Ducks have a lot left to work on before the real season

Exhibition games aren’t altogether meaningless.

The Ducks’ 4-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks Friday could very well stand as a preview of their season, featuring a mixture of brilliant passes and unnecessary penalties, of one careless moment costing them a goal and one intense effort along the boards setting up a goal that temporarily put them even with the Canucks before the visitors firmly took control.

“I think we did a lot of good things,” Teemu Selanne said, “but there’s a fine difference between winning and losing and doing the little things better is going to win the game.”

The Canucks scored once while shorthanded, twice on the power play and once into an empty net at the Honda Center to consign the Ducks (2-4-0) to their third straight loss.

“The difference a lot of times is if you allow one or two goals and you don’t score on the power play that’s where you lose the game, and that’s exactly what happened tonight,” Saku Koivu said.

“There’s a couple changes that we’re doing so we’re not expecting everything to be perfect at this point. At the same time, a week away from the season we have to realize that those little details have to click soon and we can’t allow one or two goals or three goals on the penalty killing.”

Henrik Sedin’s power-play goal, set up on a clever pass from his twin brother Daniel, put the Canucks ahead for good at 14:55 of the third period of a game that featured the sublime — Ryan Getzlaf’s threaded pass to Koivu on the Ducks’ first goal — and the boneheaded — Bobby Ryan making one pass too many and giving the puck to Peter Schaefer, who fed Mason Raymond for a shorthanded breakaway at 14:01 of the first period.

“He didn’t get behind me so much as I put it on the other guy’s tape,” said Ryan, who returned to the wing after an unmemorable tryout at center.

“I thought every one of their guys was in the scrum and it turns out he wasn’t. It was not so much a mistake as taking a second off from realizing what’s around you.”

Ryan returned to left wing with Koivu and Selanne, though Coach Randy Carlyle said the experiment hasn’t been shelved.

But the experiment of playing Ryan at the point on the power play could be short-lived after Raymond’s goal.

A scuffle late in the first period triggered by Ryan Kesler’s nasty hit from behind on Corey Perry — which earned Kesler a five-minute boarding penalty — led to a four-on-three advantage that the Ducks capitalized on at 1:06 of the second period. Perry and Kesler fought late in the period, a knock-down bout that ended with each getting a five-minute fighting penalty.

Getzlaf set up the goal skating in from the blue line to thread a pass under a defender’s stick and to Koivu near the right post for the Finn’s first preseason goal.

These being the Ducks, it was inevitable that they’d take a lot of penalties and pay for it. Perry was sent off for hooking at 7:03 and the Canucks scored 11 seconds later, when Alex Edler blasted a low shot past a triple-screened Jonas Hiller for a 2-1 lead.

The Ducks’ defense began unraveling, too, turning the neutral zone into the Bermuda Triangle: they might enter it with the puck but never emerged with it. The Canucks produced a succession of two-on-one breaks and close-in chances that Hiller handled with poise though the Canucks outshot the Ducks, 16-10, in the period and 31-25 overall.

Ducks winger Matt Beleskey continued his impressive preseason audition when he brought the Ducks even at 2-2 at 3:55 of the third. George Parros won a battle for the puck along the left-wing boards and passed to Beleskey, who went down on one knee as he whipped a shot past goalie Cory Schneider. It was Beleskey’s first preseason goal, to go with two assists.

From there the Canucks took over, with Sedin scoring while Luca Sbisa served a roughing penalty.

“We just have to do the little things just a little better,” Selanne said. “Special teams, we can do those things better for sure.”

If they don’t they’ll experience a lot of nights like Friday.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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