Selanne Isn’t Howling Mad About Facing Coyotes

Teemu Selanne still uses a piece of luggage with Winnipeg Jets embroidered on the side, with his name embossed on black leather.

That weathered hang-up bag is one of the last ties he has to the team he and the Mighty Ducks will play in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning Wednesday at the Pond.

“Somehow it seems like five years ago when I was traded,” said Selanne, who arrived from Winnipeg on Feb. 7, 1996, only months before the franchise moved to Phoenix. “I really enjoy being here and playing here. I almost forgot I played there before.

“There are going to be lots of faces I know pretty well in the same game. But somehow it’s different. They have new uniforms, lots of new players. They’ve come to a new city. Except that there are lots of people I know and friends in the organization, it’s different.”

Selanne was upset the day he was traded, pulling his name tag off his Winnipeg locker stall, distraught because he and his wife, Sirpa, were only weeks from the birth of their first child.

But he is long since over it, and he isn’t going to make any comments like the ones defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky made to the Arizona Republic, saying he “hates” the Ducks since they traded him to get Selanne and wants to “kick their butts” in the playoffs.

That was literally bulletin-board material at the Ducks’ practice Sunday, tacked on a cork board with Tverdovsky’s quotes highlighted in yellow.

“I could never say I hate the team,” Selanne said. “I had a great time there. I really respect them. But of course, I want to beat anybody.

“I think when someone says things like that, you have to take advantage of it. You get power from it, and you want to show them you are a good hockey team. . . . I say what I feel is right. Maybe that’s what he feels he has to say.”

Duck Coach Ron Wilson had predicted neither player would say much about the other team. Tverdovsky, 20, proved him wrong.

“That’s youth speaking,” Wilson said. “You don’t expect that before a series.

“It sounds like his coach didn’t appreciate the things he said. . . . That’s Oleg’s opinion. That’s fine. We’ve got a series to win. It’s irrelevant what an individual says.”

Selanne had to watch while the Jets went to the playoffs last season after the Ducks lost a tiebreaker against them for the eighth and final playoff spot.

“I was disappointed we didn’t make the playoffs,” Selanne said. “We really played so well; we just started too late. But even though I was disappointed, I was very excited about this season because I knew we could do some damage.”

Which team the Ducks do damage against doesn’t matter to him, Selanne said, but Phoenix has its advantages.

“I think it’s a good situation for both teams,” he said. “Whatever happens, it’s best for us to play Phoenix because of the short travel. I’d rather play those guys than the top three--Colorado, Dallas or Detroit. They have so much more experience than Phoenix.

“I don’t care who we play. It’s Phoenix. Fine. If it was Edmonton, fine. It’s fine with me.”

It’s just that some old friends will be feverishly trying to stop him--including Teppo Numminen, a Finnish countryman who is the Coyotes’ best all-around defenseman.

“Numminen is for sure my closest friend there,” Selanne said. “We were roomies for three years. But there are no friends when you’re playing each other.”