gear Coffey may or may not have once had and left the defenseman standing still. A shot on Vernon went wide of the net, but bounced off the lively backboards back out in front and Scott neatly batted it out of the air and into the net.

"That was a Bobby Orr goal," Vernon said, shaking his head afterward. "No one makes that kind of rush anymore. No one."

I remember seeing Niedermayer blush at the comparisons to Orr and Coffey, but he clearly liked the idea of scoring end-to-end goals and you could see he had visions of more of those goals dancing in his head. But not under coach Jacques Lemaire's defense-first system.

"I enjoyed being able to jump up in the play and try to make things happen, but ..." Niedermayer's voice stopped in mid-sentence, knowing this was just a dream and he'd be back playing defensively the next game, because that's the way things were in New Jersey.

I lived for those glimpses of the real Scott Niedermayer that I would see jumping into a play offensively throughout the years.

Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock, after seeing Scott score five goals for the Devils in the playoffs in 2000, talked about Niedermayer in glowing terms when the Stars met the Devils in the Stanley Cup Finals. Hitchcock laughed about how Niedermayer was his toughest recruit when he coached junior hockey and had to make about 18 trips to Cranbrook to try to convince Scott and his parents that he should play for him at Kamloops in the Western Hockey League.

Things might have been a whole lot different for Niedermayer if the Toronto Maple Leafs hadn't decided to trade their first-round pick in 1991 for defenseman Tom Kurvers. He might have become that great offensive defenseman that Hitchcock remembers coaching in juniors.

But Scott Niedermayer wouldn't trade the experience he gained in New Jersey that helped him win Stanley Cups in 1995, 2000 and 2003 and come into this season as the reigning Norris Trophy winner.

The biggest decision in Niedermayer's career? It came last summer, when, as an unrestricted free agent, he had to decided if he wanted to finish his career with the Devils or test the free-agent waters.

"I was looking for a new experience, a new challenge," Niedermayer told me. "I wanted to see what was on the other side of the fence."

Here's where you can see Burke's urgency to clear up space on his payroll for that quality defenseman with unstoppable offensive skills. That's why Burke drafted Chris Pronger when he was in Hartford. Later, we saw how he brought in defensemen like Mattias Ohlund and Ed Jovanovski at Vancouver.

Scott Niedermayer bypassed this year's Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, to have a procedure done on his right knee that would allow him to continue playing through the regular season.

Now, in Anaheim, he's got Niedermayer -- along with a solid group of defensemen like Ruslan Salei and Vitaly Vishnevski who helped the Mighty Ducks get to the Stanley Cup Finals against Niedermayer's Devils in 2003.

Nashville Predators winger Paul Kariya just nodded when I asked him if he thought putting Scott Niedermayer on Anaheim's side and taking him away from New Jersey would have changed the outcome of the seven-game series that went the Devils way back in 2003.

"He can do so many things, offensively and defensively," Kariya said. "Look at the minutes he plays. He's always out there in all of the crucial situations. He's definitely an impact player."

What Scott does best is use his quick-starting speed so well to get to loose pucks first, to skate down opponents who might get a step on his defense partner. Some people can't do two things well at the same time. Not Niedermayer, who thinks and creates at top speed like few others.

"I know how good he is," added current Ranger and former Duck Petr Sykora, who played with Niedermayer for seven seasons while with the Devils. "There is not a better defenseman in this League."

The biggest perk for Scott and his family is that they are closer to their Western Canada home -- and just a wink away from brother Rob, a forward with the Ducks. The brothers have always been close. They've climbed mountains together, fished together, played golf together and bought cars together for their parents. They also bought land on Kootenay Lake, west of Cranbrook, where they built a house.

"We see each other quite a bit now," Rob said. "We only live about 10 minutes apart, so it's pretty nice. Before, we wouldn't see each other until the summer. Now we go to dinner and I get to spend some time with his family. It's been great."

Other than their different hockey positions, the Niedermayers, born 18 months apart, are pretty similar. Both were All-Stars in the Western Hockey League. Both were drafted high -- Scott third overall in 1991 and Rob fifth overall in 1993 by the first-year Florida Panthers. Some in Anaheim say having Scott around has made Rob the kind of impact player they thought he was when they acquired him from Calgary in 2003.

"I learned some valuable lessons in New Jersey," Scott said of improving the players around him. "All I'm trying to do is some of the same things we did so well with the Devils."

For Scott Niedermayer, winning actually began in some pretty competitive 3-on-3 floor hockey games in the basement of the family's house in Cranbrook. Sometimes the thuds sounded so thick, Bob and Carol Niedermayer feared the walls of their house could come tumbling down.

"We had to replace the walls," Rob laughed, when asked about playing hockey the Niedermayer's way.

The Niedermayers faced one another twice in the playoffs through the years -- in 2000, when the Devils swept Rob's Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals and, again in 2003, when the Devils won a seven-game series from the Mighty Ducks to win the Stanley Cup.

Rob went to the Finals in 1996 with Florida and in 2003 with the Ducks. But he hasn't won a Stanley Cup. His brother has helped remind him of what an honor it is to win the Cup.

"Each time Scott won, there it was right there in my parents' living room ... on the couch," Rob said. "Every player gets to spend a day with it and they came home late with it the first time. I remember, because when I woke up, there it was -- the Stanley Cup -- sitting right there in front of me on the couch. I watched that whole playoff run. As a kid growing up in Canada, that's what you dream about. To see the Stanley Cup so close was so special."

While he admired it, he didn't dare touch it.

"You don't want to touch it until it's time, until you get the chance to win it," Rob said, before quickly adding, "Now, I have my best shot at winning it."