Are The Anaheim Ducks Done?

Many expected the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks to go toe-to-toe in their first-round matchup. Not only that, but considering that the Ducks had home-ice advantage, you would've thought that the Ducks were going to walk out of their own building with two big wins.

That wasn't the case.

Games 1 & 2 found the Sharks sitting in good leads and eventually winning both games. Now, last night in Game 3, the Sharks showed up while the Ducks may have had their worst performance of the season. They got blown out 8-1 in Game 3. For many of us, that's unacceptable. What's even worse is now the Ducks sit themselves in an 3-0 hole and many are expecting the Sharks to just finish them off and head off to the second round.

Is there still a saving grace for the Ducks? Perhaps. And considering their opponents, they're going to have a big uphill battle.

In Game 3, the Ducks had terrible penalty issues, and the Sharks capitalized on that with eight power play opportunities, getting goals in four of those opportunities. The Ducks also couldn't find the net. In the three games in this series, they've only scored three times. That's also unacceptable.

Ryan Getzlaf has two assists in the three games while Rickard Rakell has one goal in three games. Rakell led the team in scoring during the regular season. Another high-profile player for the Ducks, Corey Perry, has yet to make an impact this postseason, having a minus-3 rating, eight penalty minutes and seven shots on goal. Ryan Kesler is also not showing up, with only four shots and an assist.

While those figures may seem like a worrisome trend, it also shows the toughness and the great play that the Sharks have gone through right now, and if the Ducks have any chance of turning it around in this series, they're going to have to step up, and that means the big players on this team will have to step up as well.

The bigger question is: Whether or not the Ducks are ready for Game 4, are they done for the rest of the postseason? It remains to be seen, but if they keep playing the way they did the first three games, then they are officially done. The Sharks are not a team that you want to pushover and the feeling for the first three games is that the Ducks have underestimated. News flash: The Sharks are not a pushover, unlike many other teams. They play defense, they have toughness, and they have great goaltending that many teams struggle against. The Ducks are certainly one of those teams.

In my best estimate, the Ducks look like they're done. Even if they win Game 4 and perhaps Game 5, this is not the Kings-Sharks series of many years ago, when the Kings came back from a 3-0 hole to win the series. The Ducks are struggling on offense, their stars are not stepping up, and they're taking penalties. You can't have that for the rest of this series and beyond. So right now, the Ducks are not done but more mistakes like this and that could seal their fate.