Trying to Erase the Red Ink

Steve Thomas, Mighty Duck right wing, is losing shut-eye at night, thinking about playing the Detroit Red Wings.

This, it seems, is a good thing.

“I’m not sleeping very well at night, so I know I’m ready,” Thomas said. “I go through the circumstances, what could happen on the ice. I call it positive visualization. I lay there in bed and hockey just consumes my mind.”

That is just a small peek at why this playoff series against the Red Wings should be different for the Mighty Ducks. Twice before they have ventured this pothole-filled playoff road that led through Detroit and both times they were swept.

Nothing has changed on the Red Wings’ side, notably the potholes. They are still one of the elite teams in the NHL, with rowdy, octopus-tossing faithful who will work themselves into a tizzy tonight for Game 1.

It’s the Ducks who are radically different from the Duck teams that played here in 1997 and 1999.

Thomas, Adam Oates, Sandis Ozolinsh, Keith Carney and others, all playoff-savvy veterans, are hardly players who figure to wilt under the pressure the Red Wings will bring from the first faceoff.

“This is as good an Anaheim team as I have seen,” Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said. “They have a lot more depth offensively. Their goaltending has been excellent. Defensively, they always seem to have five guys back.”

The Ducks, in fact, have nearly been the Red Wings’ equal the second half of the season. The Red Wings accumulated only two more points than the Ducks in the last 41 games. In that time, the Ducks even manhandled the Red Wings, 4-1.

“We know the history here,” Carney, a Duck defenseman, said in a less-than-awed manner. “They’re the Detroit Red Wings and we’re playing in Joe Louis Arena. The only thing we are concerned about is our game.”

And Sergei Fedorov’s.

The Red Wings provide a stop-off on the way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Brett Hull is in the exclusive 700-goal club. Steve Yzerman and Luc Robitaille have passed 600, and Brendan Shanahan has topped 500. The Red Wings’ grind line, Darren McCarty, Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby, always seems to score key goals.

But it is the multi-talented Fedorov, at times known more for his ex-wife Anna Kournikova, who is the key to the Ducks’ game plan. Fedorov reached the 400-goal plateau this season.

“We have to match up against Fedorov,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said. “That is pretty apparent to me.”

That chore will fall to Steve Rucchin, the Ducks’ top defensive center.

“We have to be aware who is on the ice,” Babcock said. “We can’t get into a river hockey game with these guys.”

The Ducks may sink or swim at that from the first faceoff. There is little doubt the Red Wings will try to win the series in the first 10 minutes. Duck goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who had the third-longest shutout streak in NHL history this season (237 minutes 7 seconds), is ready for such an onslaught.

“I would be surprised if they didn’t come out and try to dominate us from the first shift,” Giguere said. “We have to handle them right off the bat because they are going to come out and try to put lots of shots on net.”

How much improved the Ducks are offensively is evident in that Paul Kariya scored only one goal in the last 18 games and Rucchin only one in the last 21, and still the Ducks charged into the playoffs.

“They got some new players, Sykora, Thomas and a couple other good guys,” Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios said. “Two or three years ago, they had [Teemu] Selanne and Kariya and that was basically their line with Rucchin. That has changed.”

Thomas, the current insomniac, has been a big part of that, scoring three game-winning goals since being paroled from a Chicago team that flopped. Sykora had a team-high 34 goals during the regular season.

“We just have to keep playing like we have the last month and we have a shot at being effective,” Thomas said.

And that would make all of the Ducks sleep better at night.

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Mowed Down in Hockeytown

For the first round of the NHL playoffs, the Mighty Ducks have drawn perhaps their greatest nemesis. Starting with a 7-2 loss in the first game in franchise history, and including a pair of playoff sweeps, the Ducks’ record against Detroit is their worst against any opponent:

*--* Season W L T 1993-94 0 3 1 1994-95 0 3 1 1995-96 0 3 1 1996-97 3 0 1 ’97 playoffs 0 4 0 1997-98 0 3 1 1998-99 1 3 0 ’99 playoffs 0 4 0 1999-00 2 2 0 2000-01 0 4 0 2001-02 1 2 1 2002-03 1 3 0 Totals 8 34 6

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