Blackhawks Inflict More Pain on Ducks

The Mighty Ducks eventually will win another game this season, but playing in the manner they did Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks won’t get it done.

The Ducks were thumped virtually every way possible by a team they easily had defeated twice already this season. The Blackhawks jumped on every Duck mistake Thursday and crafted a 4-1 victory before 16,149 at the United Center.

It’s easy to figure out precisely how and why the Ducks went off the rails on this five-game trip. There are two very good explanations for their 0-4-1 record against Detroit, Nashville, Carolina, Pittsburgh and Chicago.

First, Teemu Selanne’s strained right thigh isn’t getting any better, slowing him to the point that he was caught from behind on a second-period breakaway by aging Chicago defenseman Chris Chelios.

Second, Paul Kariya apparently is suffering from an injury similar to Selanne’s, which explained why he didn’t make much of an effort to catch Chicago’s Chad Kilger on a first-period breakaway.

Neither player wanted to use his injury as an excuse for Thursday’s clunker. In fact, Kariya denied being injured at all. Two league sources indicated otherwise, however.

“It was just an awful game and an awful road trip,” Kariya said.

Coach Craig Hartsburg also denied that Kariya was injured. When asked why Kariya did not participate in Thursday’s morning skate, Hartsburg said, “He plays so much, it’s good to keep him off the ice once in a while. He’s fine.”

Neither Selanne nor Kariya played fine Thursday, however. Hartsburg sharply criticized their efforts, but without naming them directly.

Asked about Selanne’s lingering injury, which sidelined him for six games before this trip, Hartsburg said, “He’s never made a comment to [the coaching staff] or the trainers that it’s real sore. If he’s talking about that, then he’s making excuses for himself.”

Said Selanne, sitting at game’s end with an enormous ice pack on his leg: “I don’t want to talk about it right now. It’s so frustrating.”

Thursday, with their top two players moving at what appeared to be no better than 75% of their top speed, the Ducks looked like a last-place team. And the Blackhawks appeared to be a playoff contender.

Their roles certainly were reversed in 5-2 and 4-1 Duck victories over the Blackhawks earlier this season.

The Ducks were outhit and outworked, avoiding a shutout only because of rookie Antti Aalto’s wrist shot that whistled over goalie Jocelyn Thibault’s left shoulder midway through the first period.

The Duck special teams were neither special nor merely adequate, giving up two short-handed goals.

“Two short-handed goals will kill you,” said Kariya, who failed to record a goal or an assist for the third consecutive game after recording a league-best 11-game point streak. “That’s a real backbreaker. Our line played awful. We didn’t do the job.”

Kilger, a former Duck, scored twice for the Blackhawks--once short-handed and once at even strength. Chicago’s Alexei Zhamnov also scored two goals, one shorthanded and one on the power play.

“If you want to blame somebody for this, our line gave up two short-handed goals,” Selanne said. “That was our fault. The other guys were battling pretty hard, but two mistakes and that cost us the game.”

Thibault, who shut out the Ducks as a member of the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 13, stopped 24 of 25 shots. Chicago acquired him in a six-player deal with Montreal on Nov. 16.

In the end, the Ducks found the only nice things about Chicago were the sunny skies and 65-degree temperature Thursday.

The Ducks returned to Anaheim early this morning winless in five consecutive games, their longest slump since going 0-3-2 from March 26 to April 5 last season.

After a day off today and what figures to be a difficult practice Saturday, the Ducks’ trip continues with a game Sunday against the Sharks at San Jose.

The Ducks don’t play at the Arrowhead Pond again until Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks.