Time Is Now for Russian

The trials and tribulations of Mighty Duck right wing Maxim Balmochnykh have come to this:

“I need to check myself now,” Balmochnykh said in broken English. “I need to see who I am.”

Balmochnykh, 22, was a hot prospect for the Ducks when they drafted him 45th overall in 1998. He was a fast, skilled forward from Russia, who was a first-team all-star at the Junior World Championships in 1998 and 1999.

The road since has been anything but smooth, as injuries and immaturity have slowed him. He had surgery on his left shoulder in May and said he is physically sound for the first time in two years.

“I needed to be in much better shape and that meant I needed to do better workouts,” Balmochnykh said.

His professional career started fine. He scored two goals in Cincinnati’s season opener in 1999-’00. Then things went south. A week later, he received an eight-game suspension for spearing a player with his stick. Balmochnykh also was sidelined for seven games because of an injury to his left shoulder.

He did spend six games with the Ducks late in the season, but in a postseason meeting General Manager Pierre Gauthier chewed him out about his conditioning.

Balmochnykh played with Cincinnati last season, but was bothered by the shoulder injury. He played 65 games, finishing with six goals and 15 points.

“You draft a player because he has skill and can play the game at a certain level,” Cincinnati Coach Mike Babcock said. “The way Maxy skates and shoots, he just needed to develop that attitude to battle for every loose puck every game.”

*

The Ducks’ eagerness to play their first exhibition game was tempered by the events of last week.

“The more this drags on, the more people are realizing how much an impact it is on all of us,” goalie Steve Shields said. “It has started to affect the guys more.”

The Duck players traveling to Phoenix departed after a short practice Sunday. An airline official went over security measures on the bus ride to the airport.

*

Defenseman Ruslan Salei, who is recovering from knee surgery, practiced with the team for the first time Sunday.