Murray Accentuating the Positive

After a recent Mighty Ducks’ practice, Coach Bryan Murray skated off the ice looking like a professor who had just graded an early semester exam.

“[Coaches] are supposed to be teachers,” said Murray, who became the fifth coach in Mighty Duck history in May and began the season tied for seventh in regular-season NHL victories.

“What I’ve heard and read around here, a lot of it has been negative. Obviously, [it’s] because of [the Mighty Ducks’ poor recent] records. But I’m also always hearing comments all of the time about [poor] attendance and other things.

“What we have to do as coaches is feed [the players] positive stuff and teach that there are ways to build on their game. But you can never forget that the end result has to be winning some games.”

Winning games is something the Mighty Ducks didn’t do much last season, when they finished with the second-worst record in the league. But since Murray has taken over, they have played respectable hockey and have a 4-6-1-0 record nearly one month into the season, despite having received only one goal from captain Paul Kariya.

Not a bad start for a team that opened the season with a 1-3 East Coast trip.

“Any time you have a new coach, it takes time to get to know each other,” veteran right wing Marty McInnis said. “He has to get to know what each player does and we have to get an understanding of what he wants out of you.

“Obviously, things didn’t go the way we wanted last season so you have a tendency to rush things. You want things to go great right away from the start. But we have a good game plan now. We have a strong idea of what we want to do on the ice, so as long as we keep to that, we’ll be all right.”

Jump-starting a franchise is nothing new for Murray. In his first full season at Washington, 1982-83, he led the lowly Capitals to their first of seven consecutive playoff appearances. The season before he became general manager and coach at Detroit, 1989-90, the Red Wings had the third-worst record in the league and then made the playoffs the next three seasons.

“This [Anaheim] team reminds me of when I started with Detroit a little bit,” Murray said. “Teams that have a lot of younger guys who need to have some development take place.”

In his 10 full seasons coaching in the NHL, Murray has never missed the playoffs. It’s a streak he hopes to continue with the Ducks.

“You have to retool mentally, as much as anything,” he said. “That’s why wins are so important. If we can stay at it every night and play near .500, that will start making winning contagious.”

Memo to Jordan Fans

Before everyone gets too excited about Michael Jordan’s NBA comeback with the Washington Wizards, they should check out what the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Mario Lemieux has had to go through during his return to the NHL.

In his second season of unretirement, Lemieux can still dominate the ice but injuries remain an issue.

After missing some time with a sore hip earlier this month, Lemieux is out of action again. He had arthroscopic hip surgery Monday, two days after he’d taken himself out of a game early in the first period against Toronto because of pain. He will be sidelined for at least three weeks.

“It might be awhile this time,” said Lemieux, who has scored only one goal in eight games during the worst start of his career.

So even though Lemieux still has the ability to play, his injuries keep him from being the force he once was. Age catches up with everyone, even the great ones.

New Jersey’s Bad Boy

New Jersey’s Bobby Holik is known for speaking his mind and the Devils probably can thank his frankness for their current four-game winning streak.

After the Devils had opened the season with four consecutive defeats, Holik ripped his teammates for taking dumb penalties. Some players didn’t appreciate thosewords but Holik doesn’t seem to care.

He acknowledged to the New York Post that he was approached on the matter by a teammate.

“I don’t know how you sensed there was a backlash, but there was,” Holik told the Post. “But I don’t give a rat’s .... One player, whom I’m very close to, said the players were ticked off because of what I said. I said, ‘That’s unfortunate because that’s what I thought when I was asked.’ People forget I didn’t single anyone out. Sometimes the truth hurts.”

Let’s Talk It Over

Leave it to Dallas Coach Ken Hitchcock to set one of his players straight.

After scoring only two points in the Stars’ first 10 games, Jamie Langenbrunner had a face-to-face meeting with Hitchcock to discuss his role. It didn’t take long for him to get an answer.

Hitchcock told the Dallas Morning News that Langenbrunner, who’s playing on a one-year contact, might have been putting too much pressure on himself.

“Sometimes you get too far ahead of yourself,” Hitchcock said. “We need to get focused on who he is, what he does well and how much that means to the team. I think steam usually starts with the coach and then sometimes the players have a rebuttal and sometimes they don’t. I would rather have the air cleared.”

The discussion must have worked because Langenbrunner scored his first goal of the season in the Stars’ overtime loss to the undefeated New York Islanders on Sunday.

Line Shifts

* Eric Lindros has only three goals and seven points in 11 games and the New York Rangers are worrying that he may be leery of contact after his concussion-induced 16-month layoff.

Asked recently if Lindros had been specifically instructed to avoid contact, New York Coach Ron Low replied, “Not to avoid it, but definitely a thing of keeping yourself aware of people around you. And sometimes, in games, he’s turned off of checks and we don’t really want that and he knows that.... Sometimes, it’s as if he’s turning instead of going through.”

* Despite getting off to a 4-0-2 start at home, their best since 1994-95, the Chicago Blackhawks are not drawing well in the cavernous United Center.

The Blackhawks, who have missed the playoffs the last four seasons but are playing well under first-year Coach Brian Sutter, had 16,892 for their home opener against Phoenix, but since have not come close to filling the 20,500-seat arena. There have been three crowds of fewer than 11,000 and the ‘Hawks drew only 12,146 for Sunday’s game against Boston.

* Now that the New York Islanders have retired Bryan Trottier’s No. 19 jersey, Alexei Yashin has changed his number to 79 because he said it looks like 19.

Quotes of the Week

“I think he’ll get 40 goals this year, and I’ll be very surprised if they don’t name him to [Canada’s] Olympic team,” Calgary’s Clarke Wilm said about his teammate and the league’s leading scorer, Jarome Iginla, who has four goals and seven assists in his last four games.

“They’re spending $40 million more on security, but it’s all going to depend on how they use it. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. My whole family is going,” said St. Louis forward Keith Tkachuk, voicing his concern about February’s Salt Lake City Olympic Games.