Hapless Ducks Made to Order for Woeful Canadiens

There’s no sense in ripping the Mighty Ducks for their brutal effort Thursday against the hapless and hopeless Montreal Canadiens.

The Ducks did a pretty fair job of hammering themselves after a toothless 2-1 loss--a game right wing Teemu Selanne called “the worst I’ve seen this year.”

“I don’t think we’ve played that badly all year,” he said. “We’re not a good enough team to take nights off. We have to play the same way against every team. We do OK against the good teams. We see a team with a bad record and we don’t get it done.

“We thought it was going to be an easy game.”

Wrong.

“It’s one thing to make the same mistake twice, but this is ridiculous,” captain Paul Kariya said.

The mistake Kariya referred to is taking an inferior opponent for granted, which the Ducks also did in a 3-0 loss Oct. 24 to Boston and a 5-5 tie Oct. 21 against Chicago.

The Ducks should have beaten the Canadiens, who were winless in nine consecutive games (0-8-1) before the game. They could have won if they started the game with the slightest bit of emotion. And they would have won if not for a determined effort by the Canadiens.

“Shoulda, coulda, woulda,” Kariya said.

In the end, Kariya blamed himself for the loss. But it wasn’t anything he failed to accomplish on the ice. It had everything to do with something he didn’t say before the pregame warmup.

“It all starts in the dressing room,” said Kariya, who assisted on Matt Cullen’s second-period goal that was the Ducks’ one shining moment Thursday.

“We had a horrible warmup. No jump. The guys’ heads were in the clouds. It’s partly my fault. I sensed we weren’t ready to play and I didn’t say anything. We all have to take the blame for this collectively.

“[But] I made a mistake.”

Kariya’s normal pregame routine revolves around quiet introspection. He’s not one to give pep talks or lead cheers in the dressing room. He doesn’t yell at his teammates to motivate them.

“It’s not my style to raise my voice or be negative,” he said. “Certainly, I made a mistake. I’ll tell you this, there’s going to be some times when I have to sacrifice my pregame ritual to get everyone going. At this level I shouldn’t have to do it all the time.”

To be sure, the Ducks needed a swift kick from Kariya to get them moving Thursday.

Montreal gave it to them instead, taking a 2-0 lead on goals from Martin Rucinsky and Sergei Zholtok before the Ducks were roused from their naps.

Cullen’s goal midway through the second period gave the Ducks some life, but they couldn’t complete a comeback. The Ducks carried the play to the Canadiens in the third period, firing plenty of point-blank shots at goalie Jeff Hackett.

Nothing got past him, however.

When the game ended, Hackett was mobbed by his joyful teammates. Pardon the Canadiens if they celebrated as if they had just won the Stanley Cup finals, but it was their first victory since defeating the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1, on Oct. 16.

As the winless streak continued, there were calls for the firing of General Manager Rejean Houle and Coach Alain Vigneault. A 5-4 loss to Pittsburgh on Wednesday, when the Canadiens squandered two three-goal leads, seemed to underscore the need for change in Montreal.

But perhaps it also gave the Ducks a false sense of security. Coach Craig Hartsburg said Wednesday the Ducks were in no position to underestimate the Canadiens, but they sure seemed to Thursday.

“I don’t think it would have mattered who we played tonight,” Hartsburg said. “We’re still an immature team in a lot of ways. . . . There’s still a mental part of the game we have to learn. We [the coaching staff] have to push and teach until it clicks in.

“We were terrible. Why? I don’t have an answer other than we’re a young team that hasn’t yet learned [how to win]. We can do a lot of talking, but there has to be action from our players.

“There seems to be a lot of lip service. But it has to sink in at some point.”