Ducks are definitely on right path

So much was so familiar, and yet so different.

Ottawa Senators Coach Bryan Murray shouting and gesturing wildly behind the visitors’ bench at the Honda Center.

The Ducks beating the Senators, as they did last spring to win the Stanley Cup.

Although their game Monday was billed as a rematch of those five-game finals, these were not the same teams that met last June.

They’ve both had bumpy journeys since then, forcing them to endure changes that haven’t always gone well.

The Senators hired John Paddock to replace Murray and then fired him last week because he couldn’t enforce a sense of discipline on or off the ice and the team was coming unraveled.

The Ducks, unsettled by the retirements of Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer and overwhelmed by injuries, experienced a frustration deeper than any they felt last season. They couldn’t score. Couldn’t win. Couldn’t find two productive lines.

That’s where the similarities end.

The Ducks have found their way again, a point emphasized by their assertive 3-1 victory Monday in a performance reminiscent of their success last spring.

“I’m putting a lot of faith in what I know this group can do from last year and the year before rather than on how we’ve played,” General Manager Brian Burke said, “although our play has improved of late, also.”

They’ve turned their season around not only because Niedermayer’s return restored a calm confidence to their defense and Selanne’s more recent appearance has restored the emotion and depth they missed up front.

They’ve righted themselves because they’ve learned something about mental toughness this season, about the need to persevere when things aren’t going as smoothly as they did a year ago.

The Senators may be about to fall apart, still uncertain about their goaltending and unable to generate much offense.

The Ducks appear ready to take off on another playoff adventure, offering the promise of more nights when emerging superstar Ryan Getzlaf is the catalyst for their offense and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere again rescues them from their occasional mistakes, as he did Monday.

Nights that end with a happy crowd filing out into a warm Southern California evening.

Nights to remember, like a special night last June when confetti fell from the ceiling and the Cup was paraded around the ice.

“We’re pushing in the right direction right now,” Giguere said.

“We have another gear to go before the playoffs, but we’re certainly going the right way.”

That was evident Monday as they won their sixth consecutive game, matching their best streak this season.

It’s significant that it was the Senators, not the penalty-prone Ducks, who were guilty of losing their composure Monday.

Murray was ejected in the third period after loudly protesting several calls and the Senators were assessed two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties; the Ducks scored on one of those power plays, putting the game well out of reach.

“It’s important to make a statement right now,” Giguere said.

To Murray, a former Ducks coach and general manager, the Ducks are the model of what he’d like to see his team achieve. It can happen, he said, “I think if we can get everyone to buy into the idea that you have to work hard and play positionally.

“You watch Anaheim -- that’s what they do. They play real good defense, and as a result they get offense. If we can just do it a little bit better our goaltending will be better as well.”

They didn’t get that Monday. The Ducks were better in every aspect of the game, scoring twice on power plays and killing off four disadvantages.

It has taken them nearly 70 games to reach this point. They’ve had to become accustomed to being a target of every team eager to improve its resume with a victory over the Cup champions. They’ve had to find a comfortable spot for winger Todd Bertuzzi and to finally get everyone -- except broken-jawed Chris Pronger -- back into the lineup.

While they were trying to regain their footing, several of their key rivals got better.

The San Jose Sharks added mobile defenseman Brian Campbell. The Dallas Stars grabbed Brad Richards from Tampa Bay. Both teams became bigger in an effort to match the Ducks’ physicality.

Whether they also became better will play out in April and May.

“I liked our defense, even with Campbell going to San Jose,” Burke said. “Most experts will say our defense is as strong as anybody’s.

“We’ve got a ton of playoff experience now in this group. We’ve played seven rounds in two years. I’ll put our coach up against anybody’s, and I’ll put our goalie at playoff time up against anybody.

“We have to win our share of games now and hope we get home ice if it’s attainable.”

The Ducks are fourth in the tough Western Conference. If they stay there, they’d get the home-ice edge that Burke covets. If it was difficult to imagine a few months ago that they’d be in such good shape now, it’s even more difficult to think they’ll lose their way again.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.