Something Amiss Across the Pond

The Mighty Ducks bid farewell to their off-season of discontent this afternoon in Japan, more than 5,000 miles from home and with a bit of nasty unfinished business yet to be settled.

So far from home, yet so well-reminded of the man most of the 10,000 fans in Yoyogi Arena desperately longed to see play in the first NHL game in Japan.

Paul Kariya’s No. 9 jersey was everywhere but on Paul Kariya’s back. There were several signs--”Where’s Paul?” and “Sign Kariya!”--spotted around the arena before, during and after the Vancouver Canucks’ 3-2 victory over the Ducks.

The fans missed Kariya, who is Japanese Canadian, but the Ducks missed him far more.

By game’s end, neither team had its best player on the ice. Vancouver will probably be without captain Mark Messier for the second game of this two-game series.

The Canucks, who spent $21 million to lure Messier from the New York Rangers, suffered a major blow when he left the game with a charley horse after colliding with the Ducks’ Mark Janssens.

Messier did not return in the third period and was scheduled to be examined by doctors Sunday morning in Tokyo. It’s uncertain if he will play the second game against the Ducks here.

“It was big guys moving fast out there. I think I got caught in the wrong position,” Messier said. “I’m hoping to be able to play. We’ll have to see how it feels [tonight and Sunday morning].”

He had scored the Canucks’ second goal--less than two minutes after Scott Young tied the score, 1-1, for the Ducks at 9:17 of the second period. Both goals came on the power play.

Pavel Bure increased the Canucks’ lead to 3-1 with a blistering slap shot from just inside the blue line. Bure’s goal turned out to the be the game-winner because the Ducks couldn’t get closer than 3-2 after Shawn Antoski’s goal late in the second period.

Early on, the Ducks appeared a step slower than the Canucks and a bit nervous without their captain and best player. But Kariya--a restricted free agent--was unsigned, at home in Vancouver and unable to help the Ducks.

“I think any time you have to start the season without your captain it’s a big loss,” goaltender Guy Hebert said before the game. “But we’re all behind him 100%. We all know it’s a business. I don’t know if Paul feels he has to carry the banner for the [NHL] Players Assn., but he feels responsible knowing what he does is going to affect the contracts of about 600 other guys.

“It’s a big disappointment he’s not here. He’s such a great competitor. I’m sure he’s upset about missing this trip. The last two seasons we’ve gotten off to pretty bad starts. Paul’s absence was a big reason why last year.”

Kariya missed the season’s first 11 games and the Ducks stumbled to an 1-8-2 record without him last October.

At times in the opening game, the Ducks looked very much like the same disorganized bunch that failed to click without Kariya to start last season. They moved along like the Tokyo traffic at rush hour, trailing, 1-0, after the first period and, 3-1, midway through the second.

But just when it seemed they might be ripe for a blowout, Antoski came steaming toward the Vancouver net, accepted a pass from Warren Rychel and beat Canuck goalie Kirk MacLean.

Antoski’s goal enabled the Ducks to trim the deficit to a goal at 17:22 of the second period and give them a bit of hope for the third period. The buzzed the net repeatedly in the game’s final minutes, but couldn’t put a puck past MacLean.

He foiled their best chance, stopping Young on a breakaway with less than 10 minutes to play.

Maybe it was the jet leg, the sightseeing trips, receptions or subway trips to and from practice. Or more likely the poor ice conditions. But the hockey in the first period was sluggish and nothing worth showing off to the world.

“We have no excuses,” said Coach Pierre Page, making his regular-season debut as Duck coach. “This is an opportunity for new players and some players who were here last year to show us something.”

The hitting was intense right from the start, but the few scoring chances in the first period resulted directly from defensive mistakes.

Duck rookie defenseman Ruslan Salei could have played the puck from behind his net along the boards and out of danger, but instead fed a backhander into the slot for Vancouver’s Scott Walker.

Walker merely had to take a couple of strides and beat a defenseless Hebert to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead 12:10 into the game.