3 Key Ducks Players to a Game 7 Victory

The Anaheim Ducks will welcome the Chicago Blackhawks to the Honda Center on Saturday night, and the winner will not only pick up a victory to conclude a hard-fought series, but they will also punch their tickets to central Florida as they will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.

Before the puck drops and we finally see this tremendously entertaining series settled, we have three Ducks players for fans to keep an eye on in this critical game.

Frederik Andersen

Andersen was outstanding through the first three games of this series, but his performance has suffered considerably since then as he has allowed 13 goals in three games and has looked shaky in net throughout those contests.

If the Ducks are going to win Game 7, Andersen is going to need to be at his best. The Blackhawks are a team with gobs of playoff experience and a top line that is going to come out firing early and often, so getting settled into the crease and minimizing second chance opportunities are both going to be key for the young goaltender.

Ryan Kesler

Kesler has done a nice job throughout this series of shutting down players defensively, but he will be in for a whole new task on Saturday as he takes on the Blackhawks’ new top line of Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad, and Patrick Kane.

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While Kesler has handled Toews well, he is going to have another thing to deal with as Kane hits the ice against him. The Hawks’ winger is one of the best puck-handlers in the league, and he is just as likely to fire off his precise wrist shot as he is to dish a pass to an open teammate. That means Kesler will have to play responsible defensive hockey against this line, and while that may negatively impact his ability to jump into plays offensively, it will help the Ducks keep things at a reasonable pace and tempo in the game.

Patrick Maroon

When Game 7 rolls around, both teams are tired and are worn down from six grueling games of battle in the trenches. That means that the climactic game of the series is usually a proving ground for role players and guys who aren’t generally the big scorers on a team, and that is a good situation for Maroon to find himself in.

When you combine his effective play at both ends of the ice, his status as a winger with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, and his ability to get into areas near the net to get quality rebound opportunities, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Maroon has a real chance to make an impact on this game, and he will be a player worth watching on Saturday night.

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