Ducks Long for Home Cooking and Absent Teammates

The Mighty Ducks took their final turns around the Yoyogi Arena rink this afternoon in Japan before workers shut down the ice plant and drained the water through the supporting framework and into the pool that hosted the swimming events at the 1964 Olympics.

The Ducks then headed home to more familiar surroundings, pleased to have split the two games here without unsigned free agent Paul Kariya. The home opener is Friday at the Pond against the Ottawa Senators.

“We’re trying to change the focus of everybody and have them understand that together we can do it,” General Manager Jack Ferreira said of starting the season without Kariya. “I like our team, but we’re not kidding anybody. We’re a much better team with Paul. [But] we’ve got to make the best of what we’ve got.

“I’ve got to keep looking to upgrade [the team by making trades].”

Like the Tokyo fans who longed to see Kariya, a Canadian of Japanese decent, Teemu Selanne is eager to see his linemate return.

“When Paul is not here, we have to win the best way possible,” said Selanne, who had a hand in all three goals [one goal and two assists] in the Ducks’ 3-2 victory in the second game.

“He’s really the man here [on the Ducks]. I really miss him. The game is so much easier with him on the ice.”

Knowing that signing Kariya would be difficult, Ferreira bolstered the roster by acquiring Tomas Sandstrom as a free agent from the Detroit Red Wings, trading for Scott Young from the Colorado Avalanche and picking up Brent Severyn from the Avalanche in the waiver draft.

Each move paid off richly in the games at Tokyo.

Sandstrom had a goal in the first game and a goal and an assist on the game-winner in the second game. Young was perhaps the Ducks’ best player in the first game, scoring their first goal of the season. Severyn showed his toughness by taking on Vancouver’s Donald Brashear in a first-game scrap.

Ferreira was particularly happy with the debuts of Sandstrom and Severyn.

“He’s made a big, big difference,” Ferreira said of Sandstrom. “He really competes. He gets to the loose pucks and he’s a threat with the puck. He’s a smart player.”

Of Severyn, Ferreira said: “Brashear was acting up and Severyn was there to answer the call. The second game, we put him against Trevor Linden’s line and he played against Scott Walker and shut him down.”

The Ducks even began to embrace Coach Pierre Page’s more aggressive forechecking style of play. They had struggled to adapt to it during a 2-4-1 exhibition season that ended with consecutive lopsided losses to the Kings.

The Ducks played the higher tempo game Page demands, managing adequate speed despite the poor ice conditions in the sauna-like Yoyogi Arena.

“A lot of teams like to play three or four road games to start the season to get closer and to jell,” Page said. “I think our team discovered itself a little bit. It was a worthwhile trip, as demanding as it was because of the travel. It was nice to be a part of history by playing these games.”

The next order of business when the Ducks returned was, of course, to renew talks with Kariya’s Winnipeg-based agent, Don Baizley. Ferreira said he wasn’t hopeful a deal could be struck before Friday’s home opener, however.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We still don’t know what he wants. He won’t tell us.”