By losing their fifth straight game to start the month of March, the
Ducks have settled in nicely among a group of clubs whose season is looking like a “near miss.”

The first tier in the Western Conference has been established for some
time; only Chicago (93 points) and San Jose (95) have a realistic
chance of capturing the No. 1 playoff seed. The second tier is rounding into
shape, with seven teams separated by nine points, and only six
playoff positions to accommodate them.

Then there’s the third tier, in which four teams (St. Louis, Dallas, Minnesota, Anaheim) are separated
by three points for the consolation-only 10th through 13th spots.

It would be callous to
include the 13th-place Ducks in this group based on their 30-29-8 record alone. But
when he was asked Friday about his team’s emotional intensity, Randy
Carlyle delivered a strong vote of confidence for their record.

“Nowhere near what it needs to be,” the head coach said. “I still think that we, as a
group, don’t seem to be engaged emotionally in the hockey game. There
is for spurts, but not for 60 minutes right now. That’s what’s really
been frustrating for everybody. The bench is quiet. The room is quiet. It’s like we’re waiting for something bad to happen.”

The Ducks didn’t have to wait long Friday. The Predators got a 5-on-3 power play 17:36 into the first period and wasted only 18 seconds converting it for the game’s only goal on a Shea Weber slap shot.

Looking beyond the scoreboard, that wasn’t the only thing that went wrong.

There were the three minutes, 13 seconds of power-play time for the Predators, compared to two abbreviated power plays for the Ducks totaling 50 seconds. Carlyle was skeptical – “it is amazing that we can go through a hockey game and not draw a power play,” he said – but Jonas Hiller didn’t buy the excuse that Anaheim was bitten again by a reputation for committing penalties.

“I don’t know,” Hiller said. “I think we’re just not smart enough.”

There was the failure to capitalize on a team ahead of them in the standings, and a team that had played the night before. The Predators should have been tired, too, after losing 8-5 in San Jose on Thursday, a game that Pekka Rinne had to finish in net. All Rinne did Friday was make 31 saves for his fourth shutout of the season.

There was another disappointing game by Ryan Getzlaf, the Ducks’ leading scorer. He committed three giveaways, bringing his total to nine in five games since returning from the Olympics. Getzlaf did not record a shot on goal for just the third time this season, and it was the first game in which he didn’t take a shot at all – including those that were blocked or missed the net entirely.

“A lot of it has to do with not moving his feet,” Carlyle said. “He’s making more plays standing still.”

That, in the opinion of the coach, did not even lead to Getzlaf’s most damaging play Friday – the cross-checking penalty that gave Nashville its fateful two-man advantage.

“I don’t think he actually cross-checked the player – the player (David Legwand) kind of embellished, but (Getzlaf) did put his stick up at his shoulder length. I think that was a frustration thing from Getzlaf.”

Said Getzlaf, “the penalties hurt us. It wasn’t like we thought it was going to be the deciding factor, but everything can be. That is something that we have to realize as a group, myself included.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, the player who took the most shots and logged the most time on ice for the Ducks was also the last to leave the ice. Lubomir Visnovsky hunched over at his team’s blue line after the final horn sounded, with his back turned to the benches, and took a moment before slowly skating off.

What was he thinking?

“It’s 1-0. It’s bad,” Visnovsky said. “There’s lots of chances and you don’t score any goals. Especially at home, it’s frustrating.”

His solution? “Wake up and start playing well.”