Hartsburg Fits the Ducks' Bill

By ELLIOTT TEAFORD

July 22, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Mighty Ducks finally got around to hiring Craig Hartsburg as their coach Tuesday, five weeks after firing Pierre Page over “philosophical differences.”

Last week, the Ducks hired Pierre Gauthier as their team president, moving Tony Tavares out of the day-to-day hockey operations at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

That rates as a flurry of activity for a team seemingly bent on moving in slow-motion while other NHL clubs appear to move at warp speed during the off-season.

With a three-year contract for Hartsburg and a five-year deal for Gauthier completed in less than a week, all appears to be stabilized in the organization--perhaps for the first time since Ron Wilson was let go as coach May 20, 1997.

But the fact is that the Ducks have struck out in the free-agent marketplace this summer. All the best unrestricted free agents have been snapped up by other teams and any signing the Ducks make now will be viewed as a minor deal.

So, Hartsburg will be asked to win with essentially the same roster, plus or minus a few role players, that Page led to a 12th-place finish in the 13-team Western Conference last season.

Not that Hartsburg, 39, was complaining after signing a contract believed to be worth slightly more than the $400,000 per season or so that Butch Goring turned down last week.

Hartsburg rejected the notion that by being the Ducks’ second choice it somehow tainted his hiring. Fired by Chicago in April after the Blackhawks failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 29 years, Hartsburg sounded eager to get to work in Anaheim.

“The first thing is to try to establish a work ethic that is second to none in the National Hockey League,” he said. “It’s something I’m going to demand from Day 1. The second thing is discipline. The next thing is a team-first attitude. [Fourth,] I want us to be the best-conditioned team in the National Hockey League.

“The little things will add up to the big things.”

The first item on Hartsburg’s to-do list involves a sit-down chat with team captain Paul Kariya. Hartsburg has no plans to rehash the cross check Chicago defenseman Gary Suter delivered to Kariya’s jaw Feb. 1, which sidelined the left wing with post-concussion syndrome for the season’s final 32 games.

Hartsburg simply wants to learn what Kariya believes will make the Ducks a playoff contender again.

“I want to communicate with every player here, but Paul is probably the first guy I want to meet,” Hartsburg said. “To me [the Suter incident] is over and done with.”

Kariya was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but last month said he’s willing to put the past behind him. “He was trying to protect his player,” Kariya said of Hartsburg. “I don’t have any hard feelings toward him.”

Kariya also suggested at that time that he was concerned about the Ducks’ lack of depth, particularly in their inexperienced defensive corps.

Help apparently is not forthcoming, although the Ducks are believed to have a strong interest in signing unrestricted free agent Fredrik Olausson.

“If giving $6 million a year to 35-year-old players is the solution, I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a part of it,” Gauthier said. “That’s totally ridiculous. Nobody so far has been able to build a team by buying it. Most of those [big-salary] teams didn’t make the playoffs. We want to play against those older players, those fat cats.”

Hartsburg seemed unfazed by the Ducks’ hard line approach to skyrocketing free-agent salaries. Of course, he should be well-trained by now after spending three seasons coaching the budget-conscious Blackhawks.

In many respects, Hartsburg faces many of the same obstacles in Anaheim as in Chicago.

The Ducks have Kariya and all-star right wing Teemu Selanne, but lack sufficient offensive depth to support them. Plus, the Ducks’ gave up the third-most goals in the NHL last season (261).

“We have to be better defensively,” Hartsburg said. “We’ve got the skill and talent offensively, but we’ve got to improve our defensive numbers.”

Chicago’s defense was sound enough, what with future Hall of Famer Chris Chelios leading the way, but the Blackhawks’ popgun offense scored only 192 goals--second-fewest in the league.

Neither the Ducks, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Co., nor the Blackhawks, owned by the Wirtz family, are renowned as free-spending organizations.

Both have developed reputations as being downright cheap.

The Ducks have been criticized for failing to sign free agents this summer. The Blackhawks lost out to Dallas in the Brett Hull free-agent sweepstakes earlier this month, but signed Doug Gilmour to a three-year, $18-million deal.

There is one significant difference between the Blackhawks when Hartsburg was hired in 1995 and the Ducks he inherited Tuesday, however.

“When I went to Chicago, it was an older team and had just one chance [to win the Stanley Cup],” Hartsburg said of the 1995-96 Blackhawks, who were 40-28-14 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. “[The Ducks are] a young team that’s only going to get better.”

The Ducks seemed bent on boring teams into submission with the neutral-zone trap during Wilson’s four-season tenure. They were all over the place under Page, who tried all sorts of game plans in an attempt to wring the most from the overmatched Ducks.

Hartsburg hopes to install one game plan, then stick with it.

“We’ll decide on the system and try to perfect it,” he said. “We’ll work at it and perfect it. It takes a long time, but teams like Dallas and Detroit do it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TALES OF THE TAPE

THE NEW COACH:

CRAIG HARTSBURG

* Seasons as coach:3, all with Chicago

* Overall record: 104-102-40

* Best season:

1995-96 (40-28-14, 2nd place)

* Playoff appearances: 2

* Playoff record: 8-8

MIGHTY DUCKS:

FRANCHISE HISTORY