Ducks Suffer a Devil of Night

The New Jersey Devils are an impressive enough hockey team without opponents making them look good, as the Mighty lifeless Ducks did Wednesday night.

The list of Ducks’ failings was as lengthy as the Jersey Turnpike in a miserable 7-1 loss to the Devils before 17,239 at Continental Airlines Arena.

“We were terrible,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “In all areas, we were bad. It was by far our worst effort, our worst game all year. . . . There was nothing good about the game. There weren’t three or four guys that played half-decent.”

That many, eh?

“I think we lost the game before we stepped on the ice,” captain Paul Kariya said. “We weren’t ready to play. We just came out awful. We weren’t ready to compete and play a game tonight.”

The Ducks did not skate with the required sense of urgency from the opening faceoff and trailed, 3-0, after only 9:03.

“You could count on one hand the number of guys ready to play tonight. We can’t have that,” Kariya said. “It’s a lack of preparation on our part.”

Asked for his explanation for the Ducks’ listless start, Hartsburg said, “Jersey is a good team. They came out ready to play and just outplayed us. We didn’t do a very good job of anything, so they handled us pretty well. We didn’t win enough battles. We didn’t work hard enough.”

Amazingly, the Ducks were so slow and disorganized defensively they made the lumbering Devils--built for the rough and tumble Atlantic Division--appear fast.

It might have been understandable if the Devils had outmuscled the Ducks for position for point-blank range shots at goalie Guy Hebert. But the Devils raced past the Ducks.

Somebody named Vadim Sharifijanov scored the first of his two goals only 3:06 into the game. Randy McKay then scored at 4:38. Bobby Holik added a third goal at 9:03. Each goal was scored from about five feet from Hebert’s net.

Game over.

Hartsburg called a timeout after Holik’s goal, hoping to slow the Devils’ momentum and also to chew out the Ducks.

The ploy worked well for, oh, 30 seconds or so.

New Jersey’s Kevin Dean was whistled for interfering with Duck center Steve Rucchin near center ice at 9:19. Kariya whistled a quick shot from the left faceoff circle for a power-play goal at 9:33.

And that was about it for Duck highlights.

By night’s end, the Ducks had taken a giant step backward after making two significant strides toward securing a Stanley Cup playoff berth with 5-1 victories Sunday over the Calgary Flames and Friday against the Dallas Stars.

“It’s disappointing that we followed it [the two lopsided victories] up with a game like that,” Hartsburg said.

Fact is, New Jersey’s seven goals are the most the Ducks have given up this season. The Ducks had given up six goals three times and went into the game with the NHL’s sixth-stingiest defense.

The Ducks’ feeble total of 14 shots on New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur tied their season low. The Ducks also had 14 shots in a 2-1 victory March 3 against the Kings.

Unlike the Kings, the Devils took full advantage of the Ducks’ sputtering offense Wednesday.

New Jersey also thumped the Ducks in front of Hebert, scoring five goals on 18 shots before Hartsburg brought Dominic Roussel into the game at 7:13 of the second period.

Roussel gave up two goals on 18 shots, but got about as much help as Hebert did from their teammates. The Ducks simply failed to adequately cover the front of their net. Six of the Devils’ seven goals were from slam-dunk range.

“They did a good job of getting the puck into the slot,” Roussel said of the Devils after his first appearance since relieving Hebert in a 4-0 loss March 12 to the Stars. “Sometimes they had three guys in there--two forwards and a defenseman cheating over.”

All things considered, it was an awful way to begin a five-game trip.

“In this business you have a chance to redeem yourself pretty quick, so we’ll see what we’re made of Friday,” Hartsburg said of a game against the New York Rangers.

DETROIT: 2, KINGS: 1

The Kings, who had beaten the Red Wings twice, couldn’t do it again, making their playoff hopes even slimmer. Page 3