Even Opponents Wonder About Anaheim Power Play

What’s wrong with the Duck power play?

Wednesday morning, reporters from Ottawa were the latest to pose the question to Coach Craig Hartsburg.

“We’re not trying to hide from it or make excuses,” Hartsburg said. “We’ve lost our confidence on it. . . . I hate to give other people credit for stopping us. It’s us. We can be better on the power play.”

The Ducks, the league leaders last season with a 22% success rate, went into Wednesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators converting 17 for 152 (11.2%) of their chances on the power play.

The Ducks were 27th in the NHL, leading only the Buffalo Sabres, who are 19 for 187 (10.2%).

Last season, the Ducks had 83 power-play goals, including 25 from right wing Teemu Selanne. Both were league-leading totals.

“I wish I had a magical answer,” Hartsburg said. “We still feel we have the right guys playing on it. We’ll keep working to fix it. We’ve talked about being an attacking team and we’ve been passive on both [power plays and penalty killing].”

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Goaltender Guy Hebert said he continues to be troubled by the neck injury that sidelined him for two games last month. . . . Defenseman Ruslan Salei did not play Wednesday, the first time this season Hartsburg decided against having him in the lineup. . . . Captain Paul Kariya was in the lineup against Ottawa despite not participating in the morning skate because he was ill.