Fossil Fuel

Steve Thomas isn’t old. He appears that way only at work.

Yes, Thomas is old enough to be Stanislav Chistov’s father. And, sure, he could be Samuel Pahlsson’s uncle ... the ancient one who wears the ratty bathrobe around the house.

And then there is the blood-kin kind of closeness the three players have when they link up on the ice. They have been a productive line since Thomas was acquired in a trade with Chicago on March 11, with big-game moments during the Ducks’ first two playoffs series.

It’s just tough to delicately describe what the three of them look like sitting together on the bench.

“You mean two young guys and a fossil?” Thomas said.

OK, not so tough.

Thomas, 39, began his 19-season NHL career 18 months after Chistov, 20, was born. Pahlsson, 25, was in grade school and was just learning to skate.

“Yeah, Steve is old,” Chistov said, smiling. “Real old.”

But Thomas feels pretty spry these days. His eight weeks with the Ducks have been rejuvenating and he has shown that he can still dash about the ice and grind out a goal or two.

All he needed was some youngsters who could keep up with him.

The Thomas-Pahlsson-Chistov line has been difficult to handle, as players in Detroit and Dallas learned. They were the best line on the ice in Game 6 against Dallas. Thomas had a goal and two assists in that game.

“When the trade came along it was exciting because I knew this was a good, solid team, from playing against them,” Thomas said. “Now that I’m here I like the system they’re running and the opportunity that [Duck Coach Mike Babcock] is giving me.”

Pahlsson says each in the trio complements the others. “I am a strong defensive player,” he said. “Cheesy has all those moves. Stumpy finishes and plays really hard. He has been around a long time.”

Long enough to ask what the game was like before goalie’s wore masks?

“Oh no, I don’t ask him that,” Pahlsson said. “I don’t want him mad at me.”

Pahlsson is a defensively responsible center who overcame self-imposed exile. He has improved as an offensive player since Thomas arrived.

Chistov is a flashy kid with bright hockey future and a difficult hockey past. He has become more consistent since Thomas arrived.

And Thomas is a finisher who can hold off on getting that AARP card after scoring 10 goals in the 12 regular-season games after blowing in from the Windy City. He has become the line’s spokesman, which has more to do with the shyness of his line mates and his outgoing personality rather than any age-before-beauty pecking order.

“Maybe I will ask about the goalie mask thing,” Pahlsson said.

The evolution of this line shadows the Ducks’ rise from every-night fodder to Western Conference finalists.

Pahlsson, who opened last season centering the Ducks’ top line, didn’t make the team out of training camp and was shipped to minor league Cincinnati. He stayed a couple weeks, then returned to Sweden, where he told a local reporter that he was “on strike.”

No play, no pay was Duck management’s response.

Teams from Sweden contacted General Manager Bryan Murray to ask about Pahlsson’s availability. Murray was happy to translate the phrase “iron clad contract.”

So Pahlsson swallowed his pride and returned to Cincinnati. When he was called up late in January, he was a different player.

“He was asleep during training camp,” Babcock said. “He woke up when he came back [from Sweden]. There was more urgency there.”

Thomas only saw the finished product.

“I looked over before the game the other night and Sammy is whistling,” Thomas said. “He’s not nervous or anything. That’s pretty cool.”

Chistov, the fifth overall pick in 2001, had the phenom tag around him -- which can dangle albatross-style -- coming to his first NHL camp.

He had spent the previous year as a pawn, when his Russian team refused to let him come to the U.S., going so far as to place him in the military to prevent him from signing. That left Chistov rusty. He was up -- four points in his NHL debut -- and he was down -- long stretches of invisibility -- in a yo-yo rookie season.

“He could make a pass through five guys in a phone booth,” Thomas said.

Thomas, who has 411 career goals, had his own problems. He was doing time in Chicago where he scored four goals in 69 games with the Blackhawks. Some wondered if Thomas should be home watching “Matlock” reruns. Even Thomas was wondering if there was a light at the end of the tunnel or an on-rushing El train.

“I wasn’t getting much ice time in Chicago,” Thomas said. “I was on the third and fourth lines a lot, and for a long time I wasn’t playing any more than 10 minutes a game. You can’t really develop anything that way. I kept hoping I’d get more of a chance, kept wondering when they were going to make me a go-to guy, but it never seemed to happen.”

The harmonic convergence came when the Ducks dealt a fifth-round draft pick for a player with scoring numbers that suggested he was spent. What was clear to Murray was Thomas could still skate and shoot. He just needed to be on a less dysfunctional team.

Thomas came in and was dropped onto the third line with Chistov and Pahlsson. Thomas asked reporters covering the team about the Chistov “kid” and was told he was an exceptional talent, but probably should shoot the puck more.

“I’ll take care of that part,” Thomas said, laughing.

The joke was on the Blackhawks. Thomas scored two goals against Chicago in his first game as a Duck, including the game-winner. He kept scoring and kept skating with the two kids.

“The three of us just seem to know where each other is at all times,” Thomas said. “It was really strange that we hit it off as well as we have. I think Babcock wanted to try me on different lines after the trade, to see who I matched up with best. But I started with Cheesy and Sammy and stayed with them.”

That comes from the if-it-ain’t-broke ... philosophy.

Their line has only picked up the pace in the playoffs. They had four goals in the four-game sweep of Detroit. Thomas scored the game-winner in Game 2; Chistov had the game-winner in Game 3.

Against Dallas, they dominated Game 6. Thomas and Chistov had goals, prompting Duck officials to check whether that was the greatest age difference between two goal-scorers in a Stanley Cup playoff game. (They’re still checking.)

“I can’t believe there are 20-year-old guys in the league now,” Thomas said. “I always said when guys came into the league who weren’t born when I started playing, then it would be time to hang ‘em up.

“I guess I have one more year.”

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Ducks’ Veteran Wingman

*--* A look at Duck forward Steve Thomas’ statistics: GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG GWG S PCTG 2003 POSTSEASON 10 2 4 6 5 4 1 1 15 13.3 2002-2003* 81 14 16 30 10 53 1 4 118 11.9 CAREER 1,191 411 500 911 9 1,281 106 75 3,090 13.3 * -- Traded to Ducks from Chicago on March 11

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