For Better or Worse, They Do Follow Their Wings

Sergei Fedorov left Detroit last summer in his prime, parlaying his brilliant offensive skills and defensive diligence into a five-year contract with the Mighty Ducks potentially worth $40 million. Signing him was considered a coup, a move sure to strengthen a team that a few weeks earlier had lost the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals for want of a couple of goals.

Luc Robitaille left Detroit last summer wearing his pride like a jersey that had been slashed to ribbons. He had been a healthy scratch for the first time in his career and scored merely 11 goals; he had to promise Coach Andy Murray he’d stay with the program if the Kings signed him. He took a one-year, $1.15-million deal that included team and individual incentive clauses, the idea being the Kings were doing him a favor by bringing him back to the place he’d started his career in 1986 and had played his best.

The Ducks, who also signed Vaclav Prospal to compensate for losing Paul Kariya to Colorado, had stockpiled a remarkable array of talent to fuel another Cup drive. The Kings, who also signed gritty winger Trent Klatt, were building a hard-nosed group with more tenacity than talent. Even if Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh recovered from their injuries and played major roles, the Kings figured to have a tough time cracking the West’s top eight.

So much for conventional wisdom.

When the Kings and Ducks met Sunday for the last time this season, Fedorov was flanked on the left side by Cam Severson, who will never be confused with Brendan Shanahan or even Tomas Holmstrom and whose presence said everything about where the Ducks are as their season plods to an unhappy end. Robitaille was leading the Kings to a 5-1 victory with a goal and two assists -- and on the second of those setups, he stole the puck from Fedorov behind the Ducks’ net before feeding Nathan Dempsey for a snappy one-timer.

Fedorov did score a goal. A nice one. When the Ducks were already losing, 4-0. Something to ponder this spring, when he misses the playoffs for the first time in 14 NHL seasons.

“I just came here, and I’ve gotten my share of ice time,” Robitaille said, “and I knew if I’d get a chance to go on the ice I’d have a chance to have a good year.

“As far as Sergei is concerned, I’m not really thinking about that,” he added, with a hearty laugh. “I know he’s a great player. I don’t know what to say. For some reason nothing clicked for them this year. For us, even though we’ve had a lot of injuries, we keep battling hard.”

The Ducks, clearly the more talented of the teams, never made a concerted push for a playoff spot this season. The Kings, so accustomed to adversity they’d probably miss it should their fortunes improve dramatically, are among the teams scuffling for the last three West playoff spots.

A key reason they’ve stayed there is Robitaille, who channeled his anger toward the puck after he was “rested” by Murray for two games in January.

“I’m not surprised,” Fedorov said. “He is a very experienced player. He has a good nose for the goal. He has a couple of guys with him [Klatt and Derek Armstrong] who work hard. He’s always been in the right place to score those goals. Those guys use him well.”

Well enough for Robitaille to have scored 12 goals in his last 24 games. Fedorov has five goals in his last 11 games, many as meaningless as the goal he scored against Cristobal Huet on Sunday.

One reason they’re just for show is that he scored only 10 goals in his first 31 games, when it might have made a difference to a team that needed leadership and production.

“For myself, I don’t think about that,” Fedorov said of playing for a team that has virtually no chance of making the playoffs. “I know what my job is. I’m excited, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m going to try to work hard and try to get a positive result for this team.”

The Kings have only positives to take from this season. Despite surpassing the unofficial NHL record for man-games lost to injuries -- and a power play that ranked 27th among 30 teams before Sunday’s game and penalty-killing that also ranked 27th -- they’ve stayed in the playoff race a lot longer than a glance at their roster suggests they would. They don’t look at it that way. They’re not willing to settle for a pat on the back if they miss the playoffs.

“When you lose,” Murray said, “they don’t put an asterisk beside your record and say it was without six or seven players.... To play as hard as we’ve played all year and not make the playoffs would be a disappointment.”

If Robitaille and the Kings continue to play as they have lately, at least one former Red Wing in Southern California will be playing after April 4.