Has New Jersey won the Cup?

Are the Anaheim Mighty Ducks dead?

While it's always premature to count a team out after one game of the series, things do not look pretty for Anaheim.

A combination of a business trip and a faulty laptop kept me from previewing the Stanley Cup Final, but I felt that Anaheim was a better match against the Ottawa Senators than New Jersey Devils.

The Devils, who have been befuddling my prognostication abilities almost as much as Anaheim has, is a grinding veteran team. They play their system with almost the same religious intensity as the Minnesota Wild did. The difference is New Jersey has an exceptional blue line -- a blue line that I repeatedly underestimated this post-season.

Anaheim also was someone I didn't give enough respect to.

I still maintain that Detroit coughed up round one, but now I realize that the Ducks, a solid defensive-team were in a good position to beat the Dallas Stars in round two. Dallas was not the same offensive threat with Pierre Turgeon struggling and Bill Guerin more or less ineffective due to injury -- and in fact he missed the first two games of the series.

Then came Minnesota whom I thought would "out Duck the Ducks." I didn't give Giguere and his blue liners enough credit though. If the Ducks could stop the Detroit Red Wings and then Dallas, they were going to make life very difficult for the Wild to put pucks in the net.

I saw the first game in the Finals as a pivotal one. In general Game 1 is a tone setter, but this time around I ascribed far more importance.

The Ducks have yet to trail this post-season, in fact in each series Anaheim ended up 2-0. Each first game Anaheim sent a statement. In game one of the Wings series Giguere made 63 saves, serving notice to all of what he would be capable of doing on a regular basis.

In game one against Dallas the Ducks won a big OT game, a five-period OT game proving that they were not a fluke -- putting the pressure on Dallas to find the key to stop this Cinderella run. The win deflated Dallas who did rally to tie the series but never looked like the team that challenged for the President's Trophy in the regular season.

Then against Minnesota, a team who had to wonder what they would do to be able to score goals Anaheim pitched the shutout that answered the question, not much of anything.

If Anaheim had won Game 1, New Jersey would have had to answer all the same questions. How can we score on these guys?

However, after the Devils 3-0 win it is the Ducks who have to answer questions:

Can this low scoring team crack the Devil's shell, even more formidable than their own?

Can Mike Babcock, considered an excellent adjustment coach, match wits and best the two time Jack Adams award winning Pat Burns in a series where each goal will be at a premium?

Who do the Ducks send their top defensive forward, Steve Rucchin, after? Patrick Elias -- the Devil's top player, but who has done little all playoffs? Jeff Friesen -- the hero of Game 7 vs Ottawa, and Game 1 on Monday? Jamie Langenbrunner, the Devil's top marksmen for the playoffs?

The Ducks have a lot of questions to answer and given that they were outshot 30-16 in Game 1, and outplayed by a similar margin there may only be one answer -- Giguere.

It's asking a lot. Against a team as dispassionate as New Jersey, a team that does not frustrate easily, the Duck's main weapon, their frustrating defensive style that allows a lot of shots, but few quality ones to the opposition is compromised.

The Ducks have thrived on opponents who pressed to score, and them made a fatal mistake on the other end. New Jersey is unlikely to fall into that trap. In fact it may be Anaheim after the game one shutout that goes out looking for the early goal, perhaps with disastrous results.

It looks like the end of the road of the NHL's latest Cinderella story.