Players Finally Get Their Day of Rest

And on the 12th day, the Ducks rested.

No practice. No game. Nothing more taxing than a nice dinner out Sunday evening in Vancouver.

The Ducks will get back to work today in preparation for the third and final game on this trip Wednesday at Edmonton.

But Sunday was definitely a day of leisure and recovery for the Ducks after playing seven games, and winning four, during a grueling 11-night stretch.

The Ducks surprised even Coach Craig Hartsburg with a spirited effort in a 5-1 victory Saturday over the Vancouver Canucks. Perhaps the players knew if they put in a quality effort Hartsburg would cancel practice Sunday.

“We certainly had lot of energy,” Hartsburg said. “It was a huge effort by our guys.”

It also marked a huge turnaround from Friday’s 6-3 loss to the Flames at Calgary and Wednesday’s 6-2 loss to the Oilers at Anaheim. The Ducks didn’t play with the same fire as in victories earlier in the week against the Kings and Phoenix Coyotes.

But a few changes to the line combinations seemed to do the trick as the Ducks returned to a better defensive style Saturday.

“After the way we played the last two, [Saturday] the key was getting back to business and not turning the puck over,” Hartsburg said. “That’s been killing us. I didn’t think some of the guys played very well in the last two games and we had to change things.”

Captain Paul Kariya put it more bluntly.

“When we don’t play aggressively, we’re horrible defensively,” Kariya said when asked about the difference in the Ducks’ play Friday and Saturday.

Pressed further about the losses to Edmonton and Calgary, Kariya added, “It was a matter of being overconfident in the first game. In Calgary, we just came out flat.”

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Teemu Selanne’s 10-game point streak is the second-longest by a Duck this season, trailing Kariya’s 11-game streak from Nov. 6-27. It also tied Kip Miller of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the NHL’s longest current streak.

Selanne has nine goals and eight assists in 10 games. Kariya had seven goals and nine assists in 11 games.