Two games into a fast-slipping-away Stanley Cup finals for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, no finalist since 1945 has done so little in so much time.
No wins. No goals. No momentum. No semblance of an offense. No reason to think the New Jersey Devils, two wins away from their third Stanley Cup in nine seasons, are about to let them back into a series in which they have yet to threaten to score a goal, much less win a game.
The dawdling Ducks weren't just beaten in nearly identical 3-0 games in which they managed just 16 shots in each, they barely were competitive.
Martin Brodeur, the first goalie to start the finals with two shutouts since Toronto's Frank McCool against Detroit in 1945, has been Martin McCool, turning aside everything he's seen with a confident calmness that must be unnerving to the Ducks.
Certainly, a 2-0 lead isn't a guarantee the Devils will hoist yet another Lou Lamoriello-produced Stanley Cup in a few days; the Devils, after all, led Ottawa 3-1 in the Eastern Conference finals not even two weeks ago and wound up having to score late in Game 7 to advance.
"Every single player knows nothing has been accomplished here," coach Pat Burns said Friday.
Scott Gomez, who scored one of the Devils' two pivotal goals in the second period in Game 2, said any suggestion the series is over is nonsensical.
"No one in here feels comfortable until it is over," Gomez said. "All we did was keep home-ice advantage. You can't start thinking that way. We haven't accomplished anything."
Still, as they prepared to play Game 3 Saturday at the Pond, the Mighty Ducks must be mighty concerned they've conceded too big of an edge and too much momentum to the Devils.
"We don't have emotion when we play, that's what's been lacking so far," goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. "I don't know what it is. Maybe we think we don't deserve to win.
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