Tverdovsky Eats Duck Remarks, Crow

Well, at least Oleg Tverdovsky skates in good company.

Before Tverdovsky’s Duck-hating comments, the biggest anti-hero to skate at the Pond was Wayne Gretzky. It didn’t matter whether Gretzky was wearing the silver and black of the Kings, the fans booed Gretzky at every turn, turning up the volume once he left for St. Louis and then New York.

But young Oleg’s comments hit much harder. He used to be a Duck. A guy who used to be “in the room” was now criticizing his old buddies.

Wednesday, the 20-year-old defenseman was booed every time he hit the ice and ridiculed when he touched the puck in the Mighty Ducks’ 4-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinal series.

He played a somewhat jittery, nervous first period, misfiring the puck and sending it off target. Later, with Phoenix pressing for the tying goal, he pulled down Duck left wing Paul Kariya with 47 seconds remaining, as Kariya was racing toward an empty net on a breakaway. Kariya was given the goal because there was less than two minutes remaining.

The Coyotes expected the negative reaction to No. 20.

“It’s something we talked about. He just has to be a little more diplomatic and under control,” Phoenix Coach Don Hay said.

“I’m sure they [the Ducks] have a big picture of Oleg up on the blackboard. We didn’t want to stay too close to Oleg on the ice. He might be a target.”

Hay was kidding. He spoke to Tverdovsky after the comments, but let the other Coyotes take him to hockey’s version of the woodshed.

“I didn’t have to be the big factor,” Hay said. “We have veteran leadership, guys like [defenseman] Brad McCrimmon, who can take Oleg under his wing. Give him a few tips--if you want to be in this league long, if you want to talk like that, then you better be able to back it up.”

Meanwhile, Teemu Selanne--who was traded from Winnipeg last season in the Tverdovsky deal--had no such problems against his former teammates. Selanne was superb, scoring twice and adding an assist on Kariya’s second goal.

“That’s the one thing I was a little nervous about--a couple of times he hasn’t played as well against Phoenix,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “He’s got a lot of buddies on that team. I think Teemu realizes how important it is to do well in the playoffs, being around Jari [Kurri]. Jari is one of the great hockey players of all time in the playoffs.

“Teemu is inspired by Jari’s presence . . . he won’t let Jari down. He can’t let Jari down. He’s got to go spend the summer with him in Finland. He’s not going to let his buddy down.”

Said Selanne: “I was nervous. My last playoff game was four years ago. I don’t really think of that team as being my team. They have new uniforms, a new organization. It was nothing special.” Earlier, Tverdovsky was contrite, in a good-natured way, about providing the bulletin-board material.

“I’m taking back everything. . . . I didn’t really want it to be in the paper,” he said. “It’s not exactly what I think of this team. I feel bad about it being in the paper because the organization was really great to me in Anaheim. I thank them for that. I don’t really feel good about this.”

And that was before Game 1 and Selanne’s show.