For Bitter or Worse

This looked good on paper ... last summer.

The Mighty Ducks had a Western Conference championship banner to hang in their arena. They scooped up two marquee free agents during the off-season, including Sergei Fedorov. Jean-Sebastien Giguere had been elevated to a level reserved for the NHL’s best goaltenders.

Truly, it was a summer of love, if you were a Duck fan.

The winter has brought on discontent.

When asked on a postgame radio show whether coming to Anaheim as a free agent was a good move, Vaclav Prospal bluntly said: “That remains to be seen.”

That banner in the Pond rafters isn’t the only thing drooping.

A new and improved roster -- Fedorov and Prospal in; Paul Kariya out -- has been lacking in the “improved” area.

A $5-million-per-season goaltender has struggled to the point where he is performing at a rate of $1 million per victory this season, leaving some to wonder if he is the best goalie in a Duck uniform, let alone among the NHL elite.

The Ducks were ready to upgrade to first-class NHL status after taking New Jersey to seven games in the Stanley Cup finals. Instead they sit in coach ... in a middle seat. They are currently 12th in the Western Conference.

“In the first 25-30 games, we’re probably seven or eight points away from where we thought we’d be,” General Manager Brian Murray said. “Is that huge? Yeah, it’s huge in a short period of time. If we get going the way we think we can, then it’s not a huge item.

“I certainly see signs that we’re going to be the team that we think we’re going to be.”

The Ducks have had their moments. They won three consecutive games in November, then won only one of their next nine. Back-to-back victories this month were chased down with more listless, turnover-plagued performances. The Ducks lost four of five games heading into the Christmas break.

Coach Mike Babcock summed that all up recently: “To me, on a consistent basis, we haven’t been consistent.”

Babcock has questioned the Ducks’ work ethic, charged that some players needed to be more competitive and sidestepped the fact that Fedorov has yet to live up to the five-year, $40-million contract he signed last summer. Nor has Prospal, who signed a five-year, $16.5-million contract last summer, been more than average.

“Let’s be honest, everyone knows who gets the most ice time,” Babcock said. “They’re the guys who have to come through for you every night. But it is a team game.”

Said Giguere: “There are nights where we just don’t have any emotion. That’s what has been frustrating, I think, for everyone in the dressing room.”

The Ducks certainly are not ready to call it a season, especially because they are in a diluted Pacific Division. Concern, though, is evident.

“We’re not playing good, that’s obvious,” team captain Steve Rucchin said. “We’ve had a hard time getting away from that.”

Babcock speaks of “urgency” after nearly every game. His this-is-the-most-important-game-of-the-season mantra seems to be falling on deaf ears.

“Our play doesn’t indicate that they’ve grasped the concept,” Babcock said. “We are professionals. So that concept should be pretty straightforward here. We’re playing for our life every day.”

With an offense that has been on life support. The Ducks have scored fewer than two goals in 14 of 34 games.

“I think we have a core of players here that should be winning more than they have,” Murray said after a trade to land Edmonton forward Mike Comrie fell apart.

Giguere is at that core.

“Everything starts in goal for the Ducks,” the same NHL scout said. “That is what their problem has been this season.”

Giguere won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP last spring. It was the culmination of two solid seasons as the Duck goaltender. His reward was a four-year, $20-million contract.

The exchange rate has been a .910 save percentage, which ranks 33rd among goalies who have played at least 10 games, and a 2.73 goals-against average, which ranks 38th.

Martin Gerber, Giguere’s backup, has been given the reins for short stretches, going 2-1-1 in consecutive starts in October and winning back-to-back games in early December.

“It has been frustrating so far for me,” said Giguere, who has a 5-14-2 record. “We’re all in the same boat. The inconsistency has been from the goalie to the players.

“When a goalie shows confidence, shows that he has his game going, it gives a lot of confidence to his players. It’s all related. I’ve got to work on my game and do my job.”

The team’s woes, however, do not rest entirely on Giguere’s pads.

“The thing to remember is this was just a seventh-place team last season,” an NHL scout said. “They rode a hot goalie in the playoffs.”

The addition of Fedorov and Prospal, plus the expected development of young players like Stanislav Chistov, was supposed to change the Ducks’ status. Many picked them to win the Pacific Division and go deep into the playoffs again. The conference championship banner is a reminder of that.

“The reality is, we’re living here in the present,” Babcock said. “We’re real happy with what we did [last spring]. They can never take it away from us. It’s there forever. We have a banner that will always be there. I got a nice trophy. So what? We’ll look back at that in time. Now let’s move on with what we’re doing right now.”

Moving on hasn’t meant moving up, at least at the moment.

The Ducks have had impressive games against New Jersey, St. Louis, Toronto and Colorado, all quality teams. Yet they have also lost to Chicago, Columbus and Buffalo, all bottom feeders.

“We are always ready against who?” Babcock said this week. “The good teams. That’s not you getting you ready, that’s your opponent getting you ready.... It’s all about being professional. We have to get ready to play, that’s against anybody, any night.”

Injuries have had an effect. Keith Carney, the Ducks’ top defenseman, sat out the first 11 games because of a broken foot, power forward Mike Leclerc is out until at least January recovering from knee surgery and Rucchin has not been 100%. Sandis Ozolinsh, a slick defenseman, and Rob Niedermayer, a brutish forward, are both out indefinitely.

Yet Babcock has taken the stance that injuries are just an excuse.

The solution, to Murray, is just as basic.

“The veteran guys on our hockey team, the guys that have gone through some of these situations, now have to step up on a more regular basis,” Murray said.

Fedorov’s play has been magical some nights but in other games he has been a vanishing act. He has scored 10 goals, but six have come in three two-goal games. He has five goals spread over the Ducks’ other 31 games.

Fedorov merely headlines a disappointing show. Chistov has scored one goal. Prospal has been average. Defenseman Niclas Havelid ranks near the bottom of the NHL with a minus-16 rating.

And so on.

“Our team play is not as good right now as it was last year at this time,” Babcock said. “It’s hard to remember this time last year. I’ve got to quit comparing last year. We’re in a process, and our process is on down swing.”