Column: Ducks have responded well to the return of Coach Randy Carlyle

The hockey community’s judgment was swift and severe when the Ducks brought Randy Carlyle back as their coach last June after an absence of nearly five years.

Under the headline “Ducks go backward with strange rehiring of Randy Carlyle,” Canada’s Globe and Mail said Carlyle “isn’t a good replacement, if we’re weighing the odds of success,” and that during Carlyle’s coaching stint in Toronto he was “exposed as a poor systems coach. Increasingly those types are being culled from the game.” The story acknowledged Carlyle would have more talent in Anaheim than he had in Toronto and that he had vowed to adapt to the NHL’s speed-driven game, but, it continued, “The question is also not whether Carlyle is open to new things, but whether he can produce new results.”

The Leafsnation.com blog was harsher. “Seriously, there’s no version of this that goes well for the Ducks,” a post said. “Maybe this will finally be the stint that puts the nail in the coffin of Randy Carlyle’s career coaching in the NHL …. It will be interesting (in a ‘tire fire’ way) to see just how this plays out for the Ducks.”

Comments on Yahoo.com also predicted disaster. “If Randy Carlyle proved anything in Toronto, he proved that the NHL has passed him by,” a fan said. “This move by the Ducks will fail and Randy will have similar results to what he had in Toronto.”

So, with the Ducks having clinched a playoff spot and leading the Pacific Division entering the final weekend of the regular season, does Carlyle feel vindicated?

Yes, because that’s human nature, but no, because the Ducks haven’t accomplished anything yet.

“I think what happens is when you get beat down in the situation I was in, in Toronto, that there were always questions: Could you do this, could you do that?” Carlyle said. “I never really took it to heart. I tried to be Teflon and deflect things.

“Yes, you have to make changes but there are certain things that are staples that if you can get your group to do, you have a chance for success. And it’s all about being in tune with what’s going on in the league, plying your trade in the way that these players want it. It’s not about what you want anymore. It’s about what they want.”

That’s a big change. “I’ve said ‘softer’ in previous interviews,” right wing Corey Perry said of the change in atmosphere from Carlyle’s first term. “But it’s not so much softer, because he demands that respect and he demands that you work hard for him. But at the same time, you can approach him a little bit easier than the first time around. He’s taking into consideration what we have to say, and it’s been working both ways.”

In at least one case, Carlyle’s willingness to listen has been crucial. He and General Manager Bob Murray saw forward Rickard Rakell as a center, but Rakell felt more comfortable on the wing. The old Carlyle probably would have insisted that Rakell play center. The new Carlyle let Rakell play the wing and the talented young Swede has flourished, scoring a team-high 33 goals in 70 games.

Carlyle also has put young players in important roles, which critics said he didn’t do often enough in Toronto.

“A lot of times with young players he’s hard on you and you’ll hear it from him if you make a mistake, but chances are he’s going to throw you back out there and let you prove it to him again,” said center Ryan Getzlaf, a holdover from the Ducks’ 2007 Stanley Cup run under Carlyle. “That’s all you can ask as a young player in this league, to get back out there and do it again.”

Though Carlyle might be more forgiving now, he hasn’t forgotten who he is or the importance of maintaining the team’s identity. “You’re never going to change Randy completely,” Murray said. “We are adapting and he is adapting to what’s going on in the league, but we’re not there yet.”

Players say they’ve reaped the benefits of Carlyle’s bench-management skills, an asset Murray rated as a priority. “I also think he’s gotten the best out of a lot of guys,” winger Andrew Cogliano said. “He’s a coach that demands a lot. He’s a coach that is really hard in terms of matching and doing your job. I think it maybe took us a little while to get into it in terms of finding our way, but I think now we’re seeing everything come together over the last little bit.”

The Ducks will take a 10-0-3 point streak into their season finale Sunday against the Kings at Honda Center. After four straight seasons of squandering 3-2 leads in playoff series — and with the championship window narrowing for Getzlaf, Perry and Ryan Kesler — the Ducks can’t stumble again. That’s why, in focusing on the present, they reached back to the past to Carlyle.

“I think you have to learn that you’re not right all the time and you learn that in a hurry in this business,” Carlyle said. “There are different ways to get through to people, and you have to learn that in this day and age and with this age group of player that you’re dealing with and with the situations that you’re presented with. You have to manage people differently.”

Maybe you can teach an old coach new tricks. At least, new ways of thinking.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelen