Mixed Reviews on Salei’s Return to Ice

Defenseman Ruslan Salei made a fairly seamless return to the Mighty Duck lineup Monday night against the Edmonton Oilers after sitting out the last four games because of a fractured orbital bone above his right eye.

Salei played 24 minutes and was a minus-one in his first game back. The Duck veteran was able to log heavy minutes even though he hadn’t worked out much in the last 11 days because of lingering headaches after being hit by a shot by San Jose’s Joe Thornton on Jan. 26.

“I feel fine,” Salei said. “I feel like I didn’t miss anything. I felt great out there.”

Duck Coach Randy Carlyle was mixed about the results of Salei’s return.

“Rusty looked rusty at times,” Carlyle said. “He played minutes. It’s a good thing we skated him extra hard yesterday.”

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Facing a media crush to discuss a subject that seemingly has all of Canada on pins and needles, Scott Niedermayer fielded the question that the hockey nation has been anxiously awaiting an answer to.

Will he play in the Turin Olympics? The answer: no decision yet.

“Same as it always is,” Niedermayer said of his injured right knee. “It’s not 100%. I’ll have to make that decision with the doctors’ advice. There’s not much to say right now about it.”

Niedermayer is weighing whether to have surgery and sit out the Olympics or play through the injury and have the procedure after the season. Another option is to skip Turin and rest.

“There’s really no good choice here,” Niedermayer said.

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The Oilers put goaltender Ty Conklin on waivers after the former first-round pick was a disappointment this season. Conklin, 29, started the season as the No. 1 goalie but was outplayed by Jussi Markkanen and fell behind third-stringer Mike Morrison.