NHL
NHL Playoffs
By Scott Powers, Eric Stephens and Mark Lazerus
No human can withstand that many hits.
In Chicago these days, it’s a punchline, a meme, a quote that lives in comic infamy. But 10 years ago, when Anaheim Ducks agitator Ryan Kesler said it, it was a warning, a threat, an ethos. In the 2015 Western Conference final, Bruce Boudreau’s bruising Ducks were going to grind Joel Quenneville’s skilled Chicago Blackhawks into the ice, until there was nothing left of them.
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The Blackhawks had won the Stanley Cup in 2013 and reached overtime of Game 7 of the conference final in 2014. They were essentially down to four defensemen. They were exhausted, running on fumes and sheer defiance.
And Anaheim knew it.
“They were the team that we wanted to play because we always thought we were better than them,” Boudreau said. “Obviously we didn’t get it done. Boy, but I’ll remember that series forever.”
It’s a tough one to forget: Anaheim’s punishing performance, a Herculean effort from the Blackhawks’ top four defensemen, Jonathan Toews breaking Frederik Andersen and one of the most memorable no-goals in modern NHL history.
Here’s the oral history of Ducks-Blackhawks, 10 years later.
(Note: Quotes have been lightly edited for content and clarity.)
The Ducks set the tone for the series in Game 1. They came out hard and fast, their 44 hits a sign of things to come. They built a 2-0 lead before the Blackhawks pulled within a goal, but a Nate Thompson goal in the third period extended the lead again. That was enough for Andersen, the Ducks goaltender who stopped 32 of 33 shots in their win.
Bruce Boudreau, Ducks coach: We thought we were the best team. There was a lot of confidence in that room. The camaraderie was great. We weren’t awed by Chicago. That was the big thing. We weren’t in awe of them. And then we won the first game.
The Blackhawks jumped on the Ducks in Game 2 with Andrew Shaw and Marián Hossa helping them build a 2-0 lead, but Andrew Cogliano and Corey Perry answered for the Ducks. Tied 2-2, the decisive goal wouldn’t come for hours.
Neither team scored in the first overtime. Almost midway through the second overtime, Patrick Kane attempted to stuff the puck at the Ducks’ net, and the puck flew into the air. Standing near the goalie crease, Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw closely watched that puck.
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Andrew Shaw, Blackhawks forward: I see it. I know there’s no chance of me being able to get it with my stick with four guys, five guys around that net. It was falling perfectly for me. With no thought, I just jumped and head-butted it into the net. It connected perfectly. It did what I was hoping it would do.
Shaw took off in celebration.
Shaw: I just lost control, I guess. I was passionate, excited. I didn’t know whether it would count or not, but trying to celly like it did, I guess.
Everyone else was just as unsure.
Patrick Kane, Blackhawks forward: It’s overtime. It’s a head-butt. You’ve never seen it before. You’re just hoping that it counts. I think in the back of all of our minds, we knew that there’s probably something wrong about that.
Johnny Oduya, Blackhawks defenseman: I think I was laughing. No, obviously, I didn’t think it was legal. But typical Shawzy move. I watch it even today. It’s hilarious. I start laughing every time.It’s arguably one of the most memorable non-goals in hockey history. Ten years later, you can almost forget that it didn’t count.
Andrew Cogliano, Ducks forward: You’re just hoping, thinking that’s not a goal. I didn’t even know the rule. I don’t think anyone really knows the rules. If you had to ask me before the game if someone could head the puck in the net, I would say, “Yeah.” I would say you’d be able to. I don’t know why you wouldn’t. But it was just one of those moments, it just summed up the series.
Marián Hossa, Blackhawks forward: It’s like you never thought about this type of situation, only when it happens. When it happened, we kind of jumped. After, we were like, was it a goal? Legal? Illegal? We thought it would be legal, and good thing it was.
Uh, Marián? It wasn’t legal.
Hossa: Oh, it was illegal? I forgot about it. So it didn’t count? OK, so it is illegal. For some reason, I thought it was … OK, it’s been a long time.
Shaw couldn’t forget even if he tried to.
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Shaw: Any time there is a puck off a head in any hockey game and it’s on social media, someone tags me in it. You know, “Shawzy did it best.” It’s pretty funny the mark you can leave on a sport, I guess. I don’t regret doing it. It’s how people remember me, actually. Of all the things I got to do in my career, everyone remembers me for a goal that didn’t count.
Inside the dressing room between overtimes, both teams were loading up on what Brent Seabrook famously described as “fruit and crap.”
Hossa: You’re just saving all the energy you can. Make sure your skates are dry and your gloves are dry because it’s so hot, especially in California.
Kane: Trainers come around with more fuel and fruit, different types of food throughout the intermission. Some guys are probably getting IVs.
At 16:12 of the third overtime, Blackhawks forward Marcus Krüger finally ended the game when he cleaned up a Seabrook rebound. It was the 19th-longest game in Stanley Cup playoff history, lasting 4 hours and 52 minutes of real time.
Krüger: We were just happy to get it over with in some way. Shawzy head-butted the puck in overtime and then it felt like no one can score. Like it usually is, just a fluke goal.
Brad Richards, Blackhawks forward: It’s never good to go down 2-0 home or away. To go down 2-0 in a long, triple-overtime game, sometimes they sting a little more. But winning it gives you a little bit of life. You can kind of get yourself into the series now. You’re not chasing it 2-0.
Cogliano: If we win Game 2 and we just go to their building and win one game, we’re in the driver’s seat to go to the Cup Final. It’s that simple.
After veteran defenseman Michal Rozsival suffered a season-ending injury in the previous round, the Blackhawks were down to four defensemen whom Quenneville fully trusted. The Blackhawks had acquired Kimmo Timonen at the trade deadline, but he was rusty after missing much of the season. The other options were young and inexperienced.
So, Quenneville leaned hard on defensemen Duncan Keith, Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Oduya. In Game 2 alone, Keith played 49 minutes and 51 seconds. Over the seven-game series, Keith averaged 32:58 of ice time, Seabrook 29:39, Hjalmarsson 29:18 and Oduya 26:40. No other Blackhawks defenseman averaged more than 11:16 in the series.
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Hossa: Those guys were like rock stars. Those four defensemen rolling those big minutes. We were just hoping nobody would get hurt and they could roll the whole series.
Richards: The media and everyone made a big (deal) of it. I don’t remember ever thinking much of it. Maybe the D-men did because they were a little more tired. Those guys were horses. It was kind of normal that they’d be out there half the game.
The Ducks did everything they could to break the four defensemen. Hjalmarsson absorbed a series-high 49 hits, followed by Oduya’s 34 hits taken, Seabrook’s 32 and Keith’s 26. To compare, Sami Vatanen took a team-high 18 for the Ducks.
Kesler issued his war cry between Games 4 and 5: “No human can withstand that many hits.” Maybe he was trying to convince himself.
Cogliano: They had such mobile (defenders) and they did such a good job of breaking the puck out that the only chance of really having success on them was to be physical and forecheck. Wear them down.
Oduya: It’s like boxing. If you have somebody who is a really good defender in boxing, you can’t really get at them. If you’re punching into the jab and you don’t see the results or that they’re tiring, then it almost becomes the opposite. You continue to do it and nothing really happens. I really got that sense early on that I know I can withstand the hitting.
Patrick Maroon, Ducks forward: It seemed like we were pounding them to the ground, and all of a sudden, they come back to life.
When Keith later won the Conn Smythe as playoffs MVP by a unanimous vote, his play in the Ducks series was a big reason. On top of the ice time, he led the Blackhawks with eight points in the series and had an actual goals percentage and expected goals percentage greater than 50 percent over the seven games.
Eddie Olczyk, NBC color analyst: Dunc’s performance, it really was unbelievable. The matchups, the shutting down the plays in the neutral zone, he was just flat-out awesome.
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Jonathan Toews, Blackhawks captain: We were basically just surviving. You can say so many things about the playoffs that Duncan Keith had, but that was one where he just kept going and he didn’t know how he was doing it.
Shaw: You see him at intermission, and he’s changing his gitch every intermission. He’s just soaked head to toe, covered in sweat just from competing and working. That’s what I think drove our team, was to see our superstars that exhausted, putting in that much work. If you didn’t f—ing do it as a bottom-six forward or bottom-pair “D,” then there’s something wrong with you. Because the best in the world is doing it — why can’t I do it?
Game 3 was close again. Goals by Maroon and Kane had the score knotted at 1-1. Ducks defenseman Simon Després, another unlikely hero, scored the winning goal at 19:05 of the second period. The Ducks were up 2-1 in the series.
Quenneville had healthy-scratched Antoine Vermette, who was the Blackhawks’ major acquisition at the trade deadline, and 20-year-old Teuvo Teräväinen in Game 3. They returned to the lineup in Game 4 and joined Patrick Sharp on a line.
Olczyk: They won that series. To be honest with you, I was shocked (Vermette) didn’t play in Game 3. When Joel put those three guys together, they did their job. I thought they were one of the better lines they had down the stretch of that series and helped them win that series. I remember that most vividly of anything else, putting those three guys together after the healthy scratch. They played unbelievable in the series.
In Game 4, the Blackhawks were ahead 3-1 in the third period. The Ducks responded with three consecutive goals, the last coming from Perry for his ninth goal of the playoffs.
Nate Thompson, Ducks forward: When we came back, right away I thought, “We’re winning this hockey game.” Had that feeling that if we win this hockey game, we go up 3-1, they’re not beating us three times in a row. It’s just not going to happen. And that’s it: We’re winning the Stanley Cup this year. That was the feeling.
Kane evened the score with a power-play goal, his ninth of the playoffs. Then, at 5:37 of the second overtime, Vermette scored the winner with the assists coming from Sharp and Teräväinen.
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Kane: For me, I always thought guys kind of tightened up when overtime began and wouldn’t want to make a mistake. That’s where I felt like I could take advantage and maybe get some more opportunity because I felt pretty confident in those situations. Obviously, nothing really transpired in overtime in that series for me, but you’re always looking for the opportunity to be the hero and end the game. To get two overtime goals from a third-liner like Vermette and a fourth-liner in Krüger, that’s the reason you win. That’s why you advance.
The series returned to Anaheim tied 2-2. Game 5 was dramatic yet again. The Ducks scored the game’s first three goals. The Blackhawks later evened the score at 4-4 with two late third-period goals by Toews. Andersen, who had been so good in the series, looked shell-shocked in net and never recovered. But Anaheim’s Matt Beleskey scored 45 seconds into overtime, before the Blackhawks could even test Andersen again.
Boudreau: We lose one in triple overtime and one in double overtime. The series should be over. Then Game 5, we allowed two empty-net goals to tie it. And I go, “Are you kidding me?” And then Beleskey scores on the first shift off the rebound of a Kesler shot. So I’m sitting there after Game 5 thinking this series should be done.
Toews: I was pretty heartbroken after that one. When you score late to tie it the way we did, you’re just like, “Oh my god, we’re rolling, we’re gonna get the next one here.”
The Ducks were one game away from winning the series. Confidence was high.
Boudreau: We were going, “They don’t deserve to be in it.” We were out-physicaling them. We were out-territorializing them. Analytics weren’t what they are today, but if you go back looking analytically, we had them in every category, I’m sure.
The Blackhawks never doubted they could come back.
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Oduya: At any time, we had the possibility or the experience or the skill to be able to shift a series or change a series. It’s fascinating when you grab onto that feeling.
Cam Fowler, Ducks defenseman: They just had a little bit more experience in those moments than we did. Whether that played a factor, I don’t know. I’m sure they had confidence knowing they had been there and understood what it takes to win. Some of us were going through it for the first time.
The series returned to Chicago for Game 6. After a scoreless first period, Brandon Saad, Hossa and Kane scored consecutive goals to put the Blackhawks ahead 3-0 in the second period. The Ducks rallied with two goals to pull within 3-2, but Shaw closed the door with a legal goal at 16:28 of the third period and an empty-netter shortly after.
Cogliano: I’ll never forget Game 6 in their building and it was just very quiet. It wasn’t like the usual kind of game there in the playoffs like the first couple. It almost felt, to me, like we had them. If we got off to a good start or we scored a couple goals or we got a lead, that we could have taken the game over. The crowd almost felt like — for the first time that I’ve ever played there — where they were actually nervous. Like, “Wow, these guys have actually gone toe-to-toe with us and they got us on the ropes.” And then they got the first goal. It seemed like it just turned from there on in Game 6.
Thompson: It was such a tight game, but for some reason we just couldn’t get over the hump. And they just took that momentum from Game 6 into Game 7. Knowing we had to go back home to win it and face a Blackhawks team that had been there, done that, it was tough. Game 6 is really when they took momentum. Because I thought, up until then, we kind of controlled that whole series.
Boudreau was 1-5 in Game 7s in his career at this point, and he faced several questions about it between games.
Boudreau: I just thought there was no way we were going to lose Game 7 at home.
Throughout the series, Boudreau had matched up Kesler with Toews. In Game 7, Boudreau went with Getzlaf and his line against Toews.
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Olczyk: I remember right off the bat, I could not believe that they went away from the matchup that they had success with. … I was like, wow, they’re going head-to-head here. They’re going Getzlaf against Toews.
The Blackhawks had the dream start to Game 7. Toews beat Andersen 2:23 into the game and added a second goal later in the first period to put the Blackhawks ahead 2-0.
Boudreau: The first five minutes, Joel just played two lines. And we were matching, the whole series, Kesler’s line against Toews. Getzlaf was sitting on the bench, his line, for about the first five minutes. I’d put Getzy out and then they’d come right back on the fly, they’d put the fourth line. So then I’d change them up again if there was a whistle quickly. And then the one thing I said was no matter what, I’ve got to keep Getzy and Perry in the game. They’re big guys, they’ve got to play. I know they’re good enough that they can handle one shift or two shifts against their (big) line. And then Toews scored two goals on the two shifts that Getzy was on. They were quick-switching us. But I had to get him in the game. Big guys can’t sit on the bench. … (Then) they made it 3-0 and we were fighting an uphill battle the whole game.
Kane: What more can you ask for? (Toews) was ready to play and ready to take over and do whatever he had to get us a win in that game. The start was huge — Jonny leading the way, I think, just gave everyone confidence.
Toews: It’s cool to relive those memories. You kind of forget how hard it is. You just keep finding a way to raise your game. You look around, and you want to do it because you know everyone else on your team is doing it. There’s no excuse.
On the other side, Quenneville seemed to push the right buttons. Late in the series, he had united Kane and Toews on a line.
Kane: I think (about) Quenneville and just how smart he was. … He’d find different combinations and different matchups, different ways to get you on the ice in situations for yourself personally. It might not be with the same guys all the time. It felt like it was always changing, always fresh and always kept you on your toes. … Obviously, guys were chipping in from a bunch of different areas, but he really coached a great series, too.
Saad and Hossa tacked on goals in the second period to put the Blackhawks up 4-0. The game was theirs to lose.
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Richards: I would never have thought we’d (easily) handle Game 7. … That was probably the only surprise in the series. I would have bet it was going to go down to the wire to overtime.
Cogliano: That’s probably the biggest regret I have about that series. That Game 6 needed to be something where we just took another step as a team. Throughout all those years we were good and the amazing players we had, it just felt like we needed to take that extra step of basically taking the game over and winning the series. We didn’t. They come, Game 7, all the pressure’s back on us, and it’s over. That’s a tough one. A tough one to think about.
Kesler and Perry scored to make it 4-2 in the third period and make the game interesting, but Seabrook sealed the game and series with a power-play goal.
Boudreau: I felt like crap. But then once you’re down 2-0 in Game 7, really the matchups go out the door because you’re playing from behind all the time. We didn’t have a good game. I still believe — I think it was Perry that scored early in the third period — that we were going to come back. And we had a chance (on) the same shift again. It didn’t happen, and then they scored a goal. That was the end of it.
Fowler: The longer I play, the more I have perspective on things. We were in a great position, and it just unfortunately didn’t work out. There’s always going to be regret in situations like that, and of course we would like to do it over and have an opportunity to do that again. That’s not the way it works. We were one game away from playing in the Stanley Cup Final. Getting that experience is something that I’ll never regret. I’m just sad it didn’t work out. Not everyone even has that opportunity, so I’m thankful for that, as well.
Maroon: Game 7, we had history. We lost Game 7 (at) home against Detroit in the first round (in 2013). The second round, we lost in Game 7 to L.A. at home (in 2014). History kind of repeated itself. Chicago came out hot. It’s hard to come back in playoff hockey like that. We made it kind of interesting towards the end. … When you’re climbing against a team that’s won the Cup before — they had good leadership, guys who know how to close out games — it’s hard to compete with that.
Toews: When you win a series, you think it was kind of destiny and you forget you were down 2-1 or 3-2 in a series, but that was a heavyweight team with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. It was one of those grueling series that, once you get through it, you’re pretty confident you can go all the way.
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Kane: Probably one of the better series I’ve been part of, obviously going seven games. It was physical. It was just up and down, up and down emotions, up and down wins and losses.
Maroon: I thought we dominated most of the series, to be honest with you. We were right there the whole time. We blew Game 4. We had the lead to go 3-1. … It was a good series, fun series. I thought that was the year we had an opportunity to go win the Cup. I thought that was the team to do it.
Shaw: To me, it was the best series of that run. Basically, two really good teams facing off in the Western Conference. Whoever came out of the series was going to win the Stanley Cup.
Boudreau: Joel Quenneville right after said it was the toughest series he’d ever been in. I think that’s the way it suited up. I’ve gone over this series so many times in the last 10 years in my mind, thinking we were so close to winning the Stanley Cup. That’s my belief in that year.
The Stanley Cup Final between the Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning was a different type of series. It was less physical, and there wasn’t nearly as much scoring. There was still drama, as five of the six games were decided by a goal. The Blackhawks clinched the series on home ice for the first time in their three Stanley Cup wins of that era (2010, 2013, 2015).
Oduya: I remember sitting at the hotel. It was before Game 7 (against the Ducks). I was sitting in the sun, sitting there reading my book, halfway between the shade and the sun, and (Quenneville) walks by the pool. I remember he’s coming up to me. He’s like, “Johnny, you play a good game tomorrow and we’re going to win the Stanley Cup.” The only other time he said that was … before the playoffs in 2013. We had a conversation in his office. He said something along the lines of, “Johnny, you got a Stanley Cup?” I’m like, “No.” He’s like, “Let’s make sure we get you one.” Those are like the two conversations that I remember. It was like he was coming back to that conversation. He was like, OK, last time I gave you a Cup, and now it’s time to repay the favor, just give me a good game and we can do some damage.
The Blackhawks haven’t won a playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015. The Ducks went back to the conference finals two seasons later and lost in six games to the Predators. They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2018.
Kane: Looking back on it, it kind of feels like a lifetime ago. But it kind of feels like yesterday, too, when you’re in those moments. I don’t know if you want to say you take it for granted, but you miss them, right? You miss being in those situations, playing in those opportunities when you have such a good team and there’s so much confidence. Just confident you’re going to have a chance to get to the playoffs and maybe even win every year. It’s definitely a fun time.
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Boudreau: There are still times when I’m sitting and doing nothing. I’ll turn on YouTube and I’ll go back to that series and watch a game and go, “How did we miss that?” You just sit back there and watch. … It was great. The crowds were fabulous. I think it’s ironic that Joel’s now coaching Anaheim. It was a great series. I was blessed to be able to be part of it.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Stephen Dunn, Tasos Katopodis, Victor Decolongon, Harry How / Getty Images)

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