This Time, the Ducks Lose Battle and War

To motivate his players, Duck Coach Ron Wilson sometimes shows them clips from movies. Even though he has access to the Disney library, he never checks out “Pollyanna” or “The Little Mermaid.” He prefers something chippier, like “Patton.”

In one of Wilson’s favorite scenes, George C. Scott, as Gen. George Patton, tells the Third Army, “Wars are won with men, not with machines or weapons.”

If Wilson gave that speech to the Ducks before Thursday night’s playoff game at the Pond against Phoenix, I’m sure he added . . . “or instant replay cameras.”

Game 5, Wilson had been telling everyone since the Coyotes evened the series Tuesday night in Phoenix, would be decided by which team had the most players willing to treat it like D-Day.

Verbally dropping the gloves, he challenged his players to tighten their helmets and loosen some teeth, give better than they took and play with “ferocity.”

Among primary targets for such abuse were supposed to be Phoenix forwards Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick. If the Ducks’ stars, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, seemed to have bull-eyes on their jerseys, so should the Coyotes’ stars.

“They talk about going after Paul and Teemu,” Wilson said. “Well, we are going at Roenick and Tkachuk harder. They better come with their skates tightened more than they have been.”

So who scored the first two Phoenix goals? Tkachuk and Roenick.

So who won the game? Phoenix, 5-2.

Don’t blame Wilson. The targets were properly identified. His players just couldn’t take them out.

Check Tkachuk, Ducks. Check him with ferocity.

That’s easier said than done, which Wilson knows as well as anyone.

First of all, he has seen “Patton.” Wilson showed it to him while coaching the U.S. team in last September’s World Cup.

Second, Tkachuk planned to become a firefighter, like his father in Medford, Mass., if he hadn’t learned to conquer ice. If Tkachuk isn’t afraid of backdrafts, it’s highly unlikely he’s going to be intimidated by backchecking.

Third, Tkachuk has twice stood up to an entire country, the one to the north with the national anthem that sounds like one.

Tkachuk was the captain when the United States upset Canada’s team in the World Cup, upsetting all of Canada.

Even before then, he was blamed by Canadians for the export of their NHL teams to the United States. The theory was that his $6-million salary--second in the league to Wayne Gretzky’s--was the reason the Winnipeg Jets could no longer afford to remain in Winnipeg.

Tkachuk was sympathetic, burning a $100 bill--Canadian, I hope--while out in public with his teammates. He might as well have lifted his middle finger to the large portrait of Queen Elizabeth that hangs over one end of the Winnipeg Arena.

Symbolically, that is what Tkachuk did to the Ducks in the first period. They knocked him off his feet a couple of times, but his skates still looked pretty tight when he got behind Teemu Selanne and scored on a breakaway against Guy Hebert. To make sure the Ducks knew they were beaten, he scored the Coyotes’ fifth goal into an empty net with seconds remaining.

Duck Enemy No. 2 was Roenick.

He was guilty of doing the job assigned to him by Coach Don Hay. Roenick, who would have fit in as well with the Bobby Hull-Stan Mikita-Keith Magnuson Chicago teams as he did with the modern Blackhawks before moving to Phoenix, always does his job when he’s healthy, whether it’s on offense or defense.

After the first game, Hay took Roenick off the marquee first line with Tkachuk and told him to shadow Kariya.

With the score tied in the second period, Roenick scored the Coyotes’ second goal in a scramble in front of Hebert when the Ducks failed to move him out of the crease. When the game was again close in the third period, Roenick assisted on Bob Corkum’s goal that gave the Coyotes a 4-2 lead.

My guess is that Roenick would be more proud of the fact that Kariya has scored one goal in the last three games, none Thursday night.

Roenick says he plays defense as if he were a Green Beret.

It was a different war, but Patton would appreciate that. So, I’m sure, does Wilson.