You can forget everything you thought you knew about two things: the Ducks, and how hard it will be for the Ducks to repeat their Stanley Cup success of last year. Languishing in ninth or tenth in the Western Conference as recently as just before Christmas, the team, had they been listening to the experts, would have heard the same thing over and over: very few teams repeat finals appearances after a successful run. Fewer still back up one NHL title with another.

Instead of watching highlights shows, however, the people who run the team were out making deals, seeking to improve a club which was lacking in offense, though certainly no slouch on the blue line. So now, as the real push to the playoffs begins, the Ducks are starting to look like they’ve got the right combination of skill and grit to make a run that could scare those in the West and surprise whoever comes out of the East, and they're doing it with talent and attitude which runs from one end of the lineup to the other.

Anaheim’s top line consists of Bertuzzi, Getzlaf, and Perry. You might read this as an unlikely trio, especially with Bertuzzi replacing last year’s youthful standout, Dustin Penner. Or, you might say, “OK, Bertuzzi is big and mean, like Penner was, and he’ll crash around and create some chances for the other two.”

That's wrong on both counts. Seeing Bertuzzi on the ice, he looks nothing like the heavy, used-up player who appeared on your TV screen with Detroit last season. Instead, he appears light, thin, and fast. Plus, he's skilled with the puck. His game, as it turns out, is not right in front of the net. It’s out in the zone, crossing and recrossing, sometimes with the puck, sometimes setting the other two up. Tuesday night against Dallas, he set up the first goal (by Scott Niedermayer, on the doorstep), and scored the fourth in a 4-2 Anaheim win.

The second line is Brandon Bochenski, late of Boston, Chris Kunitz, and Doug Weight, another guy whose day might have come and gone, but seems to have come again. For his career, he averages nearly a point a game, and since coming to Anaheim, he has had one four-game scoring steak (2G, 3A). But that’s not all this line does. The classic second unit, they’re tough, and while they were held off the score-sheet against Dallas, they offer the hits that soften the opposition’s defense, as well as having their way around the net. Kunitz has 30 points (15G, 15A) thus far, playing in all of the team’s games to date (48).

The third line, the checking line, is currently without Samuel Pahlsson and temporarily missing Rob Niedermayer (see notes below). This line on Tuesday was Travis Moen with Ryan Carter and Todd Marchant. Though it featured just one original member, it did an effective job against Dallas’ top line of Brenden Morrow, Mike Ribeiro, and Antti Miettinen. The Dallas group had eight shots (six by Miettinen) but got nothing by Giguere.

Finally, Brad May, Brian Sutherby, and Drew Miller take up the slack as line four. As was detailed in this column some weeks ago, the Ducks added Sutherby from Washington, and he now has 21 games with the team. He’s got just one goal, but he’s a tough presence, with 38 penalty minutes. More than once, he and May, particularly, hovered over Dallas players when the rough stuff threatened Tuesday night.

May finally got into a lengthy scrap with Krystofer Barch. After the game, May was his jovial self in the locker room, but his face showed a cut next to one eye, a double-bump kind of thing on the cheek next to the other, and a general look of having been in a brawl. This line accounted for four shots on the night, and not by luck. May can move the puck, and Miller is tall and lanky, with good speed (he played on the top line during the finals last year in Games 1 and 2).

More than a collection of lines, however, the Ducks impressed on Tuesday night because they played like a team; one that simply doesn’t care what the other side is going to do, because they are going to execute their plan. In that respect, they resemble Detroit at its best, a group that can make the other guys look like they’re not quite ready to play in the same league.

Their feeling about their success showed in the various comments players and coaches made afterwards.

Giguere remarked, “We’re a very difficult game to beat in our building. It’s a very loud building.” He went on to talk about the upcoming road swing which has the Ducks playing 12 of 13 games away. “The key thing is not to change anything on the road. We play our same type of hockey, be physical and be sure our power play and penalty killing are very strong. We’re going to have to make a statement there [on the road]. We unfortunately take a lot of penalties and that’s the way we are; we play physical, and when you do that, you better be good at killing penalties.”

Marchant had this to say, “We have to go on a very difficult road trip, but we know that every point in every game is huge, especially when you’re playing against your own division. We were proof last year of how important it is to win that division. I saw on the scoreboard tonight that San Jose lost against Phoenix” [thus knotting San Jose, Anaheim, and Dallas up at 57-56-55 points, respectively].

He further said, “I think we’ve been playing better as of late. All the experts are going to say it’s because we’ve got Scott Niedermayer back, and we’ve got Doug Weight here, and obviously they’re a huge part of it. But those two guys aren’t going to turn the ship around by themselves. But having guys like that, it lifts everybody else’s game. They do it, not on purpose, but it happens. You can see it. Look at the play of Todd Bertuzzi lately; he’s been unbelievable with Perry and Getzlaf. Look what Ryan Carter’s been able to do to create offense for us now that Sammy [Pahlsson] has been out.”

“When you play better individually, you play better as a team. And right now, individual confidence has been growing every day, and so has our team’s confidence,” he finished.

Coach Carlyle said, “I thought we started the game kind of tentative, but in the second period, we found a way to get the puck through the neutral zone. We started the cycle game and the grind game, and we dominated. And then we seemed to build on that.”

He later said, “I don’t really try to judge our confidence level. What I try to do is judge how much of an understanding they [the players] have on how we have to play. The most important thing is that there’s a certain style we have to play. There’s certain things that we have to do to be effective. And when we do, we’ve proven to ourselves that we can be very, very effective. That has to stay consistent. That’s been the hugest issue since the beginning of the year is that we haven’t found a way to be consistent enough at it.”

Do you hear it? They already believe they’re going to do well again this year. They’re already mentally making ready for a playoff run.

What this adds up to is the intangible that everyone talks about which makes up a winning team — confidence. Now, the question might be asked whether confidence can be manufactured. Despite what your elementary school teacher told you (“Believe, and you can do anything, kids!”) the answer is, NO! If what that teacher said were true, you and I would be playing in the NHL instead of watching it on TV and at arenas like Honda Center.

No, confidence is a product of skill, and a team’s skill is the product of the right mix of talent being assembled by the people off the ice. So while everyone was counting the Ducks out, or standing pat and not shopping for players, the Anaheim brain trust was doing exactly what they did last year and assembling a winning team — getting guys like Bertuzzi, Weight, Sutherby, Bochenski, and Niedermayer (off of sabbatical) and developing guys like Miller and Carter in Portland of the AHL.

One thing is certain: should the Ducks make their way through the playoffs to the finals once more, the team from the East, whoever that might be, will treat them with much more respect, and much less disregard, than did the overconfident Ottawa Senators going into last year’s final series. It’s a long time until then, but for now, the Ducks are leaving for Nashville, Minnesota, and Dallas (all three games in four days, starting Thursday) with the sense that, if they’re not quite the same team as last year, they have the same skill as the team which won it all.

Ducks Notes

All of the above and no mention of Scott Niedermayer? He scored a goal and had two assists to tie his career-high one-game point production (he’s had three points 15 times.) His coach said afterwards, “I don’t get surprised anymore. The things he does, how effective he can be, [even] without the puck. He dominates in a lot of areas. He's a special player. This is the best game he’s played this year. Is he ‘there’ yet? Well, if he continues to play them all like that, the trouble is, we’re going to expect it!” The latter said with his familiar grin.

On IR at the moment: George Parros, retroactive to January 9th, with a (relatively minor) knee injury, and Samuel Pahlsson with abdominal inflammation. Rob Niedermayer is listed as day-to-day with a groin strain.

Brian Kennedy is reading from and signing his book Growing Up Hockey, at Vroman’s in Pasadena January 28th. Check out www.growinguphockey.com for more information or to share your hockey stories.