Advertising Opportunities

head coach: Pierre Page

roster: C - Matt Cullen, Travis Green, J.F. Jomphe, Sean Pronger, Steve Rucchin; LW - Shawn Antoski, Ted Drury, Paul Kariya, Tomas Sandstrom, Brent Severyn, Jeremy Stevenson; RW - Frank Banham, Jeff Nielsen, Warren Rychel, Teemu Selanne, Scott Young; D - Drew Bannister, Doug Houda, David Karpa, Jason Marshall, Dmitri Mironov, Ruslan Salei, Pavel Trnka; G - Guy Hebert, Mikhail Shtalenkov, Tom Askey.

injuries: Guy Hebert, g (strained right shoulder, placed on Injured Reserve retroactive to 3/9); Paul Kariya, lw (post-concussion syndrome, indefinite); Jeff Nielsen, rw (broken left fibula, expected out at least another week); Shawn Antoski, lw (depressed skull fracture, has resumed skating but is indefinite).

transactions: 3/20, recalled J.F. Jomphe, c, from Quebec (IHL); assigned Peter Leboutillier, rw, to Cincinnati (AHL); 3/17, assigned Kevin Todd, c, to Long Beach (IHL); 3/14, recalled Kevin Todd from Long Beach; 3/9, recalled Tom Askey, g, from Cincinnati; assigned Mike Leclerc, lw, and Richard Park, c, to Cincinnati.

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
Colorado     71  36  19  16    88  209  175
Los Angeles  68  32  25  11    75  197  179
Edmonton     71  27  34  10    64  179  199
San Jose     69  27  35   7    61  165  184
Calgary      69  22  34  13    57  185  209
Anaheim      70  23  37  10    56  171  217
Vancouver    71  21  37  13    55  195  242

game results:

3/09 at Los Angeles   L 4-3 OT
3/11 Toronto          L 3-1
3/13 at Dallas        L 6-3
3/18 at New Jersey    L 3-0
3/19 at Philadelphia  T 3-3
3/21 at Montreal      W 5-4
3/22 at Ottawa        W 5-2

team news:

by Alex Carswell, Anaheim Correspondent

ROAD TO SALVATION?

Well, not exactly. But it hasn't been the road to ruin everyone expected, either. The Battan Death March of roadies, featuring three pairs of back-to-back tilts against top Eastern teams, has been surprisingly successful for the technically-not-yet-out-of-contention Ducks. After staying close to Martin Brodeur and the Devils in a 3-0 loss (Brodeur stopped two Teemu Selanne breakaways with the score just 1-0), Anaheim shocked Philadelphia by battling to a 3-3 draw.

They then went into Montreal and -- sit down, everyone -- scored four power-play goals en route to a 5-4 win. While the third period of that game, as well as the final third of the next night's 5-2 win at Ottawa (in which they also notched two power-play markers), was a desperate fight to hold on, it was still a joy to behold.

The Ducks, invigorated by the absence of the "must-win" pressure that comes with a playoff race, are suddenly an exuberant, speedy, hard forechecking team. Selanne has stepped up his quest for a goal- scoring title with a pair of two-goal games and a hat trick (against the Senators). Rookie Frank Banham, a minor-league scoring sensation who once potted 83 goals in the WHL, is proving to be a natural finisher at the NHL level as well. And he's got good timing, too. Of the five goals in his last six games, three have been critical first goals, allowing the Ducks to take home crowds out of the game.

Question: Where was this kid two months ago when Pierre Page hated everybody on the roster south of Rucchin and Selanne?

Right about now, Banham looks like a Teemu in the making, and has been playing beautifully alongside young Matt Cullen, who is showing great hands and good chemistry with his right winger. Banger Jeremy Stevenson has completed the trio on some nights.

The Anaheim renaissance has even included Tomas Sandstrom, who after going goal-less in 1998, finally put a couple on the board and seems much more confident. Will it be enough to keep him in a Ducks uniform for another season? In the upcoming hunt for scapegoats, the odds are he won't.

SAME OLD D

On defense, however, the Ducks remains woeful, relying on Mikhail Shtalenkov to keep them in games. And with Guy Hebert out basically since the Olympic break, Misha has had a lot of work. He made a career-high seventh straight start against Montreal, and has been strong for the most part. Against Ottawa, he faced an Anaheim record-high 52 shots against, and made some beauties early in the third period when the outcome was still in doubt.

But goaltending acrobatics only serve to highlight Anaheim's season-long, defensive-zone weakness. Over the summer, team management (whomever that may be) will have to decide if this season's trials behind the blue line were a result of immature talent, insufficient systems or some combination of the two.

NEW COMBO

One thing seems certain: The combination of management will not be the same once the season ends. With questions swirling as to the team's future direction, GM Jack Ferreira has asked Page not to even mention his name in any context to the press corps. And while Page seeks to defend his boss, his words often do more harm than good.

The coach was recently quoted as saying that last year's success, juxtaposed to this year's serious underachievement, was "a real credit to Ron Wilson." And those are words that may have sealed his and Ferreira's fates.

In truth, Ferreira's current problems can in large part be attributed to the difficulty of working for Anaheim Sports. To his credit, Ferreira still maintains that dismissing Wilson was his own decision. But followers of the team know otherwise; that the order came from higher up. Add mandated budget constraints to that ill- advised firing, and the GM finds himself in a not-so-envious spotlight.

In the end, rather than being supported for being a corporate team player, Ferreira will likely be blown out.

As for Page, he also suffered from personnel issues ranging from serious injuries to an outright lack of talent. But he has displayed little of Ron Wilson's ability to work with what he had, and disastrously shuffled his lineup cards from game to game, period to period, shift to shift. The lack of cohesiveness the team has demonstrated all season long must be laid at the coach's feet. Plus, he wasn't the anonymous, closed- mouth bench boss Disney was looking for either.

In the new math of the NHL, all that adds up to a pink slip in April.

WHAT DISCIPLINE?

On Friday the 13th, when Craig Ludwig left his feet to nail Teemu Selanne with a brutal elbow in the third period of a Dallas blowout (the score was then 5-1), all hell broke loose. Selanne's teammates, snickered at for not defending their captain when he was abused by Chicago's Gary Suter, this time put up their dukes. In a final four minutes that lasted nearly an hour, every Ducks player capable of throwing looked to make a statement. And they did.

In a scene reminiscent of, well, nothing ever seen before, Anaheim played the game's final two minutes with an empty bench (save for relieved goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov), rookie Tom Askey making his first-ever appearance in net and just three players -- all forwards -- on the ice. At one point, Askey fired the puck directly off the playing surface, a mandatory delay of game call. But referee Lance Roberts mercifully looked the other way.

Several days later, NHL "disciplinarian" Brian Burke looked the other way as well, handing Ludwig just two games for his blatant thuggery. That Selanne was not seriously injured was a testament to nothing but Jofa's fine headgear, and Burke's lax punishment was a disgrace.

Burke claimed Ludwig didn't go into the corner "intending" to hurt Selanne, and therefore didn't deserve more punishment. But that's a crock, and another in an endless stream of ridiculous and inconsistent rulings from Burke's office. Is Burke telling us that guys, like the thrice-suspended Rick Tocchet, who reflexively extend their legs and go knee-on-knee are deliberately intending to injure opponents?

Just the opposite, in fact. With Tocchet (and others who have received stiff suspensions for similar acts), Burke decreed that while there may not have been an intent to injure, players have to "learn" (presumably from his discipline) not to put their counterparts at risk.

In this case, all Ludwig learned was that he could get away with just about anything.

As for myself, I also harbor the suspicion that Burke's lax discipline was influenced by the fact that Selanne is European, and therefore not as deserving of league protection as a North American star would be.

Even James Patrick, the Calgary defenseman, spoke out independently about Ludwig's slap on the wrist. "I think any deliberate attempt to go after a guy's head should be (punished with) a two-minute minor and a game misconduct. You watch Ludwig on Selanne and he jumps at him. It wasn't like Teemu ducked down and was hit while Ludwig was straight up." Patrick added that dealing with hits to the head should be a "priority" for the NHL.

And while we're ragging on the league and Ludwig, how about making him lose those goalie pads he wears on his ankles?

COMING UP

An encounter with Gary Suter, as the Ducks head into Chicago and then Detroit (which rumor has it is trying to acquire the future free-agent defenseman). Chicago will mark the return of Brent Severyn, who was automatically suspended for four games for instigating the revenge brawl against Dallas.

As for trade rumors around the team, Dmitri Mironov is said to be available, as is Scott Young. The latter possibility is somewhat mind boggling, as Young has been one of the team's best players since recovering from nagging season-long injuries over the Olympic break.

[ issues | web extra | stats | nhl archive | home | chat | mailing list | about us | search | comments ]

1998 © Copyright LCS Hockey All Rights Reserved