Another Bad Team Takes Ducks Down

Lousy opponent, lousy crowd, lousy result for the Mighty Ducks.

A mismatch on paper--aren’t they all when the New York Islanders are involved?--turned into another lost battle for the Ducks, who can’t seem to do the expected this season.

It’s a bit early to write off the Ducks, but a 4-2 loss to the NHL’s worst team Wednesday was another unmistakable sign of serious trouble in Anaheim.

An announced crowd of 12,790 watched New York enforcer Gino Odjick fling a shot from a seemingly impossible angle past Guy Hebert for the game-winner with 5:05 remaining.

The puck struck the skate of well-meaning defenseman Pavel Trnka and trickled between Hebert’s legs--another dagger in the Ducks’ playoff hopes.

“Maybe we get caught up in worrying about bad breaks,” center Matt Cullen said after the Ducks fell to 3-11-2 since Dec. 19. “Everybody gets bad breaks. We’ve got to make more out of our chances, then a bad break isn’t going to beat us.

“We talked all week about not having a huge letdown in a game like this. I think a lot of guys are playing tentatively because they don’t want to be the one who screws up or makes a mistake.

“Tonight was a great opportunity to go out and jump on them early instead of talking about failing.”

Instead, the Ducks watched somebody named Dmitri Nabokov add an empty-net goal for the Islanders in the final minute, his first goal in more than two years.

Can it get any worse than this?

The Ducks begin a four-game trip Saturday against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Four more games like Wednesday’s probably won’t finish off the Ducks, but it might come close.

Then again, the Ducks may actually decide to take someone seriously and rejoin the playoff race by the All-Star break next week.

Who knows with this bunch of Ducks?

“To me, this was a game we all had to focus on,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said of facing the Islanders, who went into the game with a league-low 29 points. “This was going to be a huge step to get us going into the road trip.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

“I don’t know if alarming is the right word,” Hartsburg said. “I don’t have the word for it. There’s no excuses. It’s a terrible, terrible thing we did tonight.”

Hartsburg sounded like a man at his wit’s end, uncertain what to try next to lift the Ducks from their swoon. A victory would have put the Ducks within striking distance of the top eight in the Western Conference standings.

But a few unfortunate bounces coupled with another flat showing at the Pond left the Ducks in 10th place, five points out of the eighth and final playoff position.

In addition to Odjick’s goal from near the goal line, the Ducks watched shots from Marty McInnis and Teemu Selanne clang off the junction of the cross bar and the goal post.

Selanne’s shot came with 6:30 left and the score tied at 2-all. It was as close as the Ducks came all night to scoring on their power play, finishing the game 0 for 5.

The Ducks looked anything but sharp to open the game.

However, the Ducks caught a break when Selanne’s flip from a difficult angle somehow found the back of the net at 14:16 of the first period. Selanne’s shot struck the stick of New York defenseman Eric Cairns, then began to float end over end like a bad punt.

Rookie goalie Roberto Luongo flailed at the puck but only got a piece of it.

The Islanders countered with 2:59 left in the first period, taking advantage of a Duck turnover along the left-wing boards. New York’s Dave Scatchard took the puck away from the Ducks, moved to his right and whistled a shot into the top corner of the net.

Jorgen Jonsson scored while uncovered in the slot to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead 6:12 into the second period. Paul Kariya countered by scoring on a two-on-one break with Steve Rucchin to pull the Ducks even at 12:03.