Defensive Difference

The Mighty Duck defense, once so volatile and prone to disaster, is a calmer thing these days.

Not perfect, clearly. But a full three weeks have passed without a team scoring six goals against the Ducks--which, after all, happened in roughly one out of every four games in the early going this season.

Since the trade that brought defenseman Dmitri Mironov to Anaheim, no team has scored more than three goals against the Ducks. It’s not that Mironov is a defensive whiz, but he is big and experienced and has seemed to have a calming effect, though Paul Kariya’s presence and goalie Guy Hebert’s sharpness probably loom even larger.

“The whole defense has settled down,” General Manager Jack Ferreira said. “That comes from the goaltending being solid. The key on this team is everyone playing within their limitations.”

Mironov, an offensive defenseman who handles the point on the power play, came to the Ducks from Pittsburgh Nov. 19 in a four-player deal in which the Ducks gave up Fredrik Olausson, an offensive defenseman who handles the point on the power play.

Why the switch? Size, mostly. Mironov, who is listed at 6-3, 215, is at least an inch or so taller and 20 pounds heavier than Olausson, who seems much slighter though he is listed at 6-2, 195.

“A lot of times, there are even-up trades,” Duck defenseman Bobby Dollas said. “I think in this one, we gave up a defenseman in Freddy with a little more offense and Dmitri is a little better defensively.”

Though he was the veteran of the Duck defensemen, Olausson made some costly mistakes. Mironov comes with that reputation too--he made a turnover in overtime that led to the winning goal in a 2-1 Pittsburgh loss to Boston Nov. 14. With the Ducks, though, he has gotten off to an outstanding start, defying a reputation in some NHL circles as an underachiever.

“He’s an experienced guy, he does the basic things experienced guys do,” said Dollas, who has been paired with Mironov. “There are always some mistakes where you need your partner’s help. I think sometimes he tries to do a little extra, so maybe that’s why I’m playing with him.”

Dollas has been changing partners all season, usually assigned as an escort to the inexperienced or error-prone. His performance has suffered at times as he tried to overcompensate or take on too much himself. A consistent plus-player, he finds himself an uncharacteristic minus-six today.

“I don’t worry about it,” Dollas said. “They told me, ‘Bob, you’ve been playing with a lot of inexperienced guys. It’s been tough.’ I said, ‘As long as you guys know that, it’s OK.’ ”

A couple of victories, Dollas hopes, will keep him and Mironov together more often than not.

“When you win, things tend to stabilize. You stay with the same guy,” he said.

Management would like that too.

“Mironov has helped Dolly,” Ferreira said. “There’s not so much responsibility on him. He’s played like he’s played the last three years.”

Mironov, 30, didn’t come to the NHL from his native Moscow until 1992, at the age of 26. He played for the famed Central Red Army team first, and later for the Soviet Wings.

“I was in my 20s before I thought about the NHL,” Mironov said. “I think it was after I first went to Red Army. They had Fetisov, Makarov, Larionov. I didn’t play too much, but I was learning so much about hockey.”

Drafted by Toronto in 1991, Mironov came to North America after helping the Unified Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992. One of his teammates was Duck goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov.

With his big shot, he has tended to score in the 30-point range over his four-plus NHL seasons--he has eight points so far this season, including three assists as a Duck. But he hasn’t fulfilled his own expectations for himself, and he faced an unanticipated challenge in 1995 after being traded from Toronto to Pittsburgh for defenseman Larry Murphy and a second-round draft pick.

“I changed places with another player, but Larry Murphy is like a big name in the NHL,” Mironov said. “It was a little bit of pressure, but that doesn’t bother me anyway.”

This has already been a difficult season for Mironov, least of all because of the trades and Pittsburgh’s bad start. In October, he got word of his father’s death from a heart attack in Moscow.

“Me and my brother fly right away,” said Mironov, whose brother Boris, 24, has 19 points in 20 games for Edmonton this season, making him among the NHL’s highest scoring defensemen. Mironov missed three games, and returned to Pittsburgh, though he would have preferred to stay another week if he had a different sort of job. “It was tough,” he said.

Joining the Ducks is another adjustment, though a far less difficult one. His wife and two children will join him soon, and Mironov is reveling in his increased ice time. With Pittsburgh, he played perhaps 15 minutes a game. Here, he is closer to 30. Here, his offense is more needed, and Dollas knows that if his partner scores and he plays defense, his own plus-minus will improve--and so will the Ducks.

“I had good productive scoring years the past three years,” Dollas said. “And we didn’t make the playoffs. Maybe now if I just play good, solid D, this year we will.”