MIGHTY DUCK NOTEBOOK / ROBYN NORWOOD : Wilson Pleads His Team’s Case for Respect

The Mighty Ducks are looking for a little more respect.

But they’re going to have to earn it the old-fashioned way, over time.

They’re not the old dump-and-chase, hook-and-hold team they once were--far from it. They have the creative skill of Paul Kariya, the speed, stickhandling and sheer promise of Oleg Tverdovsky, the ability and speed of Mike Sillinger and Todd Krygier. They also have a younger, more mobile defense as well as most of the players who played best for them last year.

But Brett Hull still thinks they play “boring” and “ugly” hockey, Theoren Fleury is upset about clutching and grabbing. (Theoren Fleury?)

And Toronto Sun columnist Al Strachan, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year, wrote after watching the Ducks lose to Toronto on Wednesday that, “What the Ducks play is hockey only in the broadest sense and certainly nothing more than a remote relative of the game that quality teams produced in the last decade.”

All of which drives Duck Coach Ron Wilson nuts, which was what was at the core of his we-get-no-respect-from-referees tirade after losing to Toronto on Wednesday. If the Ducks’ reputation is hook-and-hold, he figures, then Don Koharski keeps calling hook-and-hold. It’s the power of suggestion.

“We still get other teams and players saying, ‘Oh, tonight the Mighty Ducks are in town. They’ll be hooking and holding.’ ” Wilson said. “Dammit, we’re beyond that now.

“We want it to be understood that we’re in a playoff race. We’re not just in it to be pincushions for other teams. We need respect. Any team that’s contending deserves respect.”

Wilson isn’t yet 40, he spent most of his playing career in Europe--and face it, he coaches a team named the Mighty Ducks. That doesn’t get him the ear of referees quite the same as the Red Wings’ Scotty Bowman or the Maple Leafs’ Pat Burns.

“(Officials) say, ‘You guys relax.’ I resent that. We play every game like it’s our last. Pat Burns doesn’t have to relax. That drives me nuts. We play our hearts out and the other team complains that we’re hooking and holding, and they’re hooking and holding.

“(Officials) yell at us, ‘Show us respect.’ We’re not going to be a pincushion or the butt of jokes. I’m sick of that.’

“I’m not going to go down and sit there and wait to get respect for three years by keeping my mouth shut.”

*

Results not reasons: The Ducks wear T-shirts imprinted with that no-excuses message, but Wilson has embraced them himself on occasion.

Like last season, when he accused Florida goalie John Vanbiesbrouck of wearing illegally wide pads after a 4-2 loss. Even if the pads were illegal, that wasn’t why Wilson’s team lost.

Much of the Ducks’ success last year was built on Wilson’s refusal to allow the team to succumb to being “only an expansion team.” But this season when they struggled early, he was willing to be satisfied with effort, saying “we’re a second-year team.”

Now the officiating, which he says could cost the Ducks a goal that costs them a playoff berth. But imperfect officiating is part of the game and good teams usually overcome it to win.

As for why he’s willing to whine publicly about referees when he wouldn’t approve of the same from his players, Wilson says “That’s my responsibility to (complain) about the refereeing, not theirs.”

*

The veteran: General Manager Jack Ferreira, by contrast, has seen this all before. He brought the Minnesota North Stars up from the bottom and started from scratch with San Jose.

“It’s the same with every new team. You have to earn respect,” Ferreira said. “You’re the new kid on the block. You’ve got to earn your spurs, earn your stripes.

“You read Bill Walsh’s book, “Building a Champion” and he talks about the same things when he first got to the 49ers. Other people in the league don’t have respect for your players when you’re trying to make a trade. You don’t get respect from officials. There’s a whole list.

“I’m not saying that to complain. I understand you have to earn your spurs and respect in this league. I don’t worry about the things I can’t control, things like the ice surface, the building. Both teams are playing there. You have to gut your way through it. I worry about the things I can control: Who’s on the ice, who we re-sign and don’t re-sign.”