His Cold Duck Reception Is Followed by Deep Freeze

The Iceman has been iced.

The silver-faced, glittery character who almost got booed out of Anaheim Arena at the Mighty Ducks’ opener Friday night won’t be at the Ducks’ game against the New York Islanders tonight.

“He’s in a cryogenic freeze,” club President Tony Tavares said, leaving him a sliver of a chance of being revived at a later date. “The Iceman cometh, and the Iceman goeth.”

The sellout crowd of 17,174 at the first Duck game cheered wildly for almost everything Disney concocted, but they drew the line at the Iceman. Rumor had it he was even heckled while standing in line to buy a hot dog.

When he tried to entice the crowd into a prim version of “Twist and Shout” between the second and third periods with the Ducks trailing, 5-1, they let him have it.

Tavares--who swears he doesn’t even know the name of the person who plays the Iceman--said the character was the victim of some “bad cues” that sent him out to try to rally the crowd during 30-second timeouts instead of full ones, leaving him at his shenanigans in the stands while the fans were trying to watch the action resume.

Besides that, his guitar didn’t always work.

Besides that, “I think some of it had to do with the score, frankly,” Tavares said.

Besides that, whose idea was he, anyway?

In any case, the Iceman won’t dress for tonight’s game. Will he ever be back?

“It depends on whether he gets thawed out,” Tavares said.

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Fans at Friday’s game bought more than $300,000 worth of T-shirts, caps, jerseys, programs and other merchandise--which might be a record take for an NHL game.

It also could put a dent in the bill for an the extravagant opening-night celebration, which cost more than $450,000.

Tavares said the numbers aren’t final--they’re still counting program sales--but indications are that those in the crowd spent an average of about $17.50 each.

The league average is slightly less than $1 per fan per night. One man was seen buying a dozen caps “for clients” and even some reporters returned to the press box with purchases.