‘Ugly Ducks’ Line Has Become a Thing of Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Mighty Duck pests Matt Cullen, Mike Leclerc and Marty McInnis were causing chaos again. Something at which they excel.

McInnis forced a turnover at the blue line and tried to slip the puck to Leclerc, who was moving too fast to take the pass. Leclerc reached back and tapped the puck off a stick and into the air. Cullen snatched it as if he were a shortstop, threw it to the ice and whipped a shot into the net.

You don’t get points for style in the NHL, but you do for victories. The Ducks won Friday’s game against Edmonton and, once again, Cullen, McInnis and Leclerc found a way to produce.

“That’s just high school baseball paying off,” Cullen said afterward. “Whatever works.”

Montreal had the Punch Line (Toe Blake, Elmer Lach, Maurice Richard) in the 1940s. Buffalo had its French Connection (Richard Martin, Gilbert Perreault and Rene Robert) in the ‘70s. The Ducks have the unnamed but nonetheless lethal combination of Teemu Selanne, Steve Rucchin and Paul Kariya.

Pretty lines, all.

McInnis, Cullen and Leclerc? Well, call them the Ugly Ducks.

Again, whatever works.

So far this season that trio has done plenty of damage for a Duck team that is off to the best start in team history, 6-4-1-2 and second in the Pacific Division.

“They don’t do any of the fancy stuff, they just skate north and south,” Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “They use their speed. They win battles. It all adds up to goals.”

Quite a few.

Leclerc is third on the team in scoring with 11 points, including four goals. Cullen has 10 points and McInnis nine. McInnis, who suffered strained neck muscles in Sunday’s victory over Calgary, is second on the team in goals with six.

The Ducks, long considered a one-trick pony that depended on the Selanne-Rucchin-Kariya line, now have other options. They rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period against the Kings on Oct. 23 behind the Cullen line.

“Before in situations like that, if Paul and Teemu didn’t score, we didn’t come back,” Hartsburg said after the game.

McInnis’ second NHL hat trick allowed the Ducks to salvage a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Kings. Leclerc also had a goal, and Cullen, the line’s center, had three assists.

They are hardly one-night wonders.

Cullen had the winning goal in the season opener against Minnesota. His second-period goal Friday got the Ducks moving in the right direction.

Leclerc scored the game-winner in a 4-3 victory over the Rangers on Oct. 16. He had a goal and an assist in a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders the following night.

McInnis had a goal against the Rangers. He had a goal and an assist against the Islanders.

OK, so few of these plays made highlight reels. They were mostly lunch-bucket goals, but they counted just the same.

“You have to use your strengths,” Hartsburg said. “They have good speed and are skilled with the puck.

“Paul and Teemu score a lot of pretty goals. That’s their game. [McInnis, Cullen and Leclerc] play their type of game.”

A large part of their success is due to Cullen, who has developed a more compete game.

He showed flashes last season with 13 goals and 39 points. The difference so far this season is his game-in, game-out consistency.

“Part of it is I got a little stronger in the upper body and was able to stay quick,” said Cullen, who still looks relatively harmless at 6 feet 1, 204 pounds. “Part of it is that I have confidence now. I’m not afraid to make plays.”

The only ones who should be scared are opposing defensemen. Cullen, who turns 24 Wednesday, has shown a knack for turning innocent moments into disaster for other teams.

Against the Kings, a shot by Duck defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski bounced off Cullen’s hip as he skated across the Kings’ zone. As soon as the puck hit the ice, Cullen flicked a no-look pass by the net to Leclerc for a goal.

“He’s become so good at making plays,” Leclerc said. “I know if I get open, he’ll get me the puck. He has great vision.”

Leclerc, also a Duck-grown product, is constantly reminded by team officials that his job is to be annoying around the net.

“Mike is playing physical and picking up loose pucks in front of the net,” Hartsburg said. “He has learned the things he needs to do.”

That he is off to a fast start shouldn’t come as a surprise. Leclerc had four goals in the first six games last season. He then missed 11 games recovering from elbow surgery and finished with eight goals and 19 points.

“I lost all the strength I had built up during the off-season,” said Leclerc, who turns 24 on Nov. 10. “I never got it back.”

McInnis, too, is coming off an injury. He suffered a strained groin, which left him basically skating on one leg the second half of last season. He finished with 10 goals, the fewest he has had since scoring nine in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season.

He had surgery during the off-season and seemed well on his way to returning to form before his injury Sunday, when he crashed head-first into the boards. McInnis, acquired from Calgary in 1998-99, had 19 goals in 1998-99, 19 in 1997-98 and 23 in 1996-97.

“We know what Marty is capable of doing,” Hartsburg said. “It was just a matter of getting him healthy.

“That whole line has been huge for us. Matt is another year older. Marty and Mike are healthy. There are signs that they are breaking through, for sure.”