Punchless Ducks Need to Protect Their Franchise Player

All you need to know about the Mighty Ducks is Gary Suter skated off the ice after Sunday’s game at the Pond. The Chicago Blawkhawks defenseman wasn’t carried off, he didn’t limp off. He skated away free and easy despite committing the worst possible offense against the Ducks.

Suter messed with The Man, Paul Kariya. He gave Kariya a shot to the head with his stick, sending Kariya’s helmet back and knocking The Man to the ice after Kariya scored his second goal of the game.

Kariya skated one more shift, then went to the locker room with what was initially described as a “questionable mild concussion.”

Suter should have paid a price. Nota questionable or mild price, but a heavy one. As it was, he went unpenalized by the officials and unpunished by the Ducks.

Blame referee Dan Marouelli for the first offense, then pick any stall you want in the Ducks’ dressing room for the second. His teammates left Kariya hanging again.

It will only get worse. Opposing teams are learning they can take as many shots as they want at Kariya and Teemu Selanne without fear of retribution. They don’t even have to worry about giving up a goal. There are no “bad” penalties against the Ducks, whose power play ranks next-to-last in the NHL.

The Blawkhawks already knew this, after Chris Chelios assaulted Kariya throughout Chicago’s 2-0 victory on Dec. 28, then threatened him afterward without so much as a peep from the other Ducks.

Kariya took matters into his own hands Sunday night by riding Chelios into the boards the first chance he had, and the rest of the Ducks tried to take out their frustrations on everyone else. They didn’t take much time to get started. Defenseman David Karpa and Hawks forward Ethan Moreau went at it 21 seconds into the game, drawing five-minute fighting penalties.

There was plenty of rough-and-tumble stuff in this game. Gloves flying off, guys going at it. A total of 106 penalty minutes. There was so much fighting I though I was watching the Jerry Springer show.

The result? The Blawkhawks were so intimidated, so taken out of their game, that they only managed to fire 50 shots at Guy Hebert.

Fifty shots. That was one indication of the Ducks’ lack of toughness, despite any bumps and bruises that implied otherwise.

Ducks forward Ted Drury had to get stitches after the game. Blawkhawks right wing Sergei Krivokrasov had a big cut on his forehead, courtesy of a helmeted head-butt from Ruslan Salei.

But Suter escaped without a scratch.

“I’m sure if certain players were out there, maybe something would have happened right away,” Drury said. “That’s the way it is in this league. It didn’t exactly happen that way tonight. We didn’t go after the player that hit Paul. It doesn’t happen every time, but that’s usually the way it works. I don’t think the opportunity came along.”

If there wasn’t an opportunity, they should have made one. The Ducks had more than a period and a half to get revenge and didn’t. They did have a one-goal lead to protect, but maybe it would have worth it to settle for a tie, sacrifice a point and send a message to the rest of the league that you don’t touch Paul. Besides, they wound up giving up the tying goal anyway when Selanne gambled on a steal and left Chelios with a wide-open shot.

That’s the problem with the Ducks. They’re playing the puck instead of the man and are much too soft defensively.

Their finesse style works great on offense. When left untouched they’re deadly. They’ll beat you in a skating contest.

But most teams won’t fall into that trap, preferring to drag, push and punch the Ducks.

After the game, Ducks President Tony Tavares was seething about the late, cheap hit on Kariya. He vowed to send the tape of the incident to NHL Director of Hockey Operations Brian Burke as quickly as possible.

While he’s at it, he and Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira ought to ship out some of the guys who are allowing these roughhouse tactics to go unchecked and bring in someone who will watch Kariya’s back. Team physician Craig Milhouse said that Kariya remembers the incident, despite the concussion. He’d better not be the only one.

Drury said, “It’s a long season. We play these guys again. These things aren’t forgotten.”

The Ducks don’t play the Blawkhawks again until March 25. Even if the NHL suspends Suter for this dirty hit, he’ll be back long before then.

That would leave the Ducks to account for the fact that Burke, sitting in an office on the other side of the country, had his way with Suter before they did.