Ducks Lacking Identity, Standing

It’s not that the Mighty Ducks are on the outside looking in at the playoff race. That’s not the really bad part.

It’s that they trail the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference playoff race.

In fact, they’re two spots behind the Hawks. That would be the same Chicago Blackhawks who lost their first seven games of the season.

Tied for ninth place, trailing a team that didn’t start playing until November. That is what the Ducks have to show for the Best Start in Franchise History (although it simply would have been called an 8-5-4 record anywhere else). They’re stuck in reverse, even though no team in the NHL made as significant a roster improvement this season as the Ducks did the day they signed Paul Kariya on Dec. 11.

The Ducks are 15-25-8, with a power play that has produced only one goal in its last 47 chances, as they stumble into the All-Star break. The break couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s just a shame the break couldn’t be longer, long enough for the entire team to go on a retreat in some remote cabin.

This group needs to find some sort of an identity, because the only thing it has managed to do with consistency this season is not win games.

They’ve gone through changes in systems and line combinations like disposable razors, yet still haven’t found a trademark style of play.

The Ducks allowed only 12 goals in their first six games and had us thinking they weren’t going to give up goals very easily. Then they got blitzed for 12 goals in the next three games.

Fueled by Teemu Selanne’s 11-game goal-scoring streak, they lit the lamp an average of 3.4 times during an 11-game stretch, then were shut out in three of the next five games.

They stayed around .500 for the first two months and appeared to be a scrappy group that was managing to get by without one of the game’s superstars. They are 4-10-2 since Kariya returned, making it look as if they did it with smoke and mirrors and are actually so thin on talent that not even Kariya can make a difference.

Of all the various forms this team has assumed, that last one is starting to look like the most accurate. For all of the talk about Michael and the Jordanaires, the Chicago Bulls’ “supporting cast” was good enough to make the playoffs the year Jordan retired. There’s no way the Ducks could do the same without Kariya.

Even with Kariya, they don’t have the depth to stay competitive when he’s not on the ice. The Kariya-Selanne line (if you include former member Steve Rucchin) accounts for three of the four players on the team with a positive plus/minus rating.

The Ducks don’t have enough other players to make a difference, and don’t have enough to put together a package for someone who will.

Coach Pierre Page has become increasingly reliant on the thin layer of talent on the top. He played Kariya almost 28 minutes in the 2-0 loss to Colorado Wednesday night, and Selanne logged 26 1/2 minutes. That’s just about the extent of what’s humanly possible for a forward.

And late-game fatigue is beginning to become a factor. The Ducks gave up the game-tying goal in the last three minutes against the Kings and lost in overtime. They played even-up with the division-leading Avalanche for 54 minutes before they broke down and gave up a power-play goal.

We’ll just have to assume mental fatigue led to one of the strangest turnovers in a while on Wednesday night. Goaltender Guy Hebert was leaving the ice for an extra attacker with two minutes left when J.J. Daigneault’s pass hit him and bounced to . . . Peter Forsberg, who just happens to be the league’s leading scorer.

This continues the Quack-Quack’s uncanny ability to give the puck to opposing team’s stars in their own zone. Forsberg joined Jaromir Jagr and Mats Sundin in the A-list group of players who have scored courtesy of gifts from the Ducks.

There won’t be the end of a holdout from a superstar to hope for in the second half of the season. They’ve already played that card and yet they’re still losing. Their only break comes from the schedule.

If they can just survive a hellacious New Jersey-Philadelphia-Montreal-Ottawa-Chicago-Detroit-Colorado odyssey in March that features three sets of back-to-back games, they should be all right. Other than that trip they’ll play only four games outside the Pacific time zone and the only times they play the second part of back-to-back games on the road will be at the Forum and in San Jose.

And perhaps they can build on some two of the few positive statistics to emerge from the first half: The Ducks are 11-3-5 when they score three or more goals and they are 7-1-1 when they score four or more goals.

Pretty basic concept, huh?

The answers are clear, but the Ducks just can’t seem to solve the problems.