Page Sounds Off About Duck Woes

It began with a question about disappointment, frustration and failed expectations. Almost 45 minutes later, Mighty Duck Coach Pierre Page was still going strong.

“It’s a tough year for the organization,” Page said Wednesday during a session with reporters long after the Ducks’ 3-1 loss to Toronto. “If what happened this year happened last year it would have helped the organization. They were unbelievable for the second half, which is a real credit to Ron Wilson.”

Paul Kariya’s 32-game contract dispute and his battle to overcome post-concussion syndrome have not been the Ducks’ only problems this season.

In his strongest public critique of the Ducks this season, Page said several key acquisitions haven’t panned out. The resulting lack of depth, coupled with Kariya’s absences, has turned the Ducks from a playoff team into a longshot to qualify for the postseason.

What’s more, the Ducks must win 13 of their final 18 games to avoid the worst record in their five-season history.

Page criticized Espen Knutsen, Tomas Sandstrom and Scott Young, who were acquired during the off-season to bolster the second line. They also were counted on to ease the scoring burden, shouldered almost exclusively by Kariya and Teemu Selanne.

“The onus that was on Scott Young and Tomas Sandstrom was to score 20 to 25 goals and we thought Knutsen would have a decent year and would [help] provide 40 to 50 goals from the second line,” Page said. “And we’re not close.”

Knutsen had three goals before he was demoted to Cincinnati of the American Hockey League in November. Sandstrom has six goals. Young has nine goals, and has a scratched cornea and is not expected to play tonight against the Dallas Stars.

“Success in this league is doing well right now or having a vision for the future,” Page said. “Sometimes you have to take your licks. The success of last year, in a way, is why we’re going through what we’re going through right now. We felt so good about ourselves, but that didn’t mean it would happen again.”

Asked about the Ducks’ plans, Page paused for more than 30 seconds after saying, “I think the vision here was to . . . “

“The only way I can answer that is that the success of last year led to this year. It comes down to evaluation. This was not supposed to be a rebuilding year. We’re going to find out who are the guys who are going to be the supporting guys for Paul and Teemu.”

Asked for a reaction to Page’s comments, President Tony Tavares said Thursday, “He sounds like a very frustrated guy. We’re all frustrated. This team has not performed the way it should have. At the end of the day, I am to blame for that. It’s unacceptable to me. It’s going to be corrected.

“It’s no secret we’ve made our share of mistakes. The key issue is not to repeat them.”

Tavares also said for the first time he devoted too much time this winter to supervising the revamping of the Angel lineup at the expense of monitoring the Ducks.

“It was not a conscious decision to spend more time on the Angels than the Ducks,” he said. “It’s probably evolved that way. I’ll never shirk that responsibility. I think about that often. It’s a hard question for me to answer. Despite some popular opinion out there that I make every single decision, I tend to let my managers, and I don’t just mean my general managers [Jack Ferreira of the Ducks and Bill Bavasi of the Angels], do their thing.

“Have I been there often enough to challenge [Ferreira] to make sure the vision is consistent? I wonder about that myself.”

Page followed the Angels’ off-season reconstruction and hopes the same can be done for the Ducks.

“I think our organization will take a good look at the Angels,” Page said. “They’ve really extended themselves. I’d like to think maybe it’s a good news for the hockey club. I don’t want the Ducks to be like the Florida Marlins [who won the World Series with a $53-million payroll]. I think that’s prostitution. They won the championship, then sold everyone off.

“I look at the Angels and they’re not going the cheap route. We thought the young guys would develop more quickly. It took Calgary nine years to win the Stanley Cup. It took Edmonton five years.

“It should fall somewhere between the Marlins and the Angels. All the happenings of this year have forced us to reevaluate. In the long term, the fans might benefit from it and the organization might benefit from it.

“You can say now I realize we need more of this and less of that. It’s painful.”

Tavares said he will soon convene a meeting of the minds in order to reevaluate each player in the organization. Page and Ferreira also will have their performances reviewed at season’s end.

“The analysis is the same we had to go through with the Angels,” he said. “The bottom line is we made a decision [with the Angels] that we were going to toughen up mentally.”

Page put it this way, “You have to have people who want to keep getting better. The organization has to have a desire to get better.”

But, a reporter wondered, does management truly want a competitive team and a money-maker?

“I sit in meetings and I sense the organization wants to get better,” Page said. “They just didn’t think this was going to happen. Deep down, Jack knows what needs to be done. What I see happening with the Angels is a good sign to me. The reason I came here [after two seasons as coach of the Calgary Flames] is Jack’s track record in judging talent. I don’t know too many people better than Jack at finding talent.”