Giguere Isn’t the One Who’s Calling the Shots

He was the poster boy for the Mighty Ducks’ Stanley Cup playoff success in 2003. Now he’s the guy on the spot.

What the Ducks could use tonight against the Calgary Flames in Game 4 of the playoffs is some old-fashioned larceny. If goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere could steal a game, it would certainly do a lot to reverse the momentum the Flames took by force in a 5-2 victory Tuesday.

Whether Giguere is capable of that, or will even get the chance, were unanswered questions after practice Wednesday.

Coach Randy Carlyle remained noncommittal on who would be in net, as he has throughout the first-round series. Ilya Bryzgalov started Game 1 with Giguere out with an unspecified injury. Giguere played Game 2, picking up a 4-3 victory.

Giguere was back Tuesday, with a front-row view of the Flames’ get-out-of-my-way performance that gave them a 2-1 lead in the series and left the Ducks seeing red -- as in the light behind their net.

So, which goaltender gets dropped into that rink of fire tonight?

“Show up to the warm-ups and you’ll see,” Carlyle said.

As to whether the “lower body injury” that kept him out of the series opener affected his play in Game 3, Giguere raised his voice slightly and inserted a dash of testiness in his reply.

“If I wasn’t 100%, I wouldn’t be out there,” Giguere said. Asked whether he would play tonight, Giguere said, “Ask the coach. I don’t see why not.”

Giguere didn’t face such questions in 2003, when his play took the Ducks to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup finals and earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player.

During those playoffs, Giguere gave up only six goals in the four-game sweep of the Detroit Red Wings in the first round -- which included nearly 45 minutes of overtime. He gave up five goals on 24 shots in 60 minutes Tuesday.

Whether that was from the mysterious injury or merely a subpar performance was left unanswered. What was clear was Giguere’s displeasure about being asked whether it was fair to compare his play in 2003 to his play now.

“You can do what you want. What happened three years ago, happened three years ago,” Giguere said. “This year is a totally different challenge.”

Carlyle was not about to lay Tuesday’s defeat entirely at Giguere’s crease.

“Our whole performance wasn’t good and he fit into that,” Carlyle said.

The Flames made sure the agony of defeat was spread around, taking every opportunity to express their will in physical terms. The bump-and-grind direction the series took was a comfort zone for the Flames and merely uncomfortable for the Ducks.

“A series isn’t one game and it isn’t two games; it’s breaking your opponents’ will,” Flames’ captain Jarome Iginla said. “We took a big step [Tuesday] and felt good about ourselves. We know they are going to make a big push and it is up to us not to let them take the momentum back.”

The Ducks were cautious about not playing into the Flames’ hands, or their elbows and body checks. The thoughts were how to make Game 4 more of a free skate.

“You have to keep your eye on the prize,” said forward Andy McDonald, one of the Duck players who was manhandled Tuesday. “You can’t just go looking for payback. You can’t let that take away from what you’re trying to do. You’ve got to make plays.”

The time for that, the Ducks said, is now. Asked whether the Ducks have played their best yet in this series, Teemu Selanne said, “Not even close. But we better find that pretty soon.”