Illness, not injury, reason for Getzlaf’s low minutes

Despite speculation a knee injury had limited Ryan Getzlaf’s ice time to 15 minutes 55 seconds in the Ducks’ Game 4 loss to Detroit, Getzlaf said Saturday that flu was behind his relatively light work load.

He skipped the team’s skate at the Allen Park Civic Arena but worked out off the ice with strength and conditioning coach Sean Skahan and expected to play today.

Getzlaf, whose 16 points tied him with Sidney Crosby for the postseason lead entering Saturday’s games, said he had been worn down “a little bit” by averaging more than 25 minutes a game and fell prey to flu symptoms.

“The other day was a tough day, but it’s getting better as we go along,” said Getzlaf, who has recorded at least one point in nine of the Ducks’ 10 playoff games.

Today is his 24th birthday, and when asked how he plans to celebrate he had a quick answer.

“Hopefully winning,” he said. “That’s the plan, anyways.”

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Go ahead, make his day

After scoring twice against Jonas Hiller in the Red Wings’ six-goal spree Thursday, Marian Hossa said the key was “peppering the puck at his feet” to get rebounds and second chances.

Have the Red Wings found a weakness in Hiller, whose .946 save percentage remains the best among playoff goalies after he gave up five goals in 33 shots?

Ducks goaltending coach Francois Allaire thinks not.

“Good. If they feel that’s the way to do it, we feel we can handle it,” he said of Hossa’s comment.

“We’ll see how it goes, but so far so good. After four games it’s 2-2 and I think he got three solid games. The last one, I think he can do better. He feels he can do better too.”

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Better late than never

Aaron Teats, the Ducks’ director of broadcasting, said technical difficulties on the part of Versus were responsible for Time Warner cable subscribers missing most of the first period of Game 4.

Teats said Versus was attempting to break away from the Vancouver-Chicago game to bring the Ducks-Red Wings game to Southern California and Detroit when the problem occurred.

Some customers still got the Vancouver-Chicago game but others -- apparently only Time Warner subscribers -- were blacked out altogether. The glitch was resolved when the Vancouver-Chicago game ended.

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No Rafalski, Draper, Kopecky

Defenseman Brian Rafalski and forward Kris Draper, both out of the series because of upper-body injuries, will sit out Game 5 today.

Tomas Kopecky, who learned the hard way that Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin punches left-handed, will sit out because of the swollen right eye he suffered in a third-period fight against Beauchemin in Game 4.

Justin Abdelkader, considered one of the Red Wings’ top prospects and a physical force, will take Kopecky’s place and center the line with Kirk Maltby and Mikael Samuelsson.

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Chops chopped

The Ducks ended their affiliation with the Iowa Chops of the American Hockey League after one season because the Chops didn’t meet their contractual financial obligations, a Ducks spokesman said. The club is seeking a new AHL affiliate for next season.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com