Good Signs Eluding Him

Mighty Duck forward Craig Johnson offered this scouting report for teammate Vaclav Prospal’s return to Tampa tonight.

“You know his nickname here was ‘Lou,’ ” Johnson said. “It was ‘Lou’ Prospal. So if you hear something that sounds like boos, it’s not. They’ll be saying ‘Looooou.’ ”

Prospal, sitting near Johnson in the Ducks’ dressing room at the time, laughed. An upbeat moment in what has been a downtrodden season.

Prospal tonight faces the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team he left to sign a five-year, $16.5-million contract with the Ducks. Thus far, it has not been even a lateral move. The Ducks are wallowing in the Pacific Division. Prospal’s play has been spotty -- six goals and 19 points.

So far, it could hardly be considered the deal of the century. Still, Prospal hangs on to a “what, me worry” frame of mind.

“Somebody is going to bring the contract up,” he said. “But if I keep thinking about it, it’s going to make it worse. I don’t want to think about it and have to make a big deal out if it.”

The deal, though, has increased in size.

At the time Prospal signed, it looked like another shrewd move by General Manager Bryan Murray, whose every step pushed the Ducks forward last season. Prospal was coming off a 22-goal, 79-point season, both career highs. He had 40 goals and 134 points in two seasons with the Lightning.

The Duck hierarchy spoke glowingly of Prospal’s career year as a sign of things to come. There has been a bit of backtracking.

“You look at his career, is he on pace with normal in his career or are we comparing to the one year last year?” Coach Mike Babcock said. “I think what happened to Vinny last year, and I have talked to him a lot about it, is he had a dream season. Every time he passed the puck to someone, they shot it in the net.”

That dream season has been followed by one filled with nightmare moments.

“I am very much frustrated,” Prospal said. “Everyone is here. Ask anyone on this team, if they said they’re not frustrated, they’d be lying. I’m not going to hide it.

“If I had the answer, I guess we wouldn’t have to talk about this.... Our team, if you look at it on paper, there are some pretty good offensive players. Guys who scored more than 20 goals and 70 points a year.”

Prospal reached that level last season and was expected to stay there this season.

“My only wish when I came here was that we got off to good start,” he said. “I knew we weren’t going to play 82 great games. I just hoped we got going at the beginning, so there wouldn’t be questions like whether I feel extra pressure.”

The questions, though, will keep coming as long as the Ducks continue to slide.

“Vinny made a decision this summer, and we looked after him and his family big-time for him to come join our organization,” Babcock said.

And the return on that?

“When a guy comes in and you pay him money as a free agent, lots of times he gets too much credit and too much blame,” Babcock said.