Ducks’ Season Falling Apart

The defense that was the Mighty Ducks’ backbone last season is a step behind, a stick-length away, a turnover waiting to happen. The goalie whose positioning and poise carried them to within a victory of the Stanley Cup has found a new position on the bench, having been pulled Friday for the second consecutive game.

The Ducks’ season is fracturing. The latest cracks appeared in a 6-2 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers, leaving the Ducks winless in 10 consecutive road games (0-5-2-3) and with one victory in their last nine games.

“At some point we need to realize that the season’s on the line and if we don’t play better we won’t get into the playoffs,” said Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who was replaced by Martin Gerber after giving up five goals in 28 shots. Giguere was pulled Wednesday after giving up four goals in 24 shots in a 7-2 loss at Detroit.

“It’s simple,” he added. “I don’t think we want to be the kind of team that’s good one year and doesn’t get into the playoffs the next.”

The Thrashers, who have little trouble scoring but had yielded 20 goals in losing four of their previous five games, won most of the small battles and played solid defense. That won them several standing ovations from the crowd of 17,230 and gave goalie Byron Dafoe, a former King, his first victory this season.

The Thrashers didn’t win with pure skill: NHL goalscoring leader Ilya Kovalchuk had one assist. Marc Savard scored twice and had an assist and Slava Kozlov scored one goal and set up three, but the Thrashers won not on razzle-dazzle but by going to the net, beating the Ducks to rebounds and by negating the Ducks’ three power plays and staying among the NHL’s penalty-killing leaders.

Rookie Joffrey Lupul scored twice for the Ducks, his first multi-goal game, but they had little else good to remember.

“We give up too many goals, and as far as I know it’s tough for us to score even three goals,” defenseman Ruslan Salei said. “We have to be better defensively and not give up the opportunities we gave up the last two games. We can’t afford to play this way. We’ve got to be better.”

Said defenseman Kurt Sauer, as the Ducks packed for a flight to California: “When we get home it’s a gut check, right away. We have to see how we bounce back. We’ve got to learn from this. We can’t have this happening over and over.”

They were in the game until the last six minutes of the second period. After Lupul stole the puck in the neutral zone and used Frantisek Kaberle as a screen for a long shot that made the score 2-1 at 14:25, the Thrashers responded twice in 1 minute 57 seconds. Jeff Cowan backhanded home a rebound at 14:53 after Giguere came out to stop a shot by Garnet Exelby and couldn’t get back into position, and Serge Aubin made it 4-1 at 16:50 on a setup by Kozlov.

Giguere was pulled after J.P. Vigier scored at 5:29 of the third period. “It’s not just opportunities, it’s turnovers that lead to opportunities,” Duck Coach Mike Babcock said. “We need some home cooking and we’ve got to regroup.”

Babcock benched defenseman Niclas Havelid on Friday but might not have that option Sunday, because Sandis Ozolinsh injured the left side of his rib cage on a first-period hit by Ronald Petrovicky and didn’t return. He will be evaluated daily.

“We’ve got to keep working. We can’t sit back and look back at last year. We’ve got to look ahead now and get better,” Havelid said.

Said Sauer: “The timing’s not on and we’re just not working together.... We’re a pretty disappointed team.”