Ducks’ Performance Questionable

Up, down, forward, backward. Which way are the Ducks going? And does anybody care?

Monday night it was backward. Way backward. Backward in the standings and backward in showing any evidence of heart. To give up a 2-0 lead when you are in your own building and when you stand in 10th place in the race for eight playoff spots, this deadly loss might very well be the end of post-season hopes.

To the sounds of silence at the Arrowhead Pond, the Mighty Ducks, without star Paul Kariya (foot injury) and with No. 1 goalie Guy Hebert benched and nursing a bruised ego (the three goals he gave up in the third period against San Jose on Friday night made no one very happy), the Ducks took a 2-0 lead early in the second period and then ended up with a disgusting 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

Maybe it’s too soon to write off the Ducks, but it is hard to find hope right now. The Blues are the No. 1 team in the Western Conference and the Ducks jumped on them quickly and hard. Then they embarrassed themselves.

Where is the life on this confusing team? Where is the oomph, where is a certain look of desperation?

When Ruslan Salei scores his fourth goal of the season to give you a 2-0 lead, when Salei winds up and whips a curving, swerving missile past goalie Roman Turek, why are the Ducks not pumped? Why does the skating not become quicker, the passing crisper, the hitting harder, the wanting of a win incredibly intense?

Why is the only sound to be heard for the entire third period the loud and annoying voice of one man’s rhythmic chant of “Let’s go Blues, let’s go Blues.” And why was that man wearing a Mighty Duck jersey?

Why did Teemu Selanne stumble over, what, a piece of ice, and throw himself off-balance just when he was going to take a point-blank shot with his Ducks holding a two-man advantage? The cockeyed Selanne weakly tapped the puck behind the net and that sigh of relief you heard was Turek thanking his lucky stars.

Why weren’t any voices raised in the Ducks’ postgame locker room? Why didn’t someone break a stick or scream out an epithet? Why didn’t Coach Craig Hartsburg scorch someone, anyone on this cautious, careful, unassertive group of, there is no other way to say this, losers?

Why did Hartsburg not change his tone of voice once when he dissected this stomach-turning result? Why did Hartsburg answer “No,” to the question of whether the Ducks were feeling any urgency yet that the season might be slipping away? Why did Hartsburg say that “We have painful growing pains to go through?” Why hasn’t the time for growing pains passed? Why have we heard this so much all season? Why did Hartsburg say, “We can’t do anything but talk about things we didn’t do?” Why can’t the Ducks quit talking and start doing? Why can’t they start being mad and not taking it any more?

Why weren’t there any boos from the announced crowd of 13,346? Where is the passion that hockey fans in so many places bring to games? Does the crowd feed off the team? Does the team feed off the crowd?

Does anybody care?

Does anybody listen when Selanne says that “We can’t just go backward and see what happens after we get a lead. Not unless we have a five-goal lead or something?”

Why do the Ducks skate as if the ice has grabbed hold of their blades in the third period? Why do they skate in reverse, never going forward? Why does it feel as if every Duck eye is on the clock, making it seem to go slower while the Ducks cling to their lead, then go faster after the opposition has taken the lead?

“You can’t blame anybody but all of us in the third period,” Selanne says. “Everything is in our hands and if we’re not gonna do the right things, we’re not gonna beat anybody.”

“Against the best team in the league you have to stay with it,” Hartsburg says.

Why don’t the Ducks stay with it? Why do they let these precious points slip from their hands?

“Are we afraid to have success,” Selanne asks no one, everyone, anyone. “Why don’t we play the same in the third period as we do in the first two periods?”

No one answers. Selanne is alone in the locker room. His teammates leave him alone out there to answer the questions. Why isn’t every Duck standing up and demanding a change in spirit?

Are you mad, Selanne is asked? “Not mad but frustrated,” he says.

Frustration is futile. So are the Ducks in the third period. And the season has reached the third period.

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