It was Stanley Cup or bust for Bruce Boudreau as the Ducks’ coach last season, and he knew it.
It was easy for them to blame random misfortune for losing their 2013 first-round playoff series to Detroit in a seventh game at home after they had taken a 3-2 lead. When they squandered the same lead over the Kings in the second round in 2014 and again lost Game 7 at home, well, no one else beat the Kings that spring. Losing in the same manner could still be called an oddity.