Sharpening His Skills

The secret is understanding the concept of cold steel on ice.

Keep a sharp edge and a skater can go a long way in the NHL. Do otherwise and you might just be in Kevin Todd’s skates.

He hit a rut and lost his edge. He landed in the IHL.

“[The Mighty Ducks] told me things didn’t work out there and that they would try to accommodate me,” Todd said. He’s a center/left wing who spent the first half of the season in Anaheim, battling some injuries, scoring slumps and the perception that size matters.

He lost that battle and was demoted. Although he remains Duck property, he has been told he has no future in the organization.

“They want to go bigger and younger,” he said, pausing long enough to consider again why he was cut Jan. 12. “That’s the way they want to go.”

But he’s the only one moving his gear, and the 5-foot-10, 180-pound forward will try to move ahead by making a difference with the Ice Dogs, who are tied for first in the IHL’s Southwest Division.

The Ice Dogs can use him, but they have proved they can win without him, advancing to the Turner Cup finals last season.

Todd, who turns 30 in May, did not come to Long Beach as a savior. He’s here to be saved. This is a chance to skate, work hard and prove to others that he deserves another shot at the NHL.

For that shot, he must be sharp.

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Todd kept finding himself without a seat on the Duck bench this season. He spent 22 games in a folding chair in the press box and had four goals, six assists and was a minus-2 in the 24 NHL games in which he played.

Todd’s rut started when he injured his groin during training camp in September. Fourteen days later, a puck hit him above his left eye during an exhibition game against Phoenix.

He was scratched for three games of the regular season.

He returned to the lineup for the next two games but did not score. In each of the next three games--against the Oilers, Islanders and Coyotes--he picked up at least one point.

Then came a three-game scoring drought that sent him back to the press box for three games as a healthy scratch. He would play a game and go scoreless and then be scratched for the next game.

Sense a pattern?

His breakout game came Nov. 12 at home against the Canadiens. Teemu Selanne was taking a beating and Paul Kariya’s phone was off the hook in North Vancouver. Todd responded with a goal.

“We had some other guys come to the forefront tonight,” Page said after the Canadiens beat the Ducks, 4-3. “Kevin Todd gave us life.”

The opportunity was short-lived because he went scoreless in the next game against the Canucks and was sent to the press box for a game against the Stars. He had a brief scoring surge in mid-December and then nothing.

As parents say, when nothing is going on, that’s when trouble starts.

Players speak their mind to the press and the clock starts ticking.

The Ducks went 2-8-2 in December and the new year didn’t change things. So management did.

Defenseman Bobby Dollas was sent to Edmonton on Jan. 9 for defenseman Ken Bannister. Three days later, Todd was gone. Both Dollas and Todd were identified by team President Tony Tavares and General Manager Jack Ferreira as vocal critics of the organization.

There’s no question that management has the edge when it’s time to decide whose time is up. Players air dirty laundry in the press and get shipped by management, who then air the same dirty laundry with their own spin cycle.

Todd knows this. He has gone from the Ducks’ doghouse to the Ice Dogs.

Todd, who made the NHL’s all-rookie team with New Jersey in 1991-92, has used the time away from the Ducks to work through the reasons he’s in the minors.

“[The Ducks] did me a favor by putting me here in Long Beach as opposed to Cincinnati [of the AHL]. So I can be grateful about that,” he said. “All I can do is work hard down here and try and help this team win.”

He skated around reports that Tavares got rid of him and Dollas because they were causing tension in the locker room, but he doesn’t have time for speculation that he is being made a scapegoat for the Ducks’ rough going in December and January.

“I don’t think so, no. They just said to me they wanted to go in a different direction. I have no hard feelings from that,” Todd said. “I have to accept what they’ve given me. Now hopefully something works out [a trade] with another team and I can get back playing [in the NHL].”

The shake-up got the Ducks’ attention.

“I think any time you see your teammates leave it should wake you up a little bit,” Selanne said calmly. “Maybe the next time it might be you.”

Selanne knows that, short of a complete overhaul, he is not going anywhere. Steve Rucchin, who usually centers the line with Kariya and Selanne, is more likely to understand the danger of a slump.

During Ron Wilson’s time as Duck coach, even Todd was considered a candidate for the spot Rucchin now occupies.

“It puts a scare into you at times. It makes you think,” said Rucchin, who at 6-3 and 215 pounds can play the rugged game in front of the net. “A lot of guys, especially myself, just haven’t been doing the job. It shakes you up a bit [when changes are made]. You never want to move.”

But Todd and Dollas did, and the changes have helped this team gain focus. As for clearing tension from the dressing room, that’s hard to do when it isn’t there.

“There’s been none of that at all, to be honest with you,” Rucchin said. “We had a [players-only] meeting and we expressed that we had to work harder and get the job done.”

The Ducks have Rucchin, Sean Pronger, Ted Drury, Mark Janssens and Joe Sacco, when called upon to play in the middle, to give the Ducks size at center. When Todd left, that helped to eventually make room for Matt Cullen at 6-1, 195 pounds. None of the Duck pivots is shorter than 6 feet tall.

Strangely, Page does not take a strong stand in support of his larger forward line. After the Kings game, he added another measurement.

“I’ve said from the beginning of training camp to now that we need to play with grit,” Page said. “It’s not the size of the player but the size of the heart.”

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Looking past the statements and explanations, there is no straight answer as to why Todd was demoted. His numbers with the Ducks are nearly equal or better than those of Tomas Sandstrom (53 games, six goals, seven assists, minus-20), who has been a disappointment this season.

Todd offers no negative reflections on Anaheim. Espen Knutsen, who came to the Ducks this season with flowing hair and glowing advance press, is in Cincinnati and has carped in the press about the Ducks, their treatment of him and even life in southern Ohio.

In 22 AHL games, Knutsen has two goals, eight assists and is a minus-17. In seven IHL games, Todd has three goals and seven assists. Knutsen is a prospect. Todd is a discard.

“I really don’t worry about that,” Todd said. “I just go day to day while I’m down here and play hard every night.”

On this night, nine days after his demotion, his best is not enough to keep the Utah Grizzlies from winning, 4-1. He did, however, show he can cause some problems for defenders when he’s on the ice.

Late in the third period, Utah goalie Kay Whitmore is cruising when Todd comes along the right wing boards. His wrist shot forces Whitmore to make the save, but not before the goalie looks like a toddler on double runners for the first time as he takes a seat in the crease with arms and legs splayed.

Todd doesn’t score in the game, but that’s the exception. In the minors, Todd has ruled, winning the scoring title and being named the most valuable player in the AHL in 1991.

That was on his way up to the NHL the first time. On his second attempt, one-game slumps and three-game streaks are nothing to get excited about.

“I’ve scored down at this level before and I know I can score. I scored at that level up there [the NHL] too,” he said. “It’s just a matter of playing. When I can get a chance to play, I can score.”

He’s coming back and he knows it. His skills are sharpened and his psyche is steeled for the days ahead. That’s his edge.