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Carlyle urges intensity with Perry’s return

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Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle had a blunt message for Corey Perry on Saturday as the right wing prepared to return from a four-game suspension.

It was so blunt that we can’t quote him here.

Suffice it to say he urged Perry to increase his intensity during a tough practice that left many players gasping.

“I said it more than once to him,” Carlyle said. “And he’s going to hear it again [today]. Move his feet, move his legs, get going.”

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That’s good advice for the whole team, which lost its last two games by 4-3 scores. Carlyle barked it more than once during a challenging session at the Honda Center.

“I don’t think that in some situations we were as sharp as we needed to be,” he said, “and sometimes the old-fashioned work ‘em a little harder works to sharpen some people up.”

Perry’s return from his banishment, imposed by the NHL after he elbowed Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux in the head, bumped rookie Bobby Ryan to the second scoring line with Andrew Ebbett and Brendan Morrison.

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Carlyle said he considered leaving Ryan with Ryan Getzlaf and Chris Kunitz but thought it best to reunite the long-established duo of Perry and Getzlaf.

“At this point Bobby’s proven that he doesn’t have to play with those people to provide offense,” Carlyle said.

Perry said he didn’t intend to hurt Giroux but won’t change his style, which can be sneaky-abrasive.

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“I’m still going to play the same way,” Perry said. “It’s something that you have to live with and you move on and you go out there and keep playing your game.”

Carlyle wouldn’t identify his starting goalie, but he never does. He said Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s recent struggles (winless in five with a 3.60 goals-against average in that span) partly reflect the team’s inconsistency on defense.

“You cannot put the blame squarely in their corner,” Carlyle said of Giguere and Jonas Hiller. “They’ve saved our butts more often than we’ve saved theirs.”

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helene.elliott@latimes.com

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