Plenty to Play for, Say Ducks

The apex to their season has come and gone.

Paul Kariya won a gold medal with Team Canada at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Oleg Tverdovsky picked up a bronze playing with Russia.

Ruslan Salei and his teammates reached national hero status getting Belarus into the semifinals at the Winter Games.

Maybe it doesn’t seem fair, but their reward is to return to the day-in, day-out drudgery of playing for the Mighty Ducks, an NHL team that has the Olympic medal equivalency of tin.

Certainly the silver chalice, the Stanley Cup, is well out of their reach. Even to qualify as the No. 8 playoff team and be first-round fodder for the Detroit Red Wings would probably take an unheard-of winning streak.

Basically it’s 61 games down, 21 to go--beginning again Wednesday at home against the Minnesota Wild--before putting a wrap on another lost season, followed by more promise-to-get-better pledges to try to bring that vanishing breed of Duck fan back from the brink of extinction.

Of course, the Ducks don’t see this as playing out the string. There are net gains to pursue.

“We have to try to finish strong and get some momentum going for next season,” left wing Mike Leclerc said. “Everyone has something to play for, a new contract or a job.”

But reality is harsh. Indiana Jones couldn’t excavate the Ducks from the hole they’re in.

On Jan. 20, the Ducks were 14 points out of the eighth playoff spot. Then they got hot.

On Feb. 22, after winning seven of nine games, the Ducks are 12 points out of the playoffs.

Cue the “Summer of Solutions” sound bites.

Past summers have inched the Ducks forward ever so slightly. Things are better than a year ago, but there is a Grand Canyon-like crevice between Duck talent and playoff talent.

Now, keeping the dwindling masses interested is high on the immediate agenda.

“For the last 21 games, we need a big-time effort and good results for our fans, the ones who stuck by us,” Coach Bryan Murray said.

That would be about 5,000 people, the number of fans who actually show up in the Arrowhead Pond most nights.

What those few have seen is a more consistent team that can rightfully brag about being competitive almost every game. But record-wise? The Ducks were 17-31-8-5 with 47 points after 61 games last season. They are 21-31-6-3 with 51 points after 61 this season.

“We have 21 games left,” defenseman Keith Carney said. “We should be able to have a strong finish.”

The Ducks finished strong last season, when they were last in the Western Conference, going 7-6-2 in their last 15 games. Management tinkered some during the off-season and now the Ducks are next to last in the conference.

“Obviously, if we don’t make the playoffs, and anything can still happen, we need to get better,” Carney said. “It’s not my job to say what we need or how we’re going to do that.”

General Manager Pierre Gauthier, whose job it is to say what the Ducks need to do and then do it, hasn’t talked or done much, except to utter “we’re close” and promise to pursue a top player during the off-season. He has dangled players--lots of them--to other teams, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a deal is near for the big-time scorer the team desperately needs.

“Now it becomes evaluation of individuals, who fits, where do they fit and how can they help us?” Murray said. “Maybe we don’t need 10 new guys. Maybe we just need a couple guys.”

The Ducks have better talent than last season, but there was nowhere to go but up.

Carney, picked up in an off-season trade, has been a stabilizing presence on defense, although Gauthier has cast him as trade bait.

Goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere has established himself.

Center Andy McDonald, a player the Ducks lucked into as an unwanted free agent from Colgate, has shown what he can do when given the chance.

Leclerc and Matt Cullen have shown flashes of being the talented young players they have been touted as by management.

And the Ducks do have one of the NHL’s best in Kariya ... for at least three more seasons. Then he becomes an unrestricted free agent and could be golden.