Playoffs Aren’t Ducks’ Season

Toronto made the Mighty Ducks wait for the second game of the “Hockey Night in Canada” doubleheader Saturday night.

Vancouver made them wait until next year.

The Ducks can still win their season finale against Winnipeg at the Pond today--but it won’t mean anything after Toronto’s 6-3 victory over Edmonton and Vancouver’s 5-0 victory over Calgary eliminated them from the Stanley Cup playoff race.

Duck Coach Ron Wilson was ensconced in his office at the Pond at 4:30, relaxed in shorts and ready for a long night of exciting hockey via satellite feed.

But after Toronto won and Vancouver took a 2-0 lead in the first period, Wilson went home. After two periods, the lead was 4-0.

“He didn’t want to watch,” said assistant coach Tim Army, who stuck it out to the bitter end. “Eternal optimist,” Army said.

General Manager Jack Ferreira left early too. Tony Tavares, the team president, was quite relaxed early on. But when Vancouver’s Markus Naslund made the score 2-0, scoring his second goal off an assist by former Duck Mike Sillinger, Tavares kicked a trash can.

David McNab, the team’s assistant general manager, waited longer than some of the others, but he couldn’t help walking out of the room for a few minutes.

“I hate this,” McNab said quietly.

The Ducks have gone 11-3-2 down the stretch as they tried to make the playoffs for the first time, but they will fall short. Though the Ducks could still tie the Jets for eighth place, the Jets would win the tiebreaker with 36 victories to the Ducks’ 35.

“We didn’t get any help,” Army said. “Give Winnipeg credit, they played well. As for the other teams going--St. Louis, Vancouver, Toronto--we don’t feel they’re better than us. Unfortunately we had a long way to go.”

Since Feb. 7, the day of Ferreira’s monumental trade with Winnipeg for Teemu Selanne, the Ducks are 16-9-3. They might well be the best team in the NHL that isn’t going to the playoffs--and that includes the defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils, who were eliminated by Ottawa on Saturday.

Though Wilson and Army and a few members of the Ducks’ top management team gathered at the Pond and shared pizza with some of their families, many of the Duck players didn’t seek out a place to watch the games.

“There’s nothing you can do. Why suffer?” said left wing Ken Baumgartner, who admitted he would probably keep track of the games by watching the scoring updates at home.

Defenseman Bobby Dollas said he would “relax” and go out to dinner and a movie.

“What happens, happens,” Dollas said. “You can’t say we haven’t tried, looking at the run we made. There’s not a whole lot you can do. Look at what we did, and look at St. Louis, winning maybe one of their last 10 games and clinching. We’re 11-3-2 and still hoping to get in? That’s what’s disappointing.

“Whatever happens, I’m very proud of our hockey team. We haven’t choked. That’s the whole thing.”