Hartsburg Goes Back to Drawing Board

Coach Craig Hartsburg took the Ducks to school Thursday.

Instead of conducting practice a day after completing a stretch of four exhibitions in five nights, Hartsburg held a 30-minute instructional session in front of a TV monitor.

Hartsburg popped a number of videotapes into the recorder and went over a few things. Some he liked, some he didn’t.

“[It] was more of a mental day,” he said. “We looked at videos and talked about some things. Sometimes you need to give the body a rest. It’s been a tough stretch for us.”

Reviews of the Ducks’ first four exhibitions were mixed. They were 1-3 and suffered defensive breakdowns at key points in each game.

“In each game there have been spurts where we’ve been good,” Hartsburg said after the Ducks’ 5-4 loss Wednesday to the Colorado Avalanche. “But we’ve had spurts where we haven’t been so good. . . . I’m not disappointed. I’m not looking at our record. [But] there’s lots of work to do.”

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Defenseman Fredrik Olausson, who missed the first week of training camp because of an enlarged spleen, was the only Duck who skated Thursday. He performed a number of drills under the supervision of assistant coach Newell Brown.

Hartsburg hopes Olausson will be fit to play Saturday against Colorado at Denver. If not, Hartsburg hopes the defenseman will be ready for Monday’s game against the Kings at the Arrowhead Pond.

“We’ll see where he is for this weekend,” Hartsburg said of Olausson, signed last summer to a two-year, $2-million contract. “We don’t want to rush it.”

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The Ducks trimmed their roster to 29. Goalies Tom Askey and Blaine Russell, defensemen Scott Ferguson and Terran Sandwith, and forwards Peter LeBoutillier, Bob Wren, Craig Reichert, Luke Curtin and David Bernier were assigned to Cincinnati of the American Hockey League.

The Ducks have until their opening game Oct. 10 against the Washington Capitals to cut to the 24-man limit.