First look

What to look for as the Ducks and Canucks meet in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. All games on Versus:

How they match up: On paper, the Ducks are the deeper team. Anaheim scored 36 more goals than Vancouver during the regular season, with five players scoring 25 or more. Much of the Canucks’ offense comes from twins Daniel and Henrik Sedin, along with captain Markus Naslund. The Ducks have Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer at the front of a tough, physical defense, but Vancouver’s unit is very underrated. Sami Salo, Mattias Ohlund, Kevin Bieksa and Brent Sopel can all provide offense from the blue line and are solid performers in their own end. Anaheim dominated the special teams in a first-round victory over the Minnesota Wild. The Canucks went one for 31 on the power play against the Dallas Stars before scoring twice with the advantage in Monday’s 4-1 Game 7 win.

* Goaltending: The Ducks have a tandem that’s the envy of most teams in the NHL with Ilya Bryzgalov and Jean-Sebastien Giguere playing well in the first round. Bryzgalov won the first three games against the Wild and Giguere stopped 26 of 27 shots in the series-clinching Game 5. However, Vancouver has Roberto Luongo, who only confirmed his status as one of the league’s best netminders with a career-best 47 wins during the regular season. Luongo stopped a team-record 72 shots in Game 1 against Dallas and finished with a 19-save effort to outduel the Stars’ Marty Turco in the seventh game.

* What to watch for: Wouldn’t Ducks General Manager Brian Burke love to stick it to the team that fired him after he resuscitated the once-moribund franchise? Game 1 could set the tone for the rested Ducks, who haven’t handled extended time off well in the past. Vancouver will be on an emotional high after its tough seven-game series. Anaheim handled Minnesota fairly easily without much production from its top line of Teemu Selanne, Andy McDonald and Chris Kunitz. Longtime Canucks star Trevor Linden, now a 37-year-old checking forward, played big against Dallas as his two goals were the eventual winners in Game 4 and Game 7.