Defensive Might Is Not Yet Apparent on the Ice

Mighty Duck General Manager Pierre Gauthier spent millions for defense during the off-season, signing Jason York as a free agent and trading for Keith Carney.

Thus far in training, Duck coaches and officials haven’t seen as much of that defense as they would have liked, although that should change over the next few days.

Carney, whose wife gave birth to triplets last Saturday, arrived in camp Friday. He underwent a physical and skated briefly after the team had finished practice.

Ruslan Salei, who has not practiced with the team while recovering from knee surgery, went through shooting drills for 30 minutes. Coach Bryan Murray said Salei should join team practices in a week.

And Gauthier said that Niclas Havelid, who had been stuck in Sweden, had finally received his visa and, depending on whether he can make an airline connection, could be rehabilitating his knee in Anaheim as soon as today.

“It will be nice to get everyone together and see what we can do,” York said.

The Duck defense last season was a sieve, giving up 245 goals, second most among Western Conference teams.

Carney, York, Salei, Oleg Tverdovsky and Vitaly Vishnevski are assured of jobs.

Havelid, who missed the last 37 games after knee surgery, may not be ready by the season opener.

“We are going to be better on defense and I think that’s great,” defenseman Pavel Trnka said. “That means, if you want to play, you have to be ready at all times, the whole season.”

Steve Shields will start in goal when the Ducks play Phoenix in an exhibition game Monday and there is no indication when Jean-Sebastien Giguere will make his debut.

Giguere showed up at camp with a sore groin, which he injured while training in August. He played only one period in the team’s scrimmage Thursday.

“Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have any pain,” Giguere said. “I was able to do all the drills today.”

The Ducks will scrimmage today at 9 a.m. at Disney Ice.