NHL anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks still have plenty of veteran presence on their team, despite the trade of defenseman Chris Pronger to Philadelphia.

Captain Scott Niedermayer and forward Teemu Selanne have both said they will return. For Niedermayer, the future is uncertain beyond next season. Selanne, meanwhile, says 2009-2010 will be his last year in the NHL.

Scott Niedermayer had to take some time after Anaheim's grueling seven-game loss to the Red Wings to think about his future. He'll be 36 next month, and the defenseman wanted to make sure he still had the fire to play another full NHL season, with all the time and energy and sacrifices that entails. It's a decision he grapples with on a semi-annual basis.

All it took was watching the Penguins and the Red Wings play for the title to get Niedermayer in the right frame of mind to say "yes" to the Ducks and their one-year, $6 million offer. He officially agreed to the deal on Wednesday, the first day of free agency.

"The Stanley Cup Finals obviously gets you excited to get back on the ice," Niedermayer told FanHouse by phone from Vancouver.

Heading into Friday's NHL draft, all eyes were on Ottawa's Dany Heatley and Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier when it came to potential blockbuster trades. When all was said and done, the first domino to fall was Anaheim sending defenseman Chris Pronger to Philadelphia for Joffrey Lupol, Luca Sbisa, and two first-round picks.

Now that, my friends, is a blockbuster.

---

---

The Anaheim Ducks are slowly getting younger, thanks to dynamic players like Bobby Ryan and Ryan Whitney. Friday's trade of defensive stalwart Chris Pronger hastens the need for the team to rely on young talent.

That said, the defensive corps will still be led by a grizzled, accomplished veteran. Scott Niedermayer's agent has informed the Ducks that their captain will return for an 18th NHL season.

DETROIT -- After the Red Wings stopped the Ducks in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals on Thursday. Detroit forward Mikael Samuelsson said, "Sometimes the stars take each other out a little."

And when the big-name guys cancel each other out, the Wings usually are left in a better position that their opponents, which was the case in Game 7, when Darren Helm, Samuelsson and Dan Cleary provided the final three goals in a 4-3 victory. Jiri Hudler scored the first goal of the night on a power play.

Helm never has scored a goal in the regular season (14 games) but he has four postseason goals, and his breakaway score on Thursday showed off his terrific speed. Samuelsson is a role player, but has a nose for big playoff goals, while Cleary is a grinder. His game-winner with three minutes left Thursday was his first goal of the series.

DETROIT -- This was more like it when it comes to a Game 7.

The second-seeded Red Wings and the No. 8 Ducks continued their hearty battle in the Western Conference semifinals on Thursday here at Joe Louis Arena, and Anaheim very nearly pulled off an upset of the defending champs, two weeks after knocking off the top-seeded Sharks.

Instead, it was hard-nosed Dan Cleary, not one of Detroit's marquee players, who willed the Wings into the conference finals by hammering the puck past Jonas Hiller with three minutes to play, giving Detroit a 4-3 victory over the tough Ducks. Detroit will meet the Chicago Blackhawks in a matchup of Original Six teams for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Finals.

---

---

After some late-game fisticuffs on Tuesday, the Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks are set to take part in a one-and-done Game 7 at Joe Louis Arena, in a contest that has to be more entertaining -- from a competitive standpoint -- than what we saw on Wednesday in Washington. Depending on who you ask, the line brawl in the closing minutes of Game 6 could be a rallying cry for the Red Wings.

---

---

There were eight first-round series in the NHL playoffs. Three of them ended in sweeps, and six of them were over before they got to a seventh game. While no one complained about getting a couple of super Game 7s in the first round, it was hardly as competitive as some thought it would be.

As we approach Game 7 between Pittsburgh and Washington (Game 7s between Carolina-Boston and Anaheim-Detroit will be played Thursday night), let's take a moment to talk about how great this second round of action has been.

We chuckled slightly when the Ducks accused the Red Wings of being a dirty team, because, well, they're the Ducks, and they're no strangers to rule-bending play themselves.

At the end of Tuesday night's Game 6 between the Red Wings and Ducks, Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer added to Anaheim's history of extreme physicality, elbowing Pavel Datsyuk in the face and, in the process, adding to a large melee. Don't expect Niedermayer to get suspended, though, because this is the NHL, and that would make too much sense. Video of the elbow is above, and video of the fight at large is after the jump.

Ryan Getzlaf finally looked like himself again after a bout of flu or an undisclosed injury, take your pick. And with Getzlaf rejuvenated, the Ducks were rejuvenated, outplaying the defending champion Red Wings much of the night to force Game 7 at Detroit on Thursday night.

Getzlaf, who'd managed only two shots in the previous two games for the eight-seeded Ducks, scored Anaheim's first goal and assisted on the second in the Ducks' 2-1 victory at the Honda Center, evening the Western Conference semifinals series at three games apiece.

---

---