Hartsburg’s Look Belies His Predicament

Craig Hartsburg is the man with the iron face, a surface of no expression, a mask that hides all emotion.

So don’t look at the face. Listen to the words.

Inside Hartsburg there is a passion for hockey, a fierce devotion to this game played on ice, a game that will never exactly belong to us in Southern California. Not in the way it belongs to Hartsburg.

Hartsburg is the beleaguered coach of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The Ducks lost to Dallas, 1-0, Sunday at the Pond. The season is slipping quietly away from the Ducks. Whatever is missing, Hartsburg can’t seem to find and it is assumed, since Hartsburg is the coach, that he will disappear too, same as the Ducks’ playoff hopes.

This would be wrong and it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

It is not Hartsburg who brought in non-performers such as German Titov in the off-season and declared that the Ducks’ problems were solved. It is not Hartsburg who chooses the way of least expense in filling out the Anaheim roster around Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne.

But it is Hartsburg who must stand behind the bench and watch the game being played so unlike the way he played the game. Hartsburg played full speed all the time. His physical abandon probably shortened his career. It is a sacrifice Hartsburg didn’t consider a sacrifice.

Hartsburg still uses his body to coach. He stands with his back pressed straight against the board behind his players. He yanks the cuffs of his dark blue shirt down below his wrists. He rolls his right shoulder, then his left. He folds his arms. His feet tap and his fingers twitch.

When a Duck pass is intercepted, Hartsburg pirouettes. His stomach turns inside out, upside down. A mistake makes Hartsburg crazy. But we don’t know that from watching.

As this game is finishing, as Hartsburg makes a motion and goalie Guy Hebert is pulled, as the Ducks rush up the ice in one last, desperate attempt to score against a staunch Dallas defense, booing starts. “Dump Hartsburg now,” one man shouts.

There is an uproar on the Internet. Duck fans, the die-hard ones, the guys who feel as if they understand hockey and sports and what makes winners and what makes losers, are giving Hartsburg a beating. If Hartsburg were fired tomorrow, there would be celebrating in Duck fan land.

What they see is a man with his arms folded and with no expression on his face. They hear a man who says the same things over and over. Play hard. Play smart. Play 60 minutes.

What the fans don’t see is the man whose face is ashen, whose eyes are narrow and angry. What they don’t hear is a man whose voice rises, who speaks words with such feeling that you want to back away.

“I came here to coach and to have success,” Hartsburg says. “Every time I step on the ice, I believe I can win. I’ve been that way my whole life.

“I do not coach here to make money or to make friends. I hate losing more than anything in the world and every loss makes me hungrier. Are there people who don’t believe that? Tell them to come down here and tell me to my face. I need to win. I don’t need anything else but to win. The challenge every day is to make players better, to make this team better, to make winners.”

Somehow, though, Hartsburg can’t seem to transfer his own passion to his players.

This is a team that plays without enthusiasm. Kariya, one star, pushes himself harder than he should but he is not a man who can push others. Selanne, the other star, can make his teammates laugh. He can make them relax. But relaxing isn’t what is needed.

Hartsburg wants to make his players passionate about playing. In practice Hartsburg is always on the ice, always moving. When he grabs a stick and takes off there is an energy that you never feel when any Duck grabs a stick and takes off.

The angry critics say the Ducks have a coach who was a big loser in Chicago. But those angry critics don’t mention that since Hartsburg was fired, the Blackhawks are still big losers in Chicago.

Lately Hartsburg has been letting some of his passion turn into public anger. He dared to criticize Kariya and Selanne after the disastrous loss to expansion Columbus last week.

As the Ducks begin this five-game homestand, their longest so far this season, Hartsburg is brutally honest.

“It’s critical,” he says. “We need to get points now so we have a chance to get back in the race.”

But there were no points Sunday and the race just gets faster. Hartsburg says he wishes often he were still playing. He must wish that more than ever when he watches some of the Ducks who seem so nonchalant about playing.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com