Win Would Be a Real Bargain
Wide-eyed and perhaps a bit sleep-starved after beginning the longest trip in NHL history, the Ducks spent their first full day in Tokyo trying to stick to a normal routine.
They ate breakfast together, rode the team bus through the jammed Tokyo streets and practiced for 90 minutes at Yoyogi Arena, site of the first league games to be played outside North America.
“We’ll see how focused the players are,” Coach Pierre Page said. “We’ll treat this like playoff games. The guys . . . can’t just go shopping and forget about hockey.”
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Teemu Selanne will be the Duck captain, Page said. Paul Kariya was the youngest captain in the NHL last season, but is unsigned.
“I’m sure he’ll feel a little bit of pressure,” Page said of Selanne. “He’ll stand out more in the crowd now without Kariya. There will be more pressure and expectations on him.”
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Page was so disturbed by the Ducks’ chippy play that helped account for 280 penalty minutes in Saturday’s exhibition loss to the Kings that he is considering establishing a system of fines to enforce discipline. . . . Page wore a microphone during practice for a documentary a Canadian TV network is preparing about the upcoming season.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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