Advertisement

It’s Recovery Period for Salei

Share
Times Staff Writer

The long layoff is a welcome break for the Mighty Ducks, who took care of the Detroit Red Wings in four games. They will not know their next opponent until Dallas and Edmonton finish their series.

The Ducks will play Dallas, if the Stars win, or the winner of the St. Louis-Vancouver series, if Edmonton upsets Dallas.

“I hope the Dallas-Edmonton series goes the distance,” Coach Mike Babcock said. “Let them beat up on each other.”

Advertisement

The time has also helped defenseman Ruslan Salei, who sat out 11 games near the end of the regular season because of a bad back.

“It is fine now, but I still need to get into better game shape,” Salei said. “Getting this time to practice will help.”

*

The Ducks got through the Detroit series without scoring a power-play goal and without a goal from Petr Sykora, who scored a team-high 34 during the regular season.

“You don’t see a lot of pretty power-play goals in the playoffs,” Babcock said. “I think it’s less about skill and more about toughness now.”

As for Sykora’s goal-less series, Babcock said, “That just means we’re going to be even better once he gets it going. And we know that is going to happen.”

*

Center Andy McDonald, who has been out the last two months because of a concussion, skated after practice Friday. He is not expected to be ready for the next series.... Left wing Mike Leclerc will have surgery on his left knee after the season.... Single-game tickets for the Ducks’ second-round playoff games will go on sale today at 10 a.m.

Advertisement
Advertisement