Edge, and goals, have been missing

Something is missing at the moment for the Ducks, and they’ve come to that realization as their lead in the Pacific Division continues to shrink.

The offense, for one, hasn’t been as prolific over the last three weeks. The Ducks still rank second in the Western Conference with 182 goals but only 22 have come in the last 10 games.

What’s more important is that the Ducks haven’t recaptured the edge they played with throughout their big second-half surge last season and their franchise-record start to this one. And they are aware of that.

“I think it’s clear to see to most people,” team captain Scott Niedermayer said Sunday. “Everyone knows what we’re doing and what we can do. We’ve just got to get back to it.”

Teemu Selanne sees the difference and said there hasn’t been a sense of urgency in their play. Urgency may be needed as their division lead over San Jose is only three points, with fast-closing Dallas now four points back.

“It’s always tough this time of the year and a lot of teams are playing more desperate than we are,” Selanne said. “Right now, we don’t have it. Obviously we have to start playing more desperate too.”

As for the offense, Niedermayer sees room for improvement.

“It’s an issue that we feel we can be better at,” Niedermayer said. “We want to start doing the things that it takes to get scoring chances. And we obviously haven’t been doing as well as we can in the last little while for sure.”

Coach Randy Carlyle expressed concern about the low output but noted that the Ducks scored seven goals in a win last week over San Jose.

“We’ve got a group that’s capable of scoring goals,” Carlyle said. “I think we’ve just got to get back to doing the simple things. Simplify, simplify, simplify. And that’s what we’re stressing.

“Get guys in the middle lane, get traffic. Hang around in those areas. All those things. Don’t complicate things. Don’t make that extra pass.”

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Corey Perry had a moment in Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Dallas that he won’t want to relive.

Perry exited the penalty box and picked up a pass for a potential breakaway, only to trip over himself on the way to the net. In hockey parlance, it’s jokingly referred to being hit by a “sniper” and the young winger took some grief from teammates about his pratfall.

“We won’t talk about that,” Perry said with a smile. “I think [the sniper] got kicked out of the building.”

eric.stephens@latimes.com