2007 Stanley Cup Final

Paths to the Finals

They eliminated the seventh-seeded Minnesota Wild and third-seeded Vancouver Canucks in five games each, then defeated their rivals, the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings, in six games to win the Western Conference Final. The Ducks led all playoff teams in penalty minutes but also posted a top penalty-kill percentage. Their roster featured Norris Trophy candidates Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger, offensive contributors Andy McDonald, Teemu Selanne, and Ryan Getzlaf, and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

A checking line of Rob Niedermayer, Samuel Pahlsson, and Travis Moen was tasked with shutting down Ottawa's offense. The fourth-seeded Ottawa Senators swept through the Eastern Conference, beating the fifth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins, second-seeded New Jersey Devils, and Presidents' Trophy-winning Buffalo Sabres, each series lasting five games. Ottawa became the first Ontario-based team to reach the Finals since the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1967. The Senators were led by their top line of Daniel Alfredsson, Dany Heatley, and Jason Spezza, who combined for 23 goals in the first three rounds, along with goaltender Ray Emery.

Key supporting players included Mike Fisher, Dean McAmmond, Chris Phillips, and Anton Volchenkov. Ottawa aimed to counter Anaheim's defense with speed and a higher-scoring offense, though both teams employed a similar style of responsible team defense. Anaheim held home-ice advantage after finishing the regular season with 110 points to Ottawa's 105. Much of the pre-series attention focused on Ottawa being considered "Canada's Team," despite Anaheim having five more Canadian skaters, as fans hoped to end a 14-year drought for Canadian teams since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens won the Cup.

Game summaries

Only four players remained on the Ducks roster from their 2003 Finals appearance, including Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jean-Sebastien Giguere. The general manager of that 2003 club, Bryan Murray, was now head coach of the Ottawa Senators. Two Ottawa-area players were on the Ducks roster. The Senators and Ducks had never met in the playoffs and had not faced each other since January 19, 2006, when the then-Mighty Ducks won 4–3 in overtime in Ottawa.

This was the first time since the 1925 Victoria Cougars that a west coast team won the Stanley Cup, and the first time an NHL team from the west coast had done so. The Ducks became the fourth west coast team to win the Cup and the first from California. Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, a Swede, was the first European-born-and-raised captain to lead a team to the Finals; all previous Finals captains had been Canadian or American. As of the end of the 2021 playoffs, the Senators remain the only Canadian team to represent the East in the Finals since 1993.

These Finals marked the third straight in which a Canadian franchise lost to a team based in the southern half of the United States, following the 2004 Calgary Flames and 2006 Edmonton Oilers. The series was the first to feature two teams from the early-1990s expansion era (Ottawa entered in 1992, Anaheim in 1993). It was the first Finals since 1999 where neither finalist had previously won the Stanley Cup, and the third consecutive season that the Cup was won by a team claiming its first championship, after Tampa Bay in 2004 and Carolina in 2006. It was also the first Finals since 2002 that did not require a seventh game.

Stanley Cup engraving

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman presented the Stanley Cup to Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer after Anaheim's 6–2 win in game five. The following players and staff had their names engraved: George Parros, who played 32 regular-season games and 5 playoff games, was included via an exemption as he did not automatically qualify. Four non-players—CEO, GM, COO, and Head Coach—were included, the first time since the 1993–94 New York Rangers that non-playing positions appeared on the Cup.

Only 47 of the maximum 52 names were engraved. Four healthy scratches for the entire Final were left off: Sebastien Caron and Tim Brent did not play or dress for any playoff games; Mark Hartigan and Aaron Rome, who each played one playoff game, were denied inclusion by the NHL because they spent most of the season in the minors and did not play in the last two rounds. Anaheim did not request an exemption for Caron. Tim Brent, who played 15 regular-season games, was also left off without a request for exemption.

Television and ratings

The 2007 Stanley Cup Final drew exceptionally poor television ratings in the United States. Games one and two aired on Versus, then a new cable channel. Game one earned a 0.5 national rating (523,000 households), ranking 58th for the day. Game two drew a 0.4 rating (446,000 households), ranking 74th and falling below the 2006 WNBA All-Star Game on ESPN (447,000 households).

The series moved to NBC for the remaining games, but NBC was then a perennial last among the Big Four networks and setting record-low ratings in spring 2007. Game three on NBC garnered a 1.1 rating (approximately 1,205,600 households), the lowest-rated prime-time broadcast in NBC history; by comparison, game six of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on TNT that night achieved a 5.3 rating (5,808,800 households). Game four posted a 1.9 rating (2,082,400 households), down 5 percent from the previous year's game four.

Game five received a 1.8 rating (1,972,800 households). Overall, NBC's ratings were down 20 percent from the previous season, making it the least-watched Finals in the United States. Versus was available to only 50 percent of cable-equipped homes in the Los Angeles area, limiting local buzz; game one drew a 1.7 local rating on Versus, making it the fifth-most-watched cable network in that market. Local numbers improved on NBC: the Cup-clinching game five drew a 6.0 rating and 12 share (496,000 viewers) in Los Angeles, more than double the audience for a Dodgers–Padres baseball game on KCAL 9 (3.0/5, 218,000 viewers). The Los Angeles Times' Larry Stewart called the Ducks' final ratings performance "pretty good."