You can go home again -- sort of

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The Ducks’ next two games at the Honda Center will be a homecoming for a quartet of former Ducks, who will be recognized during mini-tributes on the overhead message board during the first TV timeout.

First to arrive, on Saturday, will be center Sammy Pahlsson, whose work on the checking line with Rob Niedermayer and Travis Moen was instrumental in the Ducks’ 2007 Stanley Cup run. He was traded to Chicago last season but signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets this summer. He has three assists and is plus-four in eight games.

Three other key figures from the Ducks’ Cup team will return Monday with the Toronto Maple Leafs: Former general manager Brian Burke, defenseman Francois Beauchemin and goaltending consultant Francois Allaire.

Burke made the Ducks tougher and built a sterling defense corps after his arrival in 2005, and the Ducks became the first California-based club to win the Cup. He left last November to be closer to his family on the East Coast and soon afterward was named general manager of the Maple Leafs. He hasn’t had anywhere near as much success there: The Leafs are the NHL’s only winless team and Burke faces more media scrutiny than any other general manager. Watch for an interview with him in Monday’s Times, at www.latimes.com/sports.

Beauchemin, a bruising defenseman with a booming shot, was another valuable contributor to the Ducks’ Cup championship. Their salary-cap squeeze prevented them from re-signing him and he departed as a free agent last summer--and thier defense misses his physicality and offensive contributions.

Allaire was the team’s goaltending guru for 13 seasons and formed an especially strong bond with Jean-Sebastien Giguere, helping mold Giguere into a Conn Smythe winner in 2003 and Cup champion in 2007. He also went back East to be near to his family.

-- Helene Elliott