NASHVILLE — The problem with a great series like Nashville-Anaheim is that it can easily turn into Milwaukee-San Diego.
Enough front-line soldiers have gone down in the first five games of this Western Conference final that a few members of the National Guard have been activated.
Nic Kerdiles of Irvine participated in his third playoff game Saturday for the Ducks. He has played 11 regular-season minutes in his NHL career. He spent 25 games this winter with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls.
Frederick Gaudreau was rushed into the breach when the Predators’ Ryan Johansen suffered a season-ending thigh injury on Thursday. He had played nine NHL games before Saturday. He stepped into the faceoff circle and took 14 draws in 11:40 of ice time, winning 10. He was 2-for-2 against the Ducks’ Antoine Vermette, who had the highest regular-season percentage in the league.
• DUCKS: Goalie Gibson works out, might play in Game 6
Pontus Aberg has 15 NHL regular-season games on his resume. He has been in the Predators’ lineup throughout this series, but on Saturday he was given first-line responsibilities on the wing as Filip Forsberg moved to center. Aberg cut inside Kevin Bieksa and cashed the winning rebound in the third period, and Nashville took a 3-2 series lead going into Monday’s Game 6.
For that matter the Ducks’ Brandon Montour played 36 games in San Diego this season, although you figure he won’t need to revisit San Diego unless he wants to sample Sea World. Montour’s plus-four leads the Ducks in this series, and he both initiated and assisted on the Ducks’ only Game 5 goal.
The Predators were missing centers Johansen and Mike Fisher and would play without them again on Monday night.
But the Ducks would point out that they’re not using the full varsity either.
John Gibson left Saturday’s game with an LBI (Lower Body Injury), which looked like some sort of knee problem. He skated Monday morning but he wasn’t certain to play.
Definite absentees were Rickard Rakell and Patrick Eaves. Only 12 NHL players scored more regular-season goals than Rakell. Only 16 NHL players scored more regular-season goals than Eaves.
Neither team had the gall to complain, in other words, and besides, nobody wants to hear about it in Pittsburgh.
The remarkable Penguins have been limping around all season. They never had Kris Letang, their top defenseman, in the playoffs, and they don’t have Justin Schultz, their No. 2.
In recent games they have played without Patric Hornqvist, Conor Sheary and Bryan Rust, and last year’s Stanley Cup-winning goalie Matt Murray wasn’t available when the postseason began. Yet the Penguins can wrap up a return to the Finals with a win over Ottawa in Game 6 or 7.
This is what happens when you swallow the whistles.
Everyone loves it when the music keeps playing, when the coaches can send out all four lines in sequence, and the officials avert their eyes. In Game 5 they somehow ignored Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne playing the puck outside the prescribed area. “That was obvious to everyone,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. “It should have been two minutes automatically.”
There have been 33 power play opportunities in five games, which comes out to 3.3 per team. In Games 3 through 5, there was not one interference penalty called, on either team, except for one goaltender interference call on Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm. You mean nobody impeded the path of a player who wasn’t carrying the puck? Apparently not. Talk about self-control.
Drawing a penalty without using one’s stick has become difficult in this series. In Game 4 the Ducks had four stick violations alone, and in Game 5 Josh Manson tried to use the guillotine on Forsberg and got called, and Nashville scored. Forsberg’s previous stick shot to Manson’s face was not detected. But maybe when P.K. Subban was praising the Predators’ composure, he was actually criticizing the Ducks’ lack of same.
Boarding and charging have happened in this series. They just haven’t been called.
“I think it’s been maybe a little bit more physical because it’s so important,” the Ducks’ Jared Boll said. “And both teams like to play this kind of hockey. They’re on your fast, and they like to finish you with the body, and we’re a heavy team, too, and it’s fun to play that way.”
The first season of new-rules hockey was 2005-06. Twenty-one NHL teams committed at least 500 minor penalties. The number has receded so sharply that in 2016-17, Calgary’s 323 minor penalties led the league, and only seven clubs had 300 or more.
Did the players adjust? Somewhat. But today’s hockey is being officiated with benign neglect. How benign depends on how well you’re walking.
