Marshall Might Sit Out Two Games

Defenseman Jason Marshall said he expects to be sidelined for games Monday and Tuesday against the Colorado Avalanche, but hopes to return to the Duck lineup after the Christmas break.

The Ducks, unbeaten in six consecutive games (4-0-2), return home after Tuesday’s game in Denver and begin a five-game trip Dec. 28 against the Ottawa Senators.

Marshall suffered a partial tear of his left hamstring when he crashed heavily into the boards in the first minute of Friday’s 2-2 tie against the New York Islanders.

He would not blame Islander center Claude Lapointe for injuring him, saying Saturday, “I felt him behind me. I lost my footing and fell into the boards. It wasn’t a dirty play.”

But Coach Craig Hartsburg wasn’t about to let Lapointe’s clumsy play go without comment. After all, the Ducks believed it set the tone for the chippy play that followed.

“I thought he had broken his leg,” Hartsburg said. “He was defenseless. [But] there seemed to be a lot of those kinds of plays in the game.”

Hartsburg also didn’t think much of Islander Coach Mike Milbury’s postgame comment that Duck forward Travis Green was a “gutless puke,” for delivering a shoulder-to-shoulder check on New York defenseman Kenny Jonsson.

“I don’t agree with what he said,” Hartsburg said. “It’s unfortunate these things come out in public. Let the players do all the talking. They’re the ones out there playing the games. The game is what’s important, not what the coaches are saying.”

Asked his view of the hit, Hartsburg said, “I don’t know what Travis could have done differently. I feel bad for Jonsson because he’s a hell of a player. It wasn’t a cheap shot. It was a clean hit. We lost a guy [Marshall] and it wasn’t because of a clean hit. Jason could be out a while.”

Jonsson apparently suffered his second concussion of the season, and the sixth of his career, but Milbury acknowledged late Friday night he wasn’t sure whether the player was injured that seriously. Milbury also said he hadn’t seen a videotape of the play.

But Milbury sure was angry at Green, a former Islander who was traded to the Ducks as part of a six-player deal last Feb. 6.

Milbury also said Green was overpaid and blamed himself for giving him a fat contract.

“Now ask me how I really feel,” Milbury said at one point during his postgame tirade.

When a New York reporter went to a nearby phone to call in the quotes to his newspaper, Milbury reminded him to stress the bit about calling Green a “gutless puke.”

Milbury, who doubles as the Islander general manager, apparently dislikes Green because of several past contract disputes. Green, who is making $1.5 million this season, missed training camp two seasons in a row while holding out for better deals from Milbury.