It All Adds Up for Mighty Ducks

It would be difficult to pin the blame for the latest poor performance on Paul Kariya’s absence. Too much went wrong Sunday for the Mighty Ducks against the New York Islanders for one player to have made that much of a difference.

Perhaps the Ducks were due to have a bad game after six fairly sound performances without Kariya, an unsigned free agent. But they seemed to fall apart in a lifeless 5-2 loss in front of 17,112 at the Pond.

Their goaltending was shaky. They had numerous defensive breakdowns. They gave the puck away repeatedly in the neutral zone. They couldn’t muster a sustained offensive attack.

And the Islanders made them pay for all their shortcomings with a solid victory.

“The way we played tonight, a Pee-Wee team could have beaten us,” Duck forward Kevin Todd said.

Robert Reichel and Travis Green each scored twice and Mariusz Czerkawski also had a goal for the Islanders as the Ducks gave up a season-high five goals.

New York goaltender Tommy Salo stopped all but two of 41 shots. Only Dmitri Mironov’s slap shot with the Ducks on a two-man advantage in the first period and Espen Knutsen’s wrist shot off a rebound in the third period got past him.

Coach Pierre Page warned the Ducks what might happen. He watched videotapes of past Islander games and noticed their speed and determination. This was definitely not a team to take lightly.

So what did the Ducks do to counter the Islanders?

“We were sleeping the first 10 minutes,” captain Teemu Selanne said.

Every decision seemed to be a bad one in the first period. By the time the Ducks straightened out their game, they were behind, 5-1, starting the third period.

They won all sorts of small battles in the game’s final 20 minutes, but couldn’t make a game of it. The Islanders were too strong to fold down the stretch.

“One positive out of the game was that we kept going, although certainly we’re not very happy with our performance,” goalie Guy Hebert said.

All of which made for another grumpy audience at the Pond, where the fans were in full voice with their familiar, “We want Paul,” chant. It was louder than ever as the second period ended with the Ducks sputtering on a four-minute power play.

“It’s not going to help,” Selanne said of the booing that went with the chanting for Kariya. “I think the fans can give you so much support and energy. It’s the [opposite effect] if they are booing you. Some players get nervous. I think we still have great fans. [But] we have to play well for ourselves and for our fans.”

Instead of picking apart the Ducks, Page praised the Islanders’ play. Of course, all the Duck mistakes helped make the Islanders look like Stanley Cup contenders in the first period.

“Our mental frame of mind to start the game was not there. Why?” Page said. “We were a high-risk hockey team. We played the first period as if we had no respect for the odds. We played a young, aggressive hockey team that showed us our approach in the first period was the wrong approach.

“We can make better decisions, I can tell you that.”