Francois Beauchemin: Rangers, Coyotes will make Stanley Cup Final

Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau and Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin will blog for The Times occasionally throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs. Today, Beauchemin gives his general thoughts on the playoffs and the upcoming Kings-Coyotes series.

Hello, everyone,

Both of these Conference Finals series are intriguing to me. I really expect both of them to be long, hard-fought battles. The Kings really continue to impress. All their forwards are playing well and Dustin Brown is having a great postseason. He’s the most impressive skater to me so far in the playoffs. He is scoring key goals, and he’s so strong, big and physical. And he leads by example.

And of course, Jonathan Quick has been great from the start of the playoffs! I thought he and the team had a great response after the bad goal in Game 1. Sometimes a team puts its head down and gets discouraged after a goal like that. But Quick responded, and so did the team. Scoring the next goal was really important.

As for Phoenix, they need to contain L.A.’s top guys. Try and limit their time and space. If they can disrupt the Kings’ top scorers, and don’t let them make plays with the puck, it can also lead to more offensive chances for Phoenix.

The goalies are all playing so well. New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist was really good last night. That should be a really good series. In Game 1, not only do you have their goalie playing well, but the Rangers are blocking a ton of shots. When you have a defenseman jumping in front of the puck, it helps your goalie a lot. Plus they got some offense from their defensemen. Dan Girardi scored a huge goal last night. He’s doing everything for his team, scoring goals, making hits, blocking shots. That’s a key to winning a series, sacrificing the body.

At this stage of the playoffs, it’s really about being in your own mental zone. You don’t really have to think about what you have to do -- you just do it. You are so focused on your job and that’s all that matters. Practice at this time of year doesn’t really matter. Because if you don’t know your role at this point, you won’t ever know what you’re doing! It becomes more about just getting ready and rest. That’s the most important thing. Especially for the Rangers. They have to rest up because they’ve been in two seven-game series.

It’s tough to make predictions on these series. In six or seven games, I will take the Rangers in the East. And with a possible Game 7 at home, I will take Phoenix in seven.

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Francois Beauchemin: Rangers, Coyotes will make Stanley Cup Final