Ducks will have new look
ANAHEIM, Calif. – The Ducks were mighty busy during the NHL season that wasn’t.
Anaheim changed its owner, general manager and coach, cut loose several stalwart players, added some new players and brought back a couple of familiar faces.
These no longer are Disney’s Ducks.
“I look around here, it’s a good feeling,” Teemu Selanne said as he surveyed the locker room. “We have a lot of good players, a lot of speed, a lot of talent. You can feel it in here, the new owners, the new GM, the new coaches.
“I think they’ve really taken the next step forward.”
The Ducks could use some change. After making their first Stanley Cup Finals in 2003, losing to New Jersey in seven games, they didn’t make the playoffs the following season. They’ve also been slumping at the gate.
Billionaire Henry Samueli, a co-founder of Broadcom Corp., and his wife, Susan, bought the team from the Walt Disney Co. earlier this year. Disney had been trying to unload the team for several years.
Samueli and his wife are devoted Ducks fans, and he has said they will do everything in their power to have a winning team.
“I think the change of owners is probably good for us,” goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “The management seems to be very aggressive, wanting to have a good team and bringing in good guys.”
General manager Brian Burke succeeded Al Coates, who served as interim GM for a year after replacing Bryan Murray following the 2003-04 season. Randy Carlyle takes over as coach, a job left open when Mike Babcock’s contract expired and he left to coach the Detroit Red Wings.
Among the longtime players Anaheim let go were Steve Rucchin and Mike Leclerc. The Ducks signed free agents Scott Niedermayer, who joins his brother Rob in Anaheim; Jason Marshall, who returns to the franchise where he ranks second in career games; and Selanne, the team’s second-leading career scorer who also is back for a second tour of duty. Todd Fedoruk, a hard-hitting left wing, was acquired in a trade with Philadelphia.
“It’s a new chemistry. Everybody’s excited. Pretty much everybody’s new, so it’s like a new start,” said Ruslan Salei, who has played all of his 516 NHL games for Anaheim. “There hasn’t been hockey for a year now, and it’s a real exciting time for everybody.”
Carlyle, a former Norris Trophy-winning defenseman with the Pittsburgh Penguins, wants the Ducks to play fast and aggressively, to be constantly on the attack.
“Our message is that there’s been a change here, and we’re fortunate enough to be in the situation,” Carlyle said. “I look at it from the point of view of the ownership, the management, the coaching staff, we’re trying to make sure the players realize they have an opportunity to make a first impression.
“We’re going to change the way we think we have to play. Our attitude is uptempo style – skate, skate and skate – and that’s what we’re going to try and coach.”
While Giguere likes the fresh mix, he knows there has to be more.
“Now it’s up to the players to show up and work hard and do their job,” he said.