Duck Stars Sit Out 5-1 Loss to San Jose

San Jose Sharks 5, Mighty Ducks 1 probably wasn’t what an announced crowd of 11,080 had in mind when they filed into the Arrowhead Pond on Wednesday night.

It certainly wasn’t what Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg envisioned.

Unlike the fans, Hartsburg could afford to be philosophical about the Ducks’ first defeat in three exhibitions.

After all, Hartsburg had only 12 bona fide NHL players in uniform against what was essentially the Sharks’ A team. Hartsburg’s roster had eight others with tickets to play for Cincinnati of the American Hockey League.

“Do you think the score would have been the same with Kariya and Selanne in there?” San Jose Coach Darryl Sutter said.

The Ducks stayed close for two periods but were overwhelmed in the third without all-star wingers Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne in the lineup.

As Hartsburg saw it, the Ducks’ top line was comprised of Mike Leclerc, Antti Aalto and Jeff Nielsen. They formed a persistent, hard-working unit.

But Hartsburg will probably use them as a third or fourth line when the regular season begins Oct. 2 against the defending Stanley Cup champion Dallas Stars.

“Every one of these exhibitions you learn some things about the people you are evaluating,” Hartsburg said after the Ducks fell to 1-1-1. “Obviously, we’re looking at evaluations first. But we’re getting to the point here pretty quick where we’re going to start playing our people.”

“Our people,” would include Kariya, Selanne, center Steve Rucchin, left wing Ted Donato, goaltender Guy Hebert and defensemen Fredrik Olausson and Pavel Trnka--none of whom played Wednesday.

Hartsburg said he wanted to get a good, long look at young players such as Leclerc, defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski and goalie Tom Askey. And after three games, Hartsburg has been true to his word. But the days of evaluation are running out.

“We’ll probably make some decisions [today] on who we’ll play Friday,” he said, referring to the Ducks’ exhibition against the Kings at the Pond. “We’ve got five games left. We’ve got to start playing our guys here pretty quick and start evaluating our team.”

The more experienced Sharks turned a 2-1 lead after two periods into a 5-1 runaway by game’s end. Patrick Marleau, Jeff Norton and Vincent Damphousse ignited the rout with third-period goals. Owen Nolan also scored for San Jose (1-0-2).

Ted Drury had the Ducks’ goal.