Part Two of Season Worth Remembering

Like every other team, the Mighty Ducks were thinking playoffs at the beginning of the season. But after a lackluster start in which they won only 13 of 45 games, Coach Bryan Murray set a new goal, revising expectations as a market analyst would for a downtrodden stock.

On the day of the Ducks’ Jan. 11 game at Minnesota, Murray met with the team after the morning skate.

“We were having a bit of a struggle,” he said. “I looked at the schedule and said as heavy as the schedule is [with high-caliber teams] at the end of the year, that we could play at a .500 level down the stretch.”

The turnaround didn’t exactly start that night: The Ducks tied the Wild, 2-2.

But including that game, they have met Murray’s revised expectations, going 16-16-3.

“I was hoping obviously we’d make a nice run [but] I knew we had to have a realistic objective,” he said. “There’s no sense in saying we had to play .750 over the balance of the schedule. You had to be realistic over what the team could reach at that point.

“From mid-January, I started to sense these guys started to believe in themselves a little bit. In our training camp next year, we’ll talk about the difference in the year, the first and second half.”

The Ducks (29-40-8-3) are on a 2-0-1 run, with games remaining against Colorado tonight and the Kings on Sunday. The Ducks are 0-2-1 against Colorado and 0-3-1 against the Kings.

TONIGHT

vs. Colorado, 7:30, Fox Sports Net 2

Site--Arrowhead Pond.

Radio--XTRA (690).

Records--Avalanche 44-28-7-1, Ducks 29-40-8-3.

Record vs. Avalanche--0-2-1.

Update--The Avalanche is jockeying for playoff position and a point behind San Jose in the Western Conference.