Ducks' Randy Carlyle: 'We're not going to accept where we're at'
The Ducks will reach the halfway point of their schedule after their game against the Kings tonight at the Honda Center, but Coach Randy Carlyle didn't wait for that mathematical milepost to deliver a stern message to his team.
He held one-on-one meetings with players over the last week and told them he will no longer stand for the team's inconsistency and inability to play with emotion -- which have contributed to the Ducks' being shorthanded a league-high 216 times in their first 40 games.
"Our message was that status quo wasn't going to be good enough for our group, and we're in the process of trying to change that with the changes in our lineup and our line combinations," Carlyle said Tuesday after the Ducks' game-day skate.
At 20-15-5 entering tonight's game, the Ducks were five games over .500, at least by the NHL's goofy standards. Carlyle said that must improve, too.
"That's not what this hockey club is about," he said. "We think we're better and can play to a higher level than that. We've found ways to give points away, and that cannot continue, from our standpoint as a coaching staff and from theirs. That's unacceptable for them to accept that, and we won't."
Carlyle also said he wanted to see more emotion and that the coaches had become "stale" in not recognizing the lack of it. The Ducks' problem, though, has long been that they can't control those emotions and take needless penalties.
They used to be able to kill those penalties without much difficulty but they're not as deep up front as they once were, especially now with Corey Perry serving the second game of his four-game suspension for elbowing Philadelphia's Claude Giroux in the head.
And when Sammy Pahlsson, Travis Moen or Rob Niedermayer are out killing penalties, that detracts from the energy they need to be the Ducks' stopper line against opponents' first lines.
"You have to be smart, and we have not been smart enough," Carlyle said. "That's a criticism that's pretty easy to make when you take the number of penalties we take.
"The difference is the penalties are new-rules hockey penalties. They're not penalties like the old roughing penalties. Those are usually considered lack of discipline. These are lack of discipline to the new rules."
Carlyle said he believes the Ducks can play better because they've done it before, but that might be more wishful thinking than reality. This team is older and thinner on defense, especially without Francois Beauchemin (knee surgery) to bang some bodies and boost the power play. If this is the last stand for this group -- and it likely is, with Scott Niedermayer under contract only through this season and a number of other key players poised to become free agents -- everyone will have to step up several notches to make one last run.
On another note, Carlyle had some kind words for Kings rookie defenseman Drew Doughty. Given that Carlyle was a pretty fair defenseman in his day -- he won the Norris trophy in 1981 -- that's significant.
Asked what stands out to him about Doughty, Carlyle's response was immediate. "Composure with the puck," he said. "He does things that he has a lot of patience with the puck. He doesn't ever seem to be in a panic situation when he has it, and he looks people off. He's got a good set of hands and he's got skills. He's got a great hockey sense."
Asked to compare him with other young players who made immediate impacts, Carlyle cited Kings center Anze Kopitar. "He was outstanding for a first-year player and that's the type of year that this Doughty kid is having," Carlyle said.
More to come soon from the Kings' side, and from both sides later tonight.
-- Helene Elliott
Photo: Coach Randy Carlyle registers his displeasure in the third period of his team's 2-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on New Year's Eve. Credit: Mark Avery / Associated Press
