It’s as if Chris Pronger will determine how much hockey we have left to watch in 2006-07. Or, more accurately, the absence of Chris Pronger.

For the second time in this playoff season, the Anaheim defenseman will be on the sidelines for Game 4 of a series, suspended again for an illegal hit of an opponent. He will miss a pivotal game in which Ottawa will tie up the Stanley Cup finals or Anaheim will put a chokehold on the Senators with a three-games-to-one lead.

A little more than two weeks ago, Pronger was out for Game 4 of the Western Conference finals against Detroit. That didn’t keep the Ducks from bouncing back from a two-games-to-one deficit and an embarrassing 5-0 defeat in Game 3. They claimed a 5-3 win in Game 4 and advanced to the Stanley Cup finals.

That says a lot about the Ducks, who, this time, find themselves up a game in the series. Still, this time they face an offensive juggernaut that finally found its scoring touch in Game 3. In Ottawa’s 5-3 win on Saturday, Daniel Alfredsson also broke through with a goal, the first time in the series that one of the big three -- Alfredsson, Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza -- has found the net.

Anaheim has managed to stifle the trio. Heatley has just three shots in three games against the Ducks. Spezza has just one more. Neither Heatley nor Spezza put a shot on goal Saturday while their teammates scored five times.

The Ducks may be sitting on a powder keg that is more likely to blow with Pronger not on the ice. If one or more of these three gets it going Monday night in Ottawa, the Senators may be poised to do what Anaheim did in its last series: fall behind two games to one and win the next three.

Will the Ducks step up as they did in Game 4 against Detroit? Even with the absence of Pronger, the Ducks may be setting us up for one last hockey game of the season Wednesday night.