Ducks’ Offense Is Still a One-Liner

ANAHEIM —  The numbers lodge in Kevin Todd’s brain. Twenty games without a goal. Twenty-one. Twenty-two. Twenty-three.

Jari Kurri doesn’t need to remind him, but he does.

“Twenty games,” Kurri said as he walked past Todd in the visitors’ dressing room a couple games ago.

“Eight goals this season,” Todd shot back. “And what do you have? Eight. Same as me.”

Along with Brian Bellows, Todd and Kurri are meant to be the Ducks’ second scoring line, but they do not score. Coach Ron Wilson splits them up, reunites them, shuffles centers. Virtually nothing changes.

The tandem of Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, centered by Steve Rucchin, is the Ducks’ one-two punch. There is no three.

It has been two months since Todd scored a goal--not since Dec. 1. He remembers that he went 20 games without a goal during his rookie season in New Jersey and still finished with 21 goals. That should help but doesn’t.

“People keep telling me not to worry about it, but anyone who says they’re happy when they go 20 games without a goal is lying,” Todd said.

Kurri had three goals in the first four games of the season. Remember when he was going to center Kariya and Selanne? Since then, he has five goals in 45 games.

Bellows, acquired from Tampa Bay for a sixth-round draft pick in November, has five goals in 29 games.

Rookie Sean Pronger has stepped into Todd’s spot at times. Kurri and Bellows were both pleased. When a guy is going bad, he’d as soon get away from everybody else who’s going bad. “The kid’s doing a great job,” Kurri said. “He’s got good size, a lot like Steve Rucchin. Maybe it’s, I don’t know how to put it, but when guys go for a long time without scoring, maybe it’s time for a change.”

Wilson tries to defuse criticism of the Ducks’ reliance on Kariya, Selanne and Rucchin by saying it doesn’t matter so much if you rely on one line when your one line is that terrific. It’s doubtful he really believes that.

When teams can concentrate on one line without fretting about the rest of the Ducks, they have a distinct advantage.

When the only thing between Dallas goalie Andy Moog and a shutout of the Ducks is a third-period goal by rookie tough guy Peter LeBoutillier, that’s bad news. It’s nice for LeBoutillier to have a puck to mail to his father, but how many times can the Ducks look to him for a goal?

“I’ve got to get more involved in the scoring,” said Kurri, 36. “I think things are changing. It’s a long year. There are ups and downs. There was a time when I lost my motivation. It wasn’t there.”

Kurri didn’t make a public show of it, but he was distracted by his father’s open-heart surgery early in the season. Losing, too, wore at his will to play.

“When you lose that fun, it’s time to sit back and analyze it,” Kurri said. “This year will be a big test that way. Right now, I’d like to play one more year.”

The Ducks have an option to renew Kurri’s one-year $1.5 million contract after the season. Right now, would they? It’s doubtful at that price. Kurri had a career-low 18 goals last season for the Kings and Rangers, but the Ducks thought playing with Selanne would rejuvenate him, even imagining he could be the third player on that line.

“I thought I was going to have the chance to play with them,” Kurri said. “It hasn’t happened. The team is No. 1. I still put a lot of pressure on myself. I expect a lot.”

The Ducks no longer do.

“I’m not looking at Jari to score 70 goals,” said Wilson, though he probably was looking for him to score 30. “He does a great job defensively, but the puck’s not going in at the other end. He’s doing a good job as a leader in the dressing room. That’s a big contribution.”

True enough, but the Ducks still need more forwards who can contribute on the scoreboard.