Eisner’s Quack Talk Toned Down

Upon further review, Disney Chairman Michael Eisner’s comments after the Mighty Ducks’ 1-0 overtime victory Monday in Game 4 over the New Jersey Devils were not quite as boastful as portrayed in Tuesday editions of the New York Post.

“We’re gonna end it in six,” an enthusiastic Eisner told a small group of reporters, one of whom shared a recording of the conversation Wednesday with The Times. “It has to end in Anaheim.”

Later, when asked if he would take the Ducks off the market if they won the Stanley Cup championship, Eisner said, “We want to end it here on Saturday night, and that’s all we’re thinking about. This team deserves to win it and, hopefully, it will.”

The two quotes were combined under a Post headline that read, “Ducks Talkin’ Quack,” and made Eisner’s comments seem far more inflammatory than the spirit in which they were intended. They were a major topic of discussion for the second consecutive day, however.

“It was great to see the owner behind us like that,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said when asked about Eisner’s comments Wednesday. “I thought this year they [Disney] made a very good commitment to the team. They had a lot of heat in the past from the fans saying they didn’t put enough money into the team and all that. This year, they did. They made sure we had a good team. You’ve got to give them credit because they’re part of the success too.”

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The Ducks were not the hottest celebrities at their north Jersey hotel Tuesday night. Rappers Eminem and 50 Cent, who were playing a gig at nearby Giants Stadium, also were guests and had a good deal more security guards.

“I was talking to my kids on the phone and told them that Eminem was in the same hotel,” said forward Steve Thomas, who has a son and daughter. “They told me to go get his autograph.”

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Swedish journalist Peter Hagbergh has been covering the finals for the Stockholm paper Dagers Nyheter, but he said the series hasn’t inspired a frenzy in his homeland.

“This is not the final people back home really wanted,” he said. “They wanted Detroit and Toronto,” he said. “Or Colorado. They want to see [Toronto’s Mats] Sundin and [Colorado’s Peter] Forsberg. I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”

However, he has been filing reports on Duck defenseman Niclas Havelid and New Jersey defenseman Tommy Albelin, both Swedes. “Niclas is not well-known in Sweden,” Hagbergh said, “but in Stockholm they know him because he played for [the local club] AIK.”

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Staff writers Chris Foster and Helene Elliott contributed to this report.