from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of Yahoo,

The Ducks should win at least two rounds this year. L.A. isn’t in the way this time. Neither are the San Jose Sharks. By sweeping the Jets – a big, hard, physical team – the Ducks gave themselves time to heal their bumps and bruises and avoided additional punishment. They will face either the Calgary Flames or the Vancouver Canucks in the second round. They went 3-1-1 against each of them in the regular season.

Kesler was acquired to address two weaknesses – faceoffs and center depth – taking pressure off captain Ryan Getzlaf and giving Boudreau more matchup options. He was also acquired to give the Ducks another elite pain-in-the-butt in the top six along with Corey Perry. After a regular season of 20 goals and 47 points, he was what he was expected to be in the playoffs in the first round.

In Game 3, the fans chanted: “KESLER SUCKS!” Except that he doesn’t, and he loves playing the villain. He had a goal and two assists that night, including the tying goal with 2:41 left in regulation. In Game 4, he scored twice in the third period. First, he made it 3-1. Then, after the Jets had made it 3-2, after the fans had chanted loudly though an entire media timeout, he made it 4-2. Dagger.

“Obviously we wanted to silence the crowd tonight,” Kesler said, “and that’s what we did.”

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