Corey Perry won the Stanley Cup in 2007.
He was 22-years-old at the time and had absolutely no reason to believe that he would not win it again. His team, the Anaheim Ducks, had a roster filled with big names, and Perry and Ryan Getzlaf made up one of the youngest and most dangerous offensive duos in the National Hockey League.
Nine teams have hoisted the Cup since — and Anaheim hasn’t been one of them.
Perry says the biggest problem lies in the fact that there is no formula to follow.
“You try to figure it out each and every year. You need the right bounces. Injuries come into play. You need that big goal at the right time. You need different guys to step up all the time. It’s hard.”
Perry stands as someone who has now won everything from a Midget championship to the Memorial Cup and World Junior gold. He added the final two pieces to his collection with a World Hockey championship and World Cup title this past spring and fall and now finds himself a part of one of the NHL’s hottest teams going into the playoffs. Anaheim closed the season with an 11-0-3 run and finished first in the Pacific division.
The Ducks play the Calgary Flames in round one. As good as the Flames have been this year, the matchup would seem to favour Anaheim.
Calgary has not won a game in Anaheim in 13 years. Their last victory there was on January 19, 2004.
Perry says the Ducks do not even talk about that.
“It’s going to be intense. We’ve always had great games with them and it’s a good rivalry… Calgary has a really loud building. When you play anywhere in Canada in the months of April or May to play hockey, it’s always a lot of fun.”
This is the ninth time that Perry will play in the NHL playoffs. He has 78 points in 97 post-season appearances and always seems to provide that necessary X-factor. Perry has 144 playoff penalty minutes.
With the way the year could have gone, he is just appreciating what the Ducks have been able to achieve and is focusing on where the team still wants to go.
“You’re fortunate to be one of the 16 teams to be vying for a chance to get to the end of the road and be the ones holding the Stanley Cup,” he says. “You just want to get it going. You just want to get started.”
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