Mighty Migration : Ducks Branching Out During Work Stoppage : Tim Sweeney

Tim Sweeney is one player who won’t file for unemployment benefits. He’s found a job--as a house painter in suburban Boston.

“There’s only one thing about it, you can’t rush it or it won’t look good. You can’t be in a hurry,” said Sweeney, who is making about $400 a week working for his brother, Patrick. He would have made $285,000 with the Ducks.

“It’s fun just to--you know how men are--you miss the camaraderie of a hockey team. This is working with the guys, talking the whole day.

“I’m learning new things every day too. I’ll be putting aluminum siding on a house next. I think all this will come in pretty handy when the time comes when I have work on my own house.”

Sweeney and his wife, Christina, returned to Hanover, Mass., when the lockout began. He has been skating two or three times a week with players at Weymouth High, going to local football games and working five days a week.

One nagging worry is his future with the Ducks, who left him unprotected for the waiver draft, which was canceled because of the labor dispute. As the Ducks’ fourth-leading scorer last season, he thinks there’s a good chance he could be picked up by another team when and if the waiver draft is held.

Until then, he’ll keep painting, “for the time being,” he said. “I don’t have anything else to do. That’s one of the reasons why I’m doing the painting. You can only work out so many hours of the day. I’m trying to keep busy and keep my mind off things.”

The approach of winter will change his workday.

“You can’t paint houses when it gets like that,” he said. “We’ll probably stop painting the outside of houses in the next couple weeks and just paint inside.”