Beauchemin Relishing One Last Chance at a Cup

Francois Beauchemin had just turned 27 when he and the Ducks became Stanley Cup champions on June 6, 2007. He was still relatively green, with the 2006-07 season marking his second full tour of duty in the NHL and his second career postseason appearance.

A key player on a stacked blueline that included luminaries like Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger, Beauchemin finished the 2007 playoffs with four goals and eight points in 20 games, including an insurance marker in the Cup-clinching victory over the Ottawa Senators. A young man at the time, Beauchemin went on to carve out an NHL career that spanned 903 regular season games, 592 in three stints with the Ducks.
Anaheim was the team that gave him a chance. He began the 2005-06 season with the Columbus Blue Jackets and played 11 games before he was traded with Tyler Wright in exchange for Sergei Fedorov on Nov. 15, 2005. Beauchemin went on to appear in 61 regular season games with the then Mighty Ducks and 16 more in the playoffs, which included an iconic fight with former Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla in Game 6 of the 2006 Western Conference Quarterfinals.
Since then, he's spent time with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche, but when it comes to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Anaheim is the only team he's gone to battle with. So it's only fitting that Beauchemin, who will retire once this postseason comes to an end, laces 'em up one last time with the Ducks.
On the morning before Game 1 of Anaheim's first-round series with the San Jose Sharks, Beauchemin was excited. No matter how many times a player has appeared in the playoffs (in Beauchemin's case 97 postseason games), there is something unique about the Stanley Cup Playoffs that never gets old.
"It's always the most exciting part of the season," says Beauchemin, who has helped the Ducks reach the playoffs in nine of his 10 seasons with the club. "We work hard all year long to be in this. Now that we've made it, we have to make the best out of it."
Beauchemin is the all-time franchise leader among defensemen in playoff scoring (39 points), goals (10), assists (29), power-play goals (8), power-play points (20) and games played. He has helped the Ducks reach the Western Conference Final three times in addition to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007. He was mentored by the likes of Niedermayer and Pronger during his early playoff runs with Ducks. Now he's the one in a mentoring role for the younger generation.

It includes 26-year-old Josh Manson, who sits next to Beauchemin inside the Ducks locker room. Manson says Beauchemin has been a role model for the way he conducts himself.
"On the ice, just watching the way he handles himself and how strong of a player he is," Manson says. "Off the ice, same thing. The way he treats people, the way he treats other guys in the room. I just try to take as many little things as I can from him and try to implement it in my game on and off the ice."
To start the playoffs, Anaheim's blueline will include Manson, Hampus Lindholm (24), Brandon Montour (24), Marcus Pettersson (21) and Andy Welinski (24). Cam Fowler (26) is currently on the shelf with a shoulder injury. Pettersson and Welinski made their NHL debuts this season.
When it comes time to offer advice, Beauchemin knows what to say. "When it starts like this, you just want to tell them to keep doing whatever they've been doing in the regular season," he says. "They did a great job. As the series and playoffs go along, we may make some adjustments and we'll say whatever we have to say then. But to start, we just want to tell them to keep doing the same thing. Don't really emphasize too much being nervous just because it's the playoffs."
Beauchemin credits Anaheim's youthful d-corps for making big strides this season. "Every single one of them," he says. "They've improved their game a lot. Marcus was probably the most surprising coming in so late and playing so good right away. Andy has been helping us a lot whenever he's been in the lineup. Those guys have been playing some big minutes for us especially in the second half of the season. We can't forget Monty. He's only in his second year and he's now playing big minutes for us in all situations."
It is no secret hockey players are some of the toughest athletes in pro sports. Broken bones and torn ligaments are just some of the injuries these guys play through, especially in the playoffs. Beauchemin played with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee in the late stages of the 2012-13 season and the following seven-game series with the Detroit Red Wings. Injuries are a part of the game, and the quest to win a Cup, Beauchemin says, "Makes a big difference."
"You see all kinds of injuries happening in the playoffs," Beauchemin says. "Players just play through it because we all want to get to our goal. Nothing can stop us from it."
After ending the regular season with five consecutive victories, eight wins in their last 10 (8-1-1) and seven consecutive home victories, Beauchemin says he wants to see the Ducks pick up where they left off.
"We have to keep playing the same way we did in the last little while," he says. "We played some solid hockey especially at home. You take them just one game at a time. It starts with tonight and then you focus on the second one. You can't really think too far down the stretch because things can change really fast."
How far the Ducks go in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs remains to be seen. There could be jubilation or heartbreak, or maybe even both. But no matter what happens, it's been a memorable journey for one of the franchise's most integral blueliners. All the hard work, all the ups and downs of a season, he says, is worth it. But is he still having just as much fun now as he did when he was younger?
"Absolutely," Beauchemin says without hesitation. "It's been a great year. I've really enjoyed it. Starting from Day 1 of training camp. Now, here we are. Game 1 of the playoffs."