As it turned out, the Ducks didn’t have a monopoly on resilience in the conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Until then — and even into the third period of what was their season finale — they had excelled at overcoming deficits, bowling over obstacles, and getting contributions from youngsters after established players suffered significant injuries. Then the Ducks met the Nashville Predators, who used that same formula but took it to a higher and more successful level.
In a six-game series that had mean overtones, the Predators gave nearly as good as they got, an aspect of their game that had always been missing.