Ducks Try to Tough Things Out

The return of Paul Kariya tonight will be the most soothing balm the Mighty Ducks could feel, but General Manager Jack Ferreira kept trying to improve the NHL’s worst team Tuesday by making his second trade in two days.

Seeking to bolster the team’s faltering defense by adding physical players, Ferreira acquired enforcer Shawn Antoski and defenseman Dimitri Mironov from Pittsburgh for defenseman Fredrik Olausson and center Alex Hicks.

Ferreira had talked to Penguin General Manager Craig Patrick in a futile attempt to get center Bryan Smolinski, who ended up with the New York Islanders, but Tuesday’s deal evolved from those talks.

Antoski’s antagonistic style is well known, and Mironov, 6 feet 3 and 215 pounds, is bigger and more physical than Olausson, mostly a power-play specialist who has struggled at times defensively.

Still, Olausson was tied for third in scoring on the Ducks with two goals and 11 points and was the team’s highest-scoring defenseman. Hicks had two goals and eight points.

Mironov has one goal and six points. Antoski doesn’t have a point but has 49 penalty minutes.

“This just changes the chemistry,” Ferreira said. “It’s not like we were displeased with either of those guys. We just needed a different dimension.”

One day earlier, Ferreira addressed the offense and power play by picking up 15-year veteran Brian Bellows from Tampa Bay for a sixth-round draft pick after Bellows, who can become a free agent at the end of this season, asked for a trade.

The moves could help stabilize a Duck team that is off to the worst start in the franchise’s four seasons, at 4-13-3. But nothing is more important than the return of Kariya, who has played in seven games, sitting out the last two because of a concussion after being elbowed in the head by Toronto’s Mathieu Schneider last week.

Without Kariya, the Ducks are 1-10-2. With him, they are 3-3-1.

“I’m back to normal,” Kariya said after practice Tuesday, saying Schneider’s hit “was like a knockout punch to the jaw.”

Schneider received a three-game NHL suspension.