Ducks Are Left to Ponder an Empty Feeling

Team from Anaheim wins its regular-season finale . . . and forces a virtual tie in the standings with team from up north . . . and only one of them can advance to the playoffs . . . and . . . oh, all right, we better stop here before somebody gets hurt.

Too late. Minutes after the Ducks had seen their season end on a TKO, Coach Ron Wilson was already wishing out loud for a fate fit for the 1995 Angels.

“This is what I’d like to see,” Wilson ominously began.

“We tied Winnipeg. Let’s play one game at Winnipeg for the last playoff berth. One game. You don’t think Fox and TSN would get behind that? One game, for everything.

“That’s my proposal.”

A modest proposal, if you remember your recent Angel history. Something about the good guys getting eaten in the end.

“Look at the Angels and Seattle,” Wilson said, pressing fearlessly ahead.

For the sake of Luis Sojo, do we really have to?

“I know, I know,” Wilson said, cutting the punch line off at the quick. “But it would be a huge game. I’d want to be in that game. Even if you lose, you gain that experience.”

Mark Langston could tell Wilson a thing or a thousand about the value of said experience, although it is unlikely the Jets could beat the Ducks, 9-1, at the Queendome in Winnipeg.

The Ducks beat the Jets, 5-2, Sunday, to improve their stretch-run statistics to 12-3-2 in their last 17 games, 6-1-1 in their last eight, 11-1-2 in their last 13 home games and 17-9-3 post-Teemu Selanne trade--enabling them to tie Winnipeg for eighth place in the Western Conference at 78 points.

But because the one-game playoff concept does not exist in the NHL, and because the Jets finished with one more victory than the Ducks (36 to 35), Winnipeg will oppose Detroit in the first round of the Stanley Cup tournament and the Ducks will begin the long wait until Year 4.

Noting that the Jets also finished with more defeats than the Ducks (40 to 39), Wilson scavenged more driftwood for his fire.

“What’s better to have?” Wilson asked. “More wins? Or less losses?”

More wins, the NHL has decreed--an edict that has been ringing in the Ducks’ ears since Saturday night, when they were officially eliminated without picking up a stick. When Vancouver failed to lose to Calgary and Toronto did the same against Edmonton, the Ducks ran out of teams to catch, rendering Sunday’s finale against Winnipeg at the Pond to a pursuit of self-respect and Paul Kariya’s 50th goal of 1995-96.

Kariya got that goal, with 14:24 left in the third period. And the Ducks got their franchise-record 35th victory, and their franchise-record 78th point. The Ducks took all the consolation prizes that were out there.

The payoff?

A two-minute standing ovation from appreciative fans after the horn.

A hand-slapping final lap around the rink, the Ducks reaching over the boards to mingle one last time with their people.

And then, everybody packed up and went home.

“The Ducks deserve to be in the playoffs,” Wilson said. In many, many other seasons, they would have qualified. Off the top of his head, Wilson mentioned 1991, the year “Minnesota went 27-39-12, something like that, and went to the finals. And they had Pittsburgh on the ropes! We had 78 points, which, granted, is nothing to brag about, but it was within two points of giving us fourth place and home ice [advantage] in the playoffs.

“Two more points and we’d have had home ice--and we can’t even make the playoffs.”

Hockey isn’t fair, as Wilson was reminded night after night, awaiting out-of-town final scores that inevitably brought disappointment. “We couldn’t seem to catch a break any night,” he said. “In the other conference, you had Ottawa knocking off the Devils, the Islanders beating teams [in playoff contending], Hartford beating teams, Buffalo beating teams. In the Western Conference, there were no upsets.”

Except for maybe this, after Wilson was asked what the Ducks needed between now and next season:

“Can we win the Stanley Cup? We probably could with this team. We were just about good enough to finish fourth as the roster stands right now. Add a player or two and we’re right there.”

The Stanley Cup?

The Ducks?

Closing runs of 12-3-2 can do that to a coach. Unlike the ’95 Angels, the ’96 Ducks didn’t swoon, didn’t collapse, didn’t tank. They saved their best for last, but were let down by outsiders. If anyone tanked on the Ducks, it was Edmonton and St. Louis and San Jose and the Kings.

“I think next year we’re not only going to go to the playoffs,” Selanne said, “but we’re going to go far . . . This was a warning for everybody next year.”