Typical Night for Ducks: One Loss, Three Ailments

Welcome to the Arrowhead Pond of Agony, where three more members of the Mighty fragile Ducks bit the dust Sunday.

Going down for the count were defensemen Ruslan Salei, who had a migraine before the opening faceoff, and Oleg Tverdovsky, who suffered back spasms in the first period and couldn’t continue. Left wing Marty McInnis strained his groin midway through the third period, joining his teammates in an already crowded sick bay.

The Ducks soldiered on, but were simply no match for the Colorado Avalanche, the NHL’s top team with 73 points. Surprisingly enough, the Ducks lost by only 4-2 before an announced crowd of 16,417 at the 17,174-seat Pond.

Colorado probably could have named the final score, but played only as hard it had to after blowing four first-period goals by Guy Hebert. Jean-Sebastien Giguere replaced Hebert to start the second period and had 10 saves.

“It’s hard to stay positive when there aren’t any positive things happening right now,” said right wing Teemu Selanne, who set up McInnis for two first-period goals. “With all these injured guys it’s just a nightmare. I can’t believe this. It can’t be true. Injuries are just killing us right now.”

McInnis, Salei and Tverdovsky are listed as day-to-day, according to a Duck spokesman. Coach Guy Charron said he would know more about their conditions at the team’s next practice Tuesday.

Question is: will the Ducks have enough players to hold a practice? And more to the point, will they have enough healthy bodies to give the expansion Minnesota Wild a game Wednesday at the Pond?

At present, there’s more talent on the injured list than on the active roster. In addition to Sunday’s casualties, the Ducks are without Paul Kariya (broken right foot), Mike Leclerc (arthroscopic surgery on right knee), Niclas Havelid (ligament damage in right knee), Andy McDonald (concussion) and Steve Rucchin (concussion).

Kariya plans to skate on his own today, but Charron said his participation in Wednesday’s game was “far-fetched.” Leclerc is expected to be out another three weeks. Havelid is lost for the rest of the season. McDonald’s return to the lineup is uncertain. Rucchin resumed skating Sunday.

“Every team goes through losing streaks,” Selanne said after the Ducks dropped to 2-10-2-1 since Kariya was injured Dec. 17. “But we have so many on the injured list. And now Marty. He was playing so well.”

McInnis, who underwent off-season abdominal surgery after a nagging groin injury slowed him in the second half of last season, scored twice to give him four goals and seven points in the last four games.

Salei participated in the pregame warmup, but it was determined his headaches were too severe to allow him to play.

Tverdovsky said he was injured when he took a hit along the boards early in the game.

“Something snapped in my back,” said Tverdovsky, who has played in 258 consecutive games, the league’s second-longest active streak. “I couldn’t move. I couldn’t skate.”

Without Havelid, Salei and Tverdovsky, their three top defensemen, the Ducks failed to adequately protect the front of their net Sunday. Hebert had very little help in front of him, but also failed to make a big save when his team needed one.

Stephane Yelle, Milan Hejduk, Alex Tanguay and Chris Dingman scored as Colorado put four pucks behind Hebert on only seven shots.

Without Havelid or Tverdovsky, Mike Crowley inherited the quarterback spot on the power play. The Ducks failed to click on four chances with the man-advantage after McInnis’ power-play goal tied the score, 2-2, at 6:55 of the opening period.

Tanguay then scored the go-ahead goal with Colorado on the power play at 13:09. Dingman’s sharp-angle shot struck a Duck, but Hebert still should have gotten in front of the puck before it hit the back of the net for a 4-2 Avalanche lead at 15:16.