Advertising Opportunities

head coach: Pierre Page

roster: C - Matt Cullen, Travis Green, J.F. Jomphe, Josef Marha, Steve Rucchin. LW - Shawn Antoski, Ted Drury, Paul Kariya, Tomas Sandstrom, Brent Severyn, Jeremy Stevenson, Mike Leclerc. RW - Frank Banham, Jeff Nielsen, Teemu Selanne, Scott Young. D - Drew Bannister, Doug Houda, David Karpa, Jason Marshall, Jamie Pushor, Ruslan Salei, Pavel Trnka. G - Guy Hebert, Mikhail Shtalenkov, Tom Askey.

injuries: Guy Hebert, g (strained right shoulder, on Injured Reserve retroactive to 3/09); Paul Kariya, lw (post-concussion syndrome, indefinite); Shawn Antoski, lw (depressed skull fracture, has resumed skating but is out indefinitely).

transactions: 3/24 - acquired Jamie Pushor, d, and 1998 fourth-round draft pick from Detroit in exchange for Dmitri Mironov; acquired the rights to Patrick Lalime, g, from Pittsburgh in exchange for Sean Pronger; acquired Josef Marha, c, from Colorado in exchange for Warren Rychel and conditional pick in 1999; recalled Mike Leclerc, lw, from Cincinnati (AHL).

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
x-Colorado   77  37  24  16    90  217  192  
Los Angeles  75  34  30  11    79  210  204 
San Jose     76  31  37   8    70  190  205  
Edmonton     76  30  36  10    70  192  208 
Calgary      75  25  36  14    64  200  222  
Vancouver    76  24  39  13    61  212  258  
Anaheim      76  24  40  12    60  187  241  
x - Clinched playoff spot

game results:

3/25 at Chicago   W 3-2
3/26 at Detroit   T 3-3
3/28 at Colorado  L 5-3
4/01 Phoenix      L 5-1
4/03 at Phoenix   L 6-3
4/05 Calgary      T 3-3

team news:

by Alex Carswell, Anaheim Correspondent

NOT OUT...YET

The Ducks returned from their best-ever roadie, a 3-2-2 tour spoiled only by bookend losses at New Jersey and Colorado, with a shot -- albeit slim -- at staying in the playoff hunt. But then they quickly dropped both halves of a "must win" home-and-home against Phoenix, and looked brutal doing it.

That pretty much summed up this season for the Ducks, one in which hopes and expectations have been constantly dashed by untimely collapses. As we go to press, the Ducks are still mathematically alive, but barely. Any combination of results earning the San Jose Sharks two points more than Anaheim puts the Ducks on the golf course, and that shouldn't take long.

Put aside all the "reasonable" explanations for Anaheim's futile campaign -- Paul Kariya's holdout, significant injuries to Kariya, Rucchin and Scott Young, Tomas Sandstrom's MIA season -- and you're still left with one major mystery: the team's dismal performance at home.

In the allegedly friendly confines of The Pond, in front of the league's least-critical fans, the Ducks have thus far rung up a lame record of 10-22-5. That's the worst in the NHL, with a winning percentage of just .351, far behind Toronto's next-worst .423 ratio. It seems unthinkable that a playoff team the prior year could turn around and go a dozen games under .500 at home. And yet that's where this team sits, er, wallows.

DEADLINE DEALS

With an eye toward the future, GM Jack Ferreira swung a couple of deals at the trading deadline. As expected, Dmitri Mironov (an unrestricted free agent at season's end) was dished, going to Detroit in exchange for Jamie Pushor and a fourth-rounder. Is Pushor the big, stay-at-home defenseman the Ducks need for next year and beyond? Maybe. But let's hope his presence doesn't keep Anaheim out of the summer free agent market for blueliners.

One deal that did significantly upgrade the team's talent level was the acquisition of Czech native Josef Marha from Colorado. The Avs, brimming with offensive talent at all levels of their organization, felt they were lacking the heart they lost when Mike Keane and Warren Rychel signed elsewhere as free agents. So they sent Marha to Anaheim in order to get Rychel back.

Josef Marha by Tricia McMillan

Marha is a promising offensive talent who has looked good in his first few games with the Ducks, at least when allowed to play his natural center position. Rychel, popular in Anaheim's room as well as Colorado's, had often found himself a target of referees and a scapegoat of the Ducks staff.

The deadline also brought an end to the Sean Pronger experiment. The inconsistent center was dished to Pittsburgh for the rights to minor-league goaltender, and 1997 rookie sensation, Patrick Lalime. After last year's 21-12-2 run (including a record 14-game unbeaten start), Lalime was unable to come to terms with the Pens and has been playing with Grand Rapids of the IHL. Ferreira insists the deal is more than just a way to get Anaheim a goalie they can expose in the expansion draft, and that Lalime has a future in the Ducks organization.

SELANNE SIGNS

Perhaps the best move Ferreira made toward securing the team's future was to extend the contract of star winger Teemu Selanne. Without altering the final two years of his existing deal (which pays Selanne in the $3.75 million range), the Ducks locked up Selanne through the 2001/02 season with a rich extension. The final two years are worth $8 million and $8.5 million, respectively, with a $3 million signing bonus. That brings the total value of Selanne's package to $19.5 million.

If it is only through pain that wisdom comes, then the Ducks should be happy they had Kariya's painful negotiations to go through earlier this season. And Anaheim fans can be thankful that Ferreira had the initiative and wisdom to lock up Selanne sooner rather than later.

THE STRING

All that's left for Anaheim now is to play out the string. The team can be a spoiler for several teams still in the playoff hunt; they have games remaining against Edmonton (2) and San Jose, both of who are on the edge of inclusion or elimination.

Beyond that, youngsters are playing for jobs next year, and several veterans -- notably Travis Green, Steve Rucchin and Scott Young -- are busy showing how much they could have contributed had each not been injured for significant stretches of the season.

[ issues | web extra | stats | nhl archive | home | chat | mailing list | about us | search | comments ]

1998 © Copyright LCS Hockey All Rights Reserved