Leclerc’s Knee Injury Is a Rude Awakening

The Mighty Ducks’ giddiness Sunday about a 5-1 victory over Atlanta and their recent success was tempered by the loss of right wing Mike Leclerc, who was sent back to Anaheim and will have his inflamed left knee examined today by team doctors.

Leclerc had no idea how he injured the knee, which swelled Sunday morning. He returned to the lineup Thursday against Columbus after having minor surgery Monday to remove part of the bursa sac in his right elbow.

“It would definitely hurt us to lose Mike,” center Steve Rucchin said. “He brings so much to the table. He’s a guy who works hard and at the same time is skilled. That would be a big void for us to fill.”

His knee injury came as a surprise to Coach Mike Babcock, who did not learn of the problem until Sunday morning.

Right wing Alexei Smirnov is to rejoin the Ducks today in New York after playing three games for minor league Cincinnati over the weekend. That schedule would have changed had he known Leclerc was hurt, Babcock said.

“We would have had Smirnov here obviously,” said Babcock, who refused to comment any further.

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Defenseman Fredrik Olausson was a healthy scratch for the second time in three games. Olausson was signed as a free agent to improve the Duck power play, but has no goals and one assist in 15 games.

Olausson and Babcock had a meeting Sunday, but Babcock would not comment on what it was about.

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Rookie Stanislav Chistov got the best of Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk in the second period Sunday.

Chistov got away with hooking Kovalchuk, who then swung his stick at Chistov. Kovalchuk received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the Ducks’ Niclas Havelid converted that into a goal.

“He got the penalty and we got the goal, that was a good play, right?” Chistov said.

Chistov and Kovalchuk have been teammates for Russia in international competition.

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After Atlanta’s Jeff Odgers jumped Duck defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski late in the game, Kevin Sawyer stepped in to help out. Sawyer received a roughing penalty and a game misconduct. Odgers was given an instigator penalty, a fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct.