Defense Unit Is M*A*S*

Paul Kariya is back. Great.

Can he play on defense?

The Ducks’ defensive corps is bruised and bloodied at the moment.

David Karpa missed his second consecutive game because of a nagging hamstring injury.

Ruslan Salei suffered a broken bone in his left foot in Wednesday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and is expected to miss two to three weeks.

Dan Trebil broke his right thumb in Saturday’s loss to Pittsburgh and is on the injured reserve list.

So, Coach Pierre Page was forced to play rookies Marc Moro and Pavel Trnka on Friday against the Washington Capitals. Moro made his NHL debut; Trnka is a veteran of all of 11 NHL games.

“Trnka has played well for us,” Page said. “Moro’s going to be playing his first game, but he’s a real gung-ho, character kid.” *

Don’t think for a moment talks between the Ducks and Don Baizley, Kariya’s agent, are over. Both sides will soon resume hashing out a long-term deal for the all-star left wing, who signed a two-year, $14-million contract Thursday.

“Literally, we’re going to be right back at it after the holidays,” said Tony Tavares, Duck president. “Call it what you want: an extension or a new deal.”

Tavares believes Thursday’s contract was simply a stop-gap deal to get Kariya back in uniform as quickly as possible. The Ducks wanted no less than a five-year deal. Kariya and Baizley preferred a three-year deal.

“Talk to Paul, talk to Baizley and they’ll tell you they didn’t get what they wanted,” Tavares said. “We didn’t get exactly what we wanted, either. There’s no victor in this. Is either side going to claim victory? There is no winner.” *

Teemu Selanne couldn’t help but wonder if his comments Tuesday didn’t speed up the negotiations for Kariya’s new deal. Selanne said he was concerned Kariya was so upset over the lack of progress he was considering retiring from the NHL to play in Europe.

“I had nothing to lose,” Selanne said. “I respect both sides and understood their frustration about this mess. Maybe both sides gave up a little bit and started talking about hockey rather than business.”