New Pairings of Defensemen Leave Out Haller

The Dallas Stars might cringe at the thought, but Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg decided he needed a pairing of hard-nosed defensemen, so he has started playing Ruslan Salei and Jason Marshall together.

Until Wednesday, Salei had played with the offensive-minded Fredrik Olausson, and Marshall and Kevin Haller had formed a steady pairing.

But Hartsburg scratched Haller for Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, prompting a bit of shuffling among the Duck pairs on defense.

Teaming Salei and Marshall, who play a similar style, enabled Hartsburg to keep Oleg Tverdovsky and Pavel Trnka together. Olausson and fellow Swede Niclas Havelid formed the third pairing.

“Kevin Haller is still a guy we like,” Hartsburg said when asked about scratching the veteran, who missed training camp after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. “The other side of the coin is we’ve added Oleg and Niclas [in the off-season] and Trnka has taken a huge step forward in his career.”

Hartsburg scratched Haller for the Ducks’ 5-5 tie Oct. 21 against the Chicago Blackhawks because he was concerned about the defenseman’s play. Wednesday, Haller was simply the odd man out.

“Kevin has played better the last few games,” Hartsburg said. “His game has started to get better. [The bottom line is] we’ve got eight defensemen we think can play in the league. And we want to play Salei and Marshall together.”

*

The Ducks expect left wing Mike Leclerc to resume skating over the weekend.