Randy Carlyle headed to the rink Thursday in a foul mood. He wasn't happy with the coach of the Anaheim Ducks.
The proverbial finger was pointed right at himself for the unimpressive play of his team.
"The bottom line is, we have to play at a higher level and we're all responsible for our actions, and the coaching staff is at the front of that line," the Ducks coach told ESPN.com on Thursday morning. "From a coaching standpoint, we have to accept some of the responsibility here, because our preparation hasn't been good enough for our players, for our group.
"They haven't been prepared to play and that's our No. 1 responsibility as a coaching staff -- to make sure that these guys are prepared to play at a higher level than they have. We haven't done that."
Anyone who stayed up and watched Anaheim's 4-2 loss to the visiting Dallas Stars on Wednesday night saw a tale of two games. The Stars dominated the first half, outshooting the Ducks 16-5 in the opening period and taking a 3-0 lead 8:53 into the second.
But the Ducks came charging back, with shuffled forward lines courtesy of Carlyle, and nearly tied it late before Steve Ott sealed it for Dallas with an empty-netter. If you're the Ducks, you can look at the glass half full and know you outplayed the Stars in the third period.
"I'm not looking at it as half full, I'm looking at losing a game 5-0 to St. Louis and we're down 3-0 last night -- that's five periods of hockey in our building," said Carlyle. "That's unacceptable."
The Ducks were my upset pick to finish first in the Western Conference this season. Right now, they're 13th at 3-4-1 and not looking at all like a contender. The numbers are ugly: 25th in goals per game, 20th in goals against, 25th on the power play, 24th on the penalty kill.
There's plenty of blame to go around. Anaheim's No. 1 center, Ryan Getzlaf, has only four points (1-3) in eight games, although he was dynamite in the final 30 minutes Wednesday, a one-man wrecking crew trying desperately to produce the tying goal. The No. 2 center, Saku Koivu, the team's biggest offseason acquisition, has only two points (1-1) in eight games.
"Saku has demonstrated as much will as any one of our players and hasn't been rewarded for it," said Carlyle. "He's had numerous scoring chances and can't find the back of the net. He's got one goal at this point and that's been frustrating for him because he puts so much pressure on himself to perform. With him and [Teemu] Selanne, they still try to do too much as a pair."
Perhaps that's the most surprising element of Anaheim's early struggles -- that the longtime Finnish international linemates have yet to find their magic together. The Ducks' second line became a bit more effective Wednesday once Carlyle put Bobby Ryan alongside Selanne and Koivu. Joffrey Lupul was bumped up to the top line with Getzlaf and Corey Perry, and that trio also played better in the third period.
"We worked harder and we executed to a higher level and we played more desperation," Carlyle said of his top two lines after the changes. "But you don't win in the National Hockey League playing 20 minutes of hockey. Teams are too good."
The Ducks have two No. 1 goalies in net, a rare commodity in the salary-cap NHL. Jonas Hiller's 2.74 goals-against average is 18th among NHL goalies who have appeared in three or more games, while Jean-Sebastien Giguere is lower down the list at 3.06. Before the season, Carlyle said he would let both netminders fight it out for the No. 1 job, but at this point, you can't really say either one has earned it.
"No, no one's grabbed it," said Carlyle. "They've been equally as inconsistent as the rest of our hockey club."
Which, in the end, starts with the coach. Carlyle headed to practice Thursday intent on the coaching staff finding a new message.
"I can't go to the rink today and get mad at everybody," he said. "We have to accept responsibility and find ways, different ways, to sell what we're selling right now, and we'll do that."
Pierre LeBrun
