Ducks Have Become Feature Attraction

Their bosses will celebrate with rappelling mascots and Tom Jones videos, but this month will mean something far different to the characters who inhabit that odd little hockey club in Orange County.

“The Mighty Ducks,” said Teemu Selanne, “are no longer just a movie team.”

Celluloid has become sweat-soaked reality. In their fourth year of trying, the Mighty Ducks clinched their first playoff berth Friday with a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars at the Pond.

For all of those north of Fullerton who think Kariya is a country, Hebert is a bad quarterback, and Selanne is good deli fare, here is a primer on the Southland’s new Stanley Cup chasers.

The Daydreaming Coach: His name is Ron Wilson, and he gained fame last fall by leading the U.S. to an internationally celebrated World Cup championship over Canada.

But he wins over his players with homespun tactics like the one he devised while on the team bus to a recent important game in Chicago.

He spotted a little girl looking out the window of a housing project.

“It looked like she was daydreaming and I’m thinking, ‘I used to do that about hockey,’ ” Wilson recalled.

Once in the locker room, he ordered his players to lie down. He turned out the lights and asked them to become like that little girl.

“He wanted us to think back to when we were kids, playing on the pond, daydreaming about being the star, scoring the winning goal,” goalie Guy Hebert said.

Minutes later he flipped on the lights. His team stood, took the ice, and eventually defeated the Blackhawks, 4-3, without Hebert or Selanne.

Wilson and the Ducks have been discussing the completion of a promised contract extension throughout the season. The Ducks had better finish it before the end of the playoffs, or they will lose him.

The Star With the Smile: Teemu Selanne was asked the best thing about playing for the Ducks.

“Disneyland,” he said.

Seriously.

“Disneyland, I love it, I go 10 times this year,” he said. “I love Space Mountain.”

Once, he forgot his pass and was initially refused admittance because workers didn’t recognize him.

The second-leading scorer in the NHL--behind Mario Lemieux and in front of Jaromir Jagr and Wayne Gretzky--laughed.

“That is why I love this place,” he said. “Ten times at Disneyland, and two people recognize me.”

The Star Without The Smile: Paul Kariya is smaller than Selanne, more serious, spent much of his recent practice time rolling on a giant rubber ball in hopes of strengthening his troublesome abdominal area.

“About all I do is work,” he said.

That, and amaze. At the end of last season he took a stick in the mouth, finished a game with exposed nerves where upper teeth were supposed to be.

The team dentist was stunned. Kariya declined to be interviewed that night, but only because he found it impossible to speak.

Before Friday’s game, the league’s third-leading scorer was asked what it felt like to be in the playoffs.

“We are not in the playoffs,” he said, staring directly ahead.

Oh, c’mon, it’s just a formality.

“We are not in the playoffs,” he said.

The Pest: David Karpa, a starting defenseman, was delicately asked to describe his job.

“I stir things up,” he volunteered, grinning. “I start things.”

When Kariya requests that the volume on the locker room stereo be lowered, Karpa turns it up. When the opposing team’s leading scorer comes in front of the net, Karpa pounds him with his stick.

On Friday afternoon he was rubbing his previously fractured right hand and wincing.

“The problem is not with the fracture,” he said. “It’s what happened after the fracture.”

You fought with a fractured hand?

“Well, yeah,” he said.

As long as it heals in time for his favorite summer activity.

“I love golf,” he said. “I’ve only snapped one club.”

The Fruit Picker: Guy Hebert is one of the hottest goalies in hockey. His coolness despite spending four years playing behind mostly bad Duck teams is amazing.

Or maybe not.

When he attended Hamilton College in New York, his classmates had a tradition of throwing oranges on the ice after the first goal of every season. Soon, opposing schools would pelt Hamilton with bigger fruit.

“I remember the time I turned around and there was a squash coming at my face,” he said.

The Middle Man: Steve Rucchin feels a little bit like the Bulls’ Steve Kerr. Centering the line of Kariya and Selanne, he feeds the stars and fades into the background.

Guess who is having the best year of his career? Guess who also is having the most ignored year of his career?

But guess who is having the most fun?

“Playing with those two guys, sometimes the puck will come to you and you don’t know how it got there,” he says. “It’s like, they are two plays ahead of everyone else. Including me.”

He shook is head. “Heck, I don’t deserve the publicity.”

Like we’ve heard that before.

Mighty real, these Ducks.

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* DUCKS CLINCH PLAYOFF BERTH: C4