Carlyle Is Concerned About Costly Penalties

The old problems that seemed to be dispatched months ago crept up on the Mighty Ducks and have risen to the surface. For one night, at least.

The Ducks took numerous penalties and their failure to kill them were chief components in their 6-4 loss to the San Jose Sharks Wednesday night, a stark reminder of their undisciplined play during the first few weeks of the season. Sharks’ right wing Jonathan Cheechoo recorded a hat trick -- his second of the season against the Ducks -- with one of the goals coming on a power play.

“We cannot afford to give up three power-play goals in a hockey game,” Coach Randy Carlyle said Thursday. “Deeper than that, I don’t think we can take those hooking and holding penalties in the offensive zone.”

It was a surprising development for the Ducks given their recent penalty-killing work. The unit, once ranked last in October, rose to sixth in the NHL before giving up those three power-play goals in eight chances. They hope what happened Wednesday is an aberration, given that they face Cheechoo and the Sharks Saturday in San Jose.

“You can’t continue to give that level of player on any team the number of opportunities [we did] and leave people open the way we missed some coverages on our penalty killing,” Carlyle said.

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Scott Niedermayer is in a dilemma -- undergo surgery during the Olympic break to clean up his balky right knee or play for defending gold medalist Canada and risk further damage.

Another factor is Canada’s health issues on the blue line as Ed Jovanovski (abdominal surgery) and alternate Bryan McCabe (groin injury) figure to be unavailable.

“Obviously I want Canada to have the best team it possibly can,” Niedermayer said. “Ultimately what makes the decision is whether I think the knee and the doctors think the knee can continue to go.”

Niedermayer, who hasn’t missed a game, said the knee isn’t feeling as good as it did two weeks ago. But he is amused by reports that say the decision on whether he’ll play for Canada is his alone.

“Ultimately I try to make my choice on what the doctors are telling me,” he said. “It’s not like I’m just pulling it out of midair.”