Playoffs a Midwinter Night’s Dream Right Now

It’s Jan. 30, and the Mighty Ducks are tied with the Kings for the eighth and final Western Conference playoff spot.

The morning after the Kings’ 5-1 victory over the Ducks at the Forum, they each have 44 points.

Is that worth the paper the standings are printed on? Do the Ducks really have a shot at making the playoffs in their first season? And do they think they do?

January in hockey is about like July in baseball.

There’s a lot of season left.

Maybe the most important number isn’t the 44 points the Ducks have compiled, but the number of games they’ve played--53.

The Kings have played only 49. Ditto the San Jose Sharks, who are one point behind. Ditto the Vancouver Canucks, with 50 points.

“I think the Kings have four or five games in hand, so even though we’re tied right now, those games in hand are going to be important,” said center Bob Corkum, who figures the Ducks would probably have to pass the Stanley Cup finalists to make the playoffs. As it stands now, the Ducks would go because the first tie-breaker is most victories. The Ducks have 20, the Kings 19.

“We’d like to at least do as well as we did in the first half. Anything less would be selling ourselves short. The second half, though, tends to get a little tougher with everybody vying for the playoffs.”

General Manager Jack Ferreira knows that. Everybody knows that.

“This is usually when the intensity picks up,” Ferreira said.

Even though the team printed up optimistic “Skate for Eight” T-shirts at the start of the season, they aren’t spending every day in a playoff-race frenzy. They say they believe they can do it, but they haven’t thrown all their eggs in that basket yet.

“We’re not thinking that way,” Ferreira said. “All we’re thinking is stay close, stay in the race, make it miserable for the other teams. The pressure’s on the other teams, not on us.

“I think if you just stay close, who knows what will happen.”

In the meantime, staying close helps you stay close.

“What it does when you stay close and compete for that spot, eighth overall, is it enables the players to focus every night,” Ferreira said. “It puts more emphasis on every game.”

Coach Ron Wilson was amazed the Ducks were tied with the Kings the first time the teams met, Dec. 2.

Jan. 30, and the standings are the same. And the Ducks, who would probably taken 15 victories this season and been happy, given the chance.

Corkum said the team started really believing about the time they got their 12th road victory this month.

Now the Ducks get seriously upset when they lose.

“Everybody realizes the importance of every game--that’s because we’re close,” Ferreira said. “When there’s disappointment after a loss, it’s because we didn’t get the two points we should have gotten.”