Ducks Learning to Talk, Walk Like Successful Team

The plane will take off early this morning, carrying the Mighty Ducks to New York and their very first regular-season road game.

Who’d have thought that, along with their luggage, they’d be bringing with them:

--More points in the NHL standings than the Stanley Cup semifinalist New York Islanders, Patrick/Atlantic Division runner-up Washington, Western Conference-favorite Detroit and the Pat Lafontaine-Dale Hawerchuk-Grant Fuhr-led Buffalo Sabres.

--More victories than San Jose and Ottawa. Combined.

--As many victories and as many points as the Chicago Blackhawks.

--A three-game undefeated streak.

--A share of the ninth-best record in the Western Conference. If the season ended today--and for reasons such as this, it won’t until mid-April--the Ducks would miss the playoffs by a single point.

How high are these Ducks flying today?

They have already printed T-shirts with the slogan “Skate For Eight,” a giddy reference to what they need to do to qualify for the Stanley Cup tournament in their inaugural season.

Skate for eighth place in the Western Conference.

Easy to say when you have yet to set skate on enemy ice, but say this much for the Ducks in their initial five-game homestand: After the opening-night bombardment, a 7-2 pratfall against Detroit, they have been better than anyone could have expected, a .500 hockey team in a county where .500 athletic teams deserve ticker-tape parades.

Who would you rather watch on a mid-October Sunday--the collapsable Rams or the check-till-they-drop Fighting Ducks?

The Ducks were 20.7 seconds away from their second victory Sunday night, completely outplaying a strangely disjointed and disoriented Calgary team. Having softened up the Red Wings and the Islanders for their neighbors in Inglewood, the Ducks had the favor returned when the Kings pounded the Flames on Saturday night before sending them down the freeway 24 hours later.

The Ducks outshot the Flames, outhit them, outhustled them. With a half-minute to play, the Ducks also had them outscored, 2-1.

But the Flames pulled their goalie for one final desperate rush and created a traffic jam around Guy Hebert, hunkering down for his first victory in the purple and green.

Hebert kicked away one shot, a long-range bullet off the stick of Gary Suter, but Calgary swooped upon the rebound and kept the puck in the offensive zone.

A few ticks of the clock later and Al MacInnis was cranking up a blast from the right circle, finding Joe Nieuwendyk free in the crease for a flick of the wrists and the game-tying goal.

Rock the Pond? Nieuwendyk’s shot drained the Pond, robbing the arena of all its on-your-feet energy, sending a hush over the crowd as if there had just been another sighting of the Iceman.

Overtime ensued and, at this point in their history, the Ducks know overtime only to be a royal pain in their hip pads. They lost to the Islanders in overtime, they hung on for dear life to tie Boston, 1-1, in overtime and now they had to recharge to fend off Nieuwendyk, Theoren Fleury and Gary Roberts one more time.

The Ducks played this extra period more aggressively than the others and had two shots to win, a backhander by Sean Hill in the slot and slap shot by Myles O’Connor that Calgary’s Mike Vernon snuffed with a glove save.

Hebert then had to stave off one last flurry around his crease, enduring a body slam from Nieuwendyk in the process, but the horn did sound and the Ducks had their tie and their fourth point of the season.

Ducks Coach Ron Wilson called it “our best all-around game.” and was pleased to note that “We keep improving a little bit each game. Tonight, for 60 minutes, there wasn’t a point where you said, ‘Here are the real Mighty Ducks,’ or that we were back on our heels.

“Obviously we were trying to win. If we could’ve scored on some of the chances we had in and around their goalie, we would have.”

Defenseman Todd Ewen looked at the Ducks’ 1-2-2 record and was enthused.

“You can’t look around and say, ‘We need a little more here, we need a little more there,’ ” Ewen said. “The defense is coming up great, the forwards are forechecking and playing real well. We may not be scoring much but that’s going to come.”

Next test: The Road.

The Ducks’ first trip through the heart of the NHL will take them to Madison Square Garden, New Jersey, Montreal, Ottawa and San Jose. They will be hooted, they will be jeered, they will no longer be the cute kids on the corner of Katella and Douglass.

Wilson, of course, forecasts nothing but the best.

“Our character (already) has been tested here at home,” he said. “We know every game’s going to be a battle.

“I think we’re better suited to playing on the road because maybe we can catch some teams letting down and we can catch a break. Our style is conducive to being successive on the road because the other team has to press if they’re at home. I’m sure if we stay sound and stay patient, we’ll be OK.”

That was the status report as of this morning.

OK.

As far as first flights go, the Mighty Ducks could be doing a lot worse.