NHL PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND
Kings vs. San Jose
Game 1: Tonight at Staples Center, 7:30, FS West, CNBC
Ducks vs. Nashville
Game 1: Friday at Honda Center, 7:30 p.m., Prime, NBCSN
Hot stuff: Silfverberg, like the Ducks, rebounded from a slow start, writes Helene Elliott.
So this is the big secret, the motivation for right wing Jakob Silfverberg to overcome a nightmarish start and score a career-high 20 goals as the Ducks rose from the bottom of the NHL barrel to win the Pacific Division title on the final day of the season.
“I told him it was about time he started putting the puck in the net or I was going to stop passing to him,” said his center, Ryan Kesler, and no one wants to be threatened by the cantankerous Kesler.
“It’s pretty incredible that he got 20 goals in as short a time as he did,” Kesler added. “It just shows when he gets hot, he can really do some damage.”
For the first few months of the season, Silfverberg’s scoring touch was colder than the ice in most rinks. He scored one goal in his first 20 games and two in the 10 after that. After his feats last spring, when he tied for second on the team in playoff scoring with 18 points in 16 games, his struggles were hugely disappointing for him and a team desperate for production and victories.
“It’s rough at times like that. It wasn’t just me — it was the whole team, which even makes it worse,” Silfverberg said. “No one really played well, so we kept losing games and we were last in the league. And with the team we had, it was frustrating.”
Instead of giving in to exasperation, the Ducks reinvented themselves with a defense-first philosophy and hoped offense would follow. The change played to the strengths of Silfverberg, Kesler and left wing Andrew Cogliano, who were trustworthy defensively but discovered they could add more offense to their repertoire.
The trio has thrived since then. It’s no coincidence the team has thrived too, giving players confidence as they prepared to start their first-round playoff series against Nashville on Friday at Honda Center.
“We always have the skill to be creative when we want to, but the focus we put on defense, I think that saved us and that should be our identity,” Silfverberg said Wednesday, after the Ducks ended a brief break and reconvened for their first postseason practice. “It’s one of things that you adjust one thing at a time. It’s not something that just happens overnight.”
Dedication to defense became the Ducks’ defining characteristic. They allowed the fewest goals (192) and led the NHL in penaltykilling efficiency (87.2%), in addition to assembling the most potent power play (23.1%).
“I think that was our biggest problem at the beginning of the year: figuring out our identity, and it changes from year to year,” Kesler said. “This team in the past, they’ve always had high-scoring teams, and this year we had to defend. It’s not a fun game to play sometimes, especially when you’re not scoring, but it got us out of the rut that we got into and that’s what we’ve got to look at going forward.”
Silfverberg was instrumental in lifting the Ducks out of that rut. He collected three goals and 11 points in 11 games in January, 10 goals and 13 points in 15 games in March, and five points in six games in April as he matched the career-best total of 39 points he had set last season. Kesler finished with 21 goals and 53 points, his highest production in five seasons, and Cogliano chipped in nine goals and 32 points.
That line’s performance against Nashville will be crucial for the Ducks. The Predators are solid up the middle, with Ryan Johansen — acquired from Columbus to be the No. 1 center — as well as Mike Ribeiro and Mike Fisher. The Ducks can counter with Ryan Getzlaf, Rickard Rakell — who practiced Wednesday for the first time since he had an appendectomy — and the Kesler line.
“I’m supremely confident when they’re on the ice,” Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I usually think bad things aren’t going to happen.”
He’s getting the best from Silfverberg, who shared the credit. “It’s three hardworking guys who don’t do anything super fancy,” Silfverberg said. “We just play hard and forecheck and we get pucks to the net and we fight hard to get rebounds. That’s how we score. It’s not fancy but it works.”
Reaching 20 goals was significant, he acknowledged, “but it’s tough, especially with the start I had, to say I’ve had a good year.” It’s not over yet. “Now the playoffs start,” he said. “Hopefully, I say after the playoffs that it’s been a really good year and we won it all.”
Injury updates
Rakell, left wing David Perron (separated shoulder) and defenseman Kevin Bieksa (upper body) practiced Wednesday but Boudreau said he would have a better idea of their readiness after Thursday’s practice. He said Rakell “was deking by guys, he was scoring goals, he was doing what Ricky does. I was happy for him. Happy for us.”