Ducks Play With Fire in Charron’s Debut

Seven minutes later the score is tied by Ranger center Michael York on a power-play goal, a power play courtesy of Marc Chouinard’s holding. The Ducks defended the power play terribly and less than two minutes after Chouinard came out of the penalty box for the Ducks, Pavel Trnka went in. Stupid.

Change makes no difference. The Ducks are still sloppy and strangely lackadaisical on defense so they must hold and slash and do illegal things to bring down the opposition.

But, wait. Petr Tenkrat puts the Ducks ahead again with 1:57 left in the first period. Tenkrat pumps his fists in front of the crowd. Feel the energy. The youngster scores one for his new coach and Charron grabs Tenkrat by the shoulders. There is emotion.

Change is great. What a brilliant move, firing Hartsburg and hiring Hartsburg’s kinder, gentler assistant.

But, wait. The Ducks can’t get out of the period without another penalty, thank you Jim Cummins. And the Rangers tie the score on another power-play goal 1:02 into the second period. Theo Fleury winds up and slaps the puck over Guy Hebert’s shoulder. Hebert should have seen the puck. Cummins shouldn’t have gotten the elbowing penalty.

Change, what change? Who can tell?

It was that way all night at the Pond.

Change is good, change is bad, change isn’t going to make a bit of difference.

The Ducks beat the Rangers, 6-4, and took a season-high 42 shots along the way. For you optimists, this is a sign Charron is going to open up the offense.

For you realists, this is a sign the Rangers are an old and struggling team that had played a tough 5-5 game against the Kings Thursday while the Ducks were at home, watching television and finding out their coach had been fired by seeing the ticker crawl below the King game.

Paul Kariya scored a breakaway goal. This made the score 3-2 in favor of the Ducks and will certainly make Hartsburg haters happy. It is the belief of many people, but not Kariya, that Hartsburg and his cautious, defensive-minded system were holding Kariya back.

The Ducks had 4-2 and 5-3 leads too, yet always they allowed an easy goal off defensive mistakes so that the Rangers were always close.

It was to ease the tension that Charron replaced Hartsburg. That’s what Duck General Manager Pierre Gauthier says. The Ducks needed to relax, Kariya said. Charron said he hopes to make hockey fun again.

There’s something uncomfortable about hearing professional athletes talk this way.

Is losing supposed to be free of tension? Is a disappointing season supposed to be relaxing? What is fun about missing the playoffs or being in last place in the division? And when do athletes become responsible for getting rid of their own tension and making their own fun?

Baseball players need to feel comfortable at the plate but otherwise being a pro athlete should be a little uncomfortable. The winners are the athletes who make the opposition more uncomfortable. The team which is the most relaxed and having the most fun isn’t usually holding a Stanley Cup or wearing a championship ring.

As nice as it was to see Kariya skate fast and free, it was equally discouraging to watch Niclas Havelid fritter away a puck which had been gallantly saved by Marty McInnis. Havelid’s turnover instantly became a breakaway goal for the Rangers’ Radek Dvorak. Is this relaxing?

The stated goal for the Ducks is to make the playoffs this year. Since they are in the toughest conference and maybe the toughest division, Charron doesn’t have the luxury of making gradual change.

Here’s the problem. If the Ducks skated harder, played with more enthusiasm, seemed happier about hockey Friday night and this is because they have a new coach who might not be quite so intense, maybe is a little more interested in fun than fury, what happens when Charron isn’t new any more?

If the enthusiasm, excitement, happiness, doesn’t come from the athletes, if the hockey players can’t skate faster, check harder, react smarter because they want to or are capable, it won’t matter about the coach.

The way the Ducks played against the Rangers will not win them many games against Western Conference teams, the teams the Ducks need to beat more often than not the rest of the season if they want to be in the playoffs.

Not until there was only 4:11 left in the game, when Mike Leclerc scored his second goal of the game to put the Ducks ahead 6-4, was this a safe win for Anaheim. Charron sunk to his knees and pumped a fist.

That was a change. Hartsburg didn’t celebrate in public.

Charron deserved his happy dance. But he shouldn’t get used to it. The West is yet to come.

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