Selanne Plays Like a Leader

When Teemu Selanne was asked during the preseason what having the captain’s “C” on his jersey meant, he said it made the sweater a little heavier.

Funny guy, that Selanne.

He doesn’t act like a captain. He doesn’t walk around making bold statements. He doesn’t proclaim himself to be the leader.

All he does is play like it.

Just when the Mighty Ducks appeared ready to dive to the lower depths of the Western Conference, Selanne produced one of the best stretches of his career. He has scored at least one goal in seven consecutive games, helping the Ducks keep their head above water with a 5-5-4 record.

This isn’t like Calgary’s Cory Stillman, who is racking up goals for a directionless team. Selanne’s goals matter. He had the game-tying or game-winning goal in four straight games. The Ducks are 4-2-2 when he puts the puck in the net, 1-3-2 when he doesn’t.

Scoring goals is his method of leading, not giving pep talks.

“I think the ‘C’ can’t change you in the locker room,” Selanne said. “I try to do the right things all the time. Of course, I want to be a leader. I want to be a good example for the other players on the ice, do the right things.”

He knows this captaincy is temporary, expiring the moment Paul Kariya signs a contract. But if Selanne didn’t fill this void right now, there wouldn’t be anything left for Kariya to save when (if?) he does return.

At the start of the season it looked like Selanne and everyone else was trying to be Kariya. They were pressing to make things happen.

“We said to the whole team, Teemu included, ‘It ain’t going to work this way,’ ” Duck Coach Pierre Page said. “ ‘You’re trying to make the play at the blue line, you turn the puck over, and they’re scoring against your lines.’ It’s like a quarterback who throws into double coverage all the time. You can’t force the issue.”

At least Selanne never let his frustrations get the best of him to the point where he started taking stupid penalties. His mistakes were simply the results of trying too hard.

But all of the effort wasn’t bringing Selanne points. He had one goal in the first seven games, which included a career-long five-game goal drought. He’d take a goal any way he could get one, even if the puck bounced off his butt and into the net, he joked.

Then he started scoring every which way. He scored on nice feeds from teammates against Phoenix and Detroit. He had a hat trick against the Rangers, including an end-to-end excursion that made for one of the prettiest goals of the year. He even had a puck bounce off his . . . visor and into the goal.

All of a sudden, Selanne found himself among the league leaders in goals. He matched Colorado’s Joe Sakic for the longest goal-scoring streak of the season and set a team record.

“He might have had a little bit of a slow start in the beginning,” teammate Kevin Todd said, “but checking him or not checking him, you can only keep him off the scorer’s sheet so long, and then he breaks free. He’s on a roll right now. He’s a pure goal-scorer.”

“He’s unbelievable,” gushed Espen Knutsen, the wide-eyed rookie. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The man was born to be a scoring machine.”

If there’s one drawback to Selanne’s goals, it’s that Duck fans haven’t had much chance to see them. All but one came on the road, three of the six road games weren’t televised and the other three were on Fox Sports West 2 (I hope both of you who get it were watching).

It’s a shame that in an age where everything is televised (yes, everything--ESPN showed a paintball competition the other day) you can’t watch a stellar player entering another realm.

You can listen to his words, however, and almost envision the results that come from the combination of an everyday work ethic and exceptional skills.

“I’m hungry,” Selanne said. “I want to play well. I want to push myself every night. Even some nights when I don’t feel as good as I want, I want to push myself and try to play the same way every night. That’s what it takes to be a great player, I think.”

It means not being satisfied with a hat trick, but coming back to score two more goals the next game, as Selanne did last week.

Some players can’t produce despite the hardest efforts. Not Selanne. He has the gifts that put him a step ahead of almost everyone else.

“You can read the game,” Selanne said, although in this case “you” certainly wasn’t generic. “You can read where the puck is going to be. Some nights, there’s not so much room. You have to play smart, try to read the game. If he’s going to shoot, the puck’s going to go there. Making the right decisions is the most important part in hockey.”

Kariya’s absence has made Selanne’s production more vital, but it’s also more remarkable. Without Kariya, teams are focusing on Selanne and he takes a pounding every night.

“Sometimes you’re really sore,” he said, rolling his shoulders as if he were still trying to work out the aches and pains. “But that’s nothing new.”

Even with all the extra attention, he still manages to find himself all alone at times, right next to the net. Three of Selanne’s goals during the streak have come that way.

“You just have to sneak in there,” Selanne said. “When you’re moving a lot, when you’re skating a lot, the checking is so much harder for the other teams.”

Page is trying to mix things up by playing Selanne with multiple linemates. He also is playing Selanne on short shifts, then sending him out again as soon as possible to the maximum ice time for Selanne.

Other than that, there isn’t that much strategy to it. You go with the hot hand. The rest of the guys can just follow the leader.