After their third intrasquad scrimmage in three days, Randy
Carlyle guaranteed that the Ducks are tired of playing other Ducks. The fans aren’t
tired of watching it — there were several hundred in the crowd at Anaheim ICE
on Tuesday morning — but it’s clear by now that some players are looking to hit
a bit harder than they’re able to against their own teammates.
James Wisniewski, the wide, 5-foot-11, 197-pound defenseman, probably was restraining himself during the second half of Tuesday’s scrimmage on his open-ice check against Dan Sexton. The 22-year-old Sexton –a 5-foot-10, 170-pound forward — was still thrust backward upon impact.
Incidentally, Sexton took part in the prettiest play in the scrimmage, a 7-4 victory for Team Black. Leading a rush up the left side, he glanced at the goal, waited for his teammates to catch up, and was looking toward center ice from the faceoff circle when he fired toward the goal. J.P. Levasseur was looking in that direction, too, as Sexton’s shot whizzed past the goalie’s cocked head.
Sexton will try to replicate his feat on Wednesday against the Phoenix Coyotes at Honda Center. He’ll be at right wing with Bobby Ryan at left wing, and 2009 first-round draft pick Peter Holland at center, when the Ducks open the preseason with a 7 p.m. game. (Full lineup here)
The other goal-scorers were Steve McCarthy, Logan MacMillan, Ryan Donally, Ryan Carter, Joffrey Lupul and Brendan Mikkelson. Lupul scored twice on rebounds near the goal crease, Mikkelson scored twice on penalty shots, and Carter scored twice — on a one-timer and a breakaway — against Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Levasseur, respectively.
The day’s other highlight took place off the ice.
A Finnish reporter, asking about the increasingly-sure possibility of Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu being paired together, drew a rhetorical question in response from head coach Randy Carlyle.
Said Carlyle: “We know the history of the two players. I think they played together in World Championships and in Olympic years. We will assess that. It makes a lot of sense for them to play together, but if it doesn’t work, what do you do?”
Replied the reporter, with the definition of rhetorical apparently lost in translation: “Um, it will work.”
Carlyle was quick to reply: “That’s easy for you to say!”
In other tidbits:
— The Ducks are required to play a minimum of eight veterans in each exhibition game. A “veteran,” as defined in section 15.1(d) of the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, is a skater who played in 30 games during the previous year; a goalie who dressed for 50 (or played in 30) games the previous season; a first-round draft choice from 2009; or a player who has played in 100 or more career NHL games.
—Carlyle doesn’t want to play more than the minimum early in the preseason: “I don’t believe it’s necessary for Scott Niedermayer to play eight exhibition games, or Teemu Selanne, or Saku Koivu, or Giguere,” he said. “That’s all part of why you have other players around to support your players. You get a good look at all your drafts, all your pro players in their development.”
— Justin Pogge has a new mask. Gone is the Maple Leafs-blue mask he showed up with to camp, replaced by one that’s all white.
— A hot topic of conversation remains how the Ducks’ forward corps will look without a true checking line. Carlyle offered one possibility from his first year in Anaheim. “If you were to think Lupul, the last time he was here, we had the McDonald-Selanne-Kunitz grouping, then we had Getzlaf, Perry and whoever it was [probably Todd Fedoruk], then we had Penner with Marchant and Lupul, and they all delivered offense for us.”
–Carlyle doesn’t plan to ask Koivu to learn French.
