Playoffs an Option--With Selanne

Four weeks left in the season, five points out of a playoff spot.

The Mighty Ducks have been here before. Or have they?

They were close enough to hope in each of their first two seasons, but they weren’t a real threat to make the playoffs. Looking at the standings, they’re in about the same position now--except now they have Teemu Selanne.

“We seem to have been in the same spot two times, but those two times we were playing barely .500 and staying alive,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “Now we’re playing .600 or .700 hockey. We’re on a streak. It’s an altogether different feeling.

“We’re doing this by ourselves, not keeping up because other teams are losing. We’re matching them win for win, and when they lose, we’re winning.”

Before Selanne arrived, the Ducks had won three of their last 12. With him in the lineup, they’re 8-5-1.

“Since Teemu got here, we’re over .500,” left wing Paul Kariya said. “If we’d played .500 the whole year, we’d be in. Now we have to do better than that. We have to get a streak going, get some breaks.”

One of the biggest things in the Ducks’ favor is that most of the teams they’re competing with aren’t showing many signs of getting on a roll.

The Winnipeg Jets, who hold the eighth Western Conference playoff spot, have cooled a bit and two key players are injured--second-leading scorer Alexei Zhamnov has a sore back and fourth-leading Ed Olczyk has a sprained knee.

Toronto, ahead of Winnipeg in seventh place, has won only twice in its last 10 games.

The Kings are nip-and-tuck with the Ducks, but in the midst of a huge roster turnover, with the emphasis on prospects.

Dallas, which has won six of its last 10 games, is in a better position to make a run.

Edmonton is the last contender, but seems to have trouble beating teams other than the California trio--the Kings, the Ducks and the Sharks--and they can’t play them every night.

Could this be the Ducks’ best opportunity yet?

To get into the playoffs, they’d have to get some cooperation from other teams, and weather their six-game, two-week trip that includes games at Washington, St. Louis and Chicago--not to mention a game against Detroit, a team the Ducks have never beaten.

But they had to come up with a good homestand first, and they’ve gone 4-1-1. They finish up today against the St. Louis Blues.

“It’s what we had to do, and we’re doing it,” Wilson said. “With all the pressure there is on us, we’ve been winning. The team’s playing very well defensively, playing playoff hockey. A lot of guys are really starting to feel confident, and that confidence starts to help you get breaks.”

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Defenseman Randy Ladouceur probably will be out of the lineup a third consecutive game today, an unusual streak for a team captain who isn’t injured.

But Ladouceur will be 36 in June, and he has slowed down. Wilson said he was giving Ladouceur “a rest” but with the defense playing well, he’s getting very well-rested.

“It’s going to happen,” Ladouceur said. “I’m not reading anything into it right now. As far as I’m concerned, the team’s playing well and battling to get into a playoff spot, and that’s about all you ask for.”

Ladouceur’s contract is up after the season, and General Manager Jack Ferreira said he probably won’t address that until later. In Ladouceur’s favor though, is the shallow depth of the organization. Ferreira says there’s no one to replace him right now, because management would prefer to keep prospects Nikolai Tsulygin and Pavel Trnka in the minors until they’re good and ready.

Ferreira didn’t say so, but if the team does re-sign Ladouceur, one possibility might be to offer him a contract based on games played--that way if he doesn’t play regularly, the Ducks won’t have to pay him the $600,000 he’s making this season. Plus, they could keep him around as perhaps the team’s most willing and able community spokesman--and give him a chance to keep trying to reach his 1,000th career game. He’s currently at 929.

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Wilson thinks the Ducks have one ace in the hole--a final-game matchup against Winnipeg at the Pond on April 13.

“Our approach is that right now it’s five points, but in our mind, it’s three points. All we have to do is get to the last game one or two points back. We’ve got to get it so the final game is a playoff game.”

Don’t think Selanne, originally disappointed to be traded by the Jets, isn’t beaming at that prospect.

“That would be a good challenge for me,” he said.