Ducks have 7 Olympic medals; now if they could just make playoffs

Here’s the obvious question: How could a team whose players won seven Olympic medals in Vancouver possibly miss the playoffs?

The last NHL team to bring home seven medals was the 2002 Detroit Red Wings. They won the Stanley Cup.

The Ducks’ seven medals — three golds, two silvers and two bronzes — will be on display at the Honda Center at Wednesday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.

But with 20 games left and the Ducks in a scrum for the final Western Conference playoff spot, the players who won those medals must refocus.

“It is a big transition,” said Scott Niedermayer, captain of the Ducks and Canada’s gold-medal winning team. “The key is to make sure you’re ready to play. The excitement and intensity of a final game like that is probably not going to be matched in our next game. But nevertheless, it’s still a very important game for us to go out and perform as well as we can. It is a mental challenge.”

Small deals, so far

Ducks General Manager Bob Murray made several minor deals as the noon Wednesday deadline approaches, trading veteran defenseman Nick Boynton, who started the season in Anaheim but had been playing in the minors, to Chicago for future considerations Tuesday. The Ducks also sent unsigned draft pick Steven Kampfer, a defenseman for the University of Michigan, to Boston for a fourth-round pick in 2010 or 2011.

Murray also stressed that the Ducks’ captain isn’t on the block.

“This is a broken record … Scott Niedermayer is going nowhere,” he said. “It’s the last time I’ll answer that question.”

A house divided?

Niedermayer’s entire NHL career has been spent in the U.S., making Team Canada’s captain and his wife, Lisa, the parents of four U.S.-born sons.

“Our 6-year-old said he was cheering for both teams in the final,” Niedermayer said. “My wife made sure they had Canadian jerseys on. She wasn’t going to buy them American jerseys. They’re not old enough to buy their own yet.”

The Niedermayer youngsters are showing off Dad’s gold medal to their hockey teammates but it’s unlikely they’ll get to take it to school.

“No, I don’t think I’ll let them take it,” Niedermayer said. “They’re not quite old enough to trust quite yet.”

robynnorwood@verizon.net