After Final Cuts, Hartsburg Says Team Is Right on Schedule

Training camp is history; the exhibition games are finished. Now it’s on to weightier endeavors for the Ducks, who begin their eighth NHL season Friday against the expansion Minnesota Wild at the Arrowhead Pond.

The Ducks’ final act of camp Sunday was to send four players, including promising young goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, to Cincinnati of the American Hockey League. Joining Giguere in the minors are forwards Andy McDonald, Kevin Sawyer and Petr Tenkrat.

At present, the Ducks have two goalies, nine defensemen and 13 forwards on their roster. They will have to make an additional move when center Steve Rucchin returns to action from a broken left hand in about three weeks.

“We’ve liked what we’ve seen,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “We know what pieces we’ve got to push together now.”

Two of the Ducks’ biggest goals to start the season will be improving their special teams play and developing more scoring beyond their top line.

The power play struggled in the first half of last season before rebounding to finish with a 16.6% success rate. The penalty kill was last among 28 teams with a 79.1% success rate.

“I think we’re feeling confident and comfortable with the people we’re using on the penalty kill,” Hartsburg said. “They’ve done a good job [successfully killing 88.7% of their shorthanded situations in eight exhibitions].”

The Ducks didn’t exactly light it up offensively, scoring only 11 goals and cashing in on four of 66 power-play chances (6.1%).

“We’re not concerned,” Hartsburg said. “We’ll keep plugging away. This will be a good week to bring people together.”

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The Ducks hope to learn today from the NHL whether captain Paul Kariya will be suspended for further games as a result of a slashing incident in the team’s 3-1 exhibition loss Friday at Minnesota. Kariya, who was suspended pending a hearing with league officials, did not play in Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Phoenix.