Sport-scan daily brief

4. Corey Perry

No matter what he does from now on, Perry will always have his magical 2010-11 season where he put up 50 goals and 98 points in winning the Hart Trophy and becoming the first Ducks player to be selected as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player. But he’s been an elite right wing for a while, topping 30 goals two other times and averaging 35 over a five-season span from 2007-08 to 2011-12. That production got him an eight-year, $69-million contract extension.

5. Ryan Getzlaf

Now entrenched as the Ducks’ captain, Getzlaf is building his legacy after signing his own eight-year contract extension. The big center is already third on the club’s scoring list and responded to a poor 2011-12 campaign with one of his best – 15 goals, 34 assists in 44 games during the lockout-shortened 2012-13. Perry’s MVP campaign doesn’t happen if one of the NHL’s top playmakers isn’t getting him the puck.

6. Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Simply put, the Mighty Ducks’ inspirational 2003 run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final does not happen without Giguere. He became the fifth player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ MVP as part of the losing team. Four years later, “Jiggy” captured the Cup. He holds franchise goalie marks for victories (206), shutouts (32) and starts (431) while recording a more-than-credible 2.47 goals-against average.

7. Chris Pronger

Pronger is destined for the Hockey Hall of Fame and it’s a shame his career is effectively over because of post-concussion syndrome. He’s probably too far down on this list only because he played in just three seasons with the Ducks. But he was exactly what they needed in 2007, bringing elite-level talent and a mean streak to a team that was already on the rise. The star defenseman was the final piece to the 2007 Cup team.

8. Bobby Ryan

He’s in Ottawa now and played just five-plus years in a Ducks uniform, but the No. 2 pick in the 2005 draft scored 30 or more goals in four seasons. Few have provided more highlight-reel moments than the often-exciting Ryan. One of the most memorable Ducks’ playoff goals was by Ryan against Nashville in the 2011 playoffs. No player other than Selanne oozed more personality in recent years than the second No. 9.

9. Steve Rucchin

There’s no question that Rucchin benefitted from having Paul Kariya on his left side and Teemu Selanne on his right, but the popular center often did the dirty work and got the puck to his high-profile teammates, who could focus on scoring. And lest we forget that it was his overtime goal to cap a stunning first-round sweep of Detroit to start the magical 2003 playoff run.

10. Andy McDonald

The undrafted free agent out of Colgate battled concussion issues and missed the 2003 playoff run because of them but the speedy center formed a formidable partnership with a rejuvenated Teemu Selanne, putting up career highs of 34 goals and 85 points in 2005-06 and winning the Cup the next season. Longtime fans still lament former GM Brian Burke trading him to St. Louis for Doug Weight.

11. Francois Beauchemin

Beauchemin first endeared himself to Ducks fans with his TKO of Calgary’s Jarome Iginla in the 2006 playoffs, which proved to be the emotional turn in a first-round series they would win in seven games. Since then, he has left and returned to Anaheim, becoming the hard-hitting, minutes-eating bedrock of their defense corps and a player that could succeed without Scott Niedermayer.

12. Guy Hebert

The first player selected by the Mighty Ducks in the 1993 expansion draft, Hebert would have a losing record during his tenure. But he’s second in club history with 173 wins and 27 shutouts. He was the Ducks’ starting goalie for their first seven seasons, gave often-thin rosters a chance to win on many nights and backstopped them to the 1997 and 1999 playoffs.

13. Oleg Tverdovsky

Tverdovsky only played four-plus seasons over two stints in Anaheim and was the key piece to bring Selanne to Southern California. But the smooth-skating Ukrainian was undeniably talented and recorded back-to-back 50-point seasons with the Mighty Ducks in 1999-00 and 2000-01. He would win two Stanley Cups in New Jersey – against the Ducks – and Carolina.

14. Ruslan Salei

Salei was taken ninth overall in the 1996 draft and played the first nine of his 14 NHL seasons in Anaheim, becoming a rough-and-tumble cornerstone of the Mighty Ducks’ defense corps. His 594 games are still most for a defenseman in franchise history. Tragedy struck the affable “Rusty” in 2011 when he perished with 42 others in a plane crash that killed all but one player on the KHL’s Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team.

15. Samuel Pahlsson

Quiet and as unassuming a player in the franchise’s history, Pahlsson lined up against the opponent’s top centers for eight seasons in a Ducks sweater and often had success in stopping them. The tough Swede was at his peak in 2006-07 when he was a finalist for the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward and centered a feared shutdown line with Travis Moen and Rob Niedermayer in the club’s Stanley Cup run.

16. Jonas Hiller

The talented Hiller was so thought of by then-GM Brian Burke that he essentially gave up equally-talented goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. Hiller grabbed the starting job from Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2009 and starred in a first-round upset of top-seeded San Jose. He’s won 30 games once and 133 games for the Ducks in his six seasons, even with a mysterious case of vertigo that wrecked a potentially stellar 2010-11 season.

17. Chris Kunitz

Looking back, Bob Murray’s trade of Kunitz to Pittsburgh for defenseman Ryan Whitney rates as one of his worst moves. But we’ll just look at what the Ferris State product did for the Ducks, which was develop into a two-time, 20-goal scorer and key contributor in their 2005-08 heyday. The gritty left wing has topped 20 goals three more times with the Penguins and won a second Stanley Cup in 2009.

18. Fredrik Olausson

You have to be highly thought of in some way if you’re acquired by the same team three times. That is just what the Mighty Ducks did with Olausson, who returned the admiration with production and a healthy level of calm from the blue line. He had 16 goals and 56 points for the Ducks’ 1998-99 playoff squad. And 1,022 NHL games is nothing to sneeze at.

19. Matt Cullen

Cullen has forged a nice NHL career that’s going into its 17th year. Are there many that remember that the former St. Cloud State standout played his first six seasons with Anaheim? He was one of the better players for the Mighty Ducks during some lean years and missed out on their 2003 playoff run, becoming the key piece that landed defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh from Florida. Cullen got his Cup three years later with Carolina.

20. Petr Sykora/George Parros

Sykora only played in two full seasons with the Mighty Ducks and half of a third but his 34-goal, 59-point season in 2002-03 won’t be forgotten. Nor will his winning fifth-overtime Game 1 goal against Dallas in the second round. Parros never racked up many points but he had many victories in becoming one of the NHL’s top enforcers. The Mustachioed One remains one of the most popular players in the Ducks’ history.

Orange County Register: LOADED: 10.06.2013

719672 Anaheim Ducks

Kariya leaves hole in the Ducks' scrapbook

By MARK WHICKER

2013-10-05 18:04:19

You didn’t go see the Mighty Ducks. You went to see Paul Kariya.

He kept the building full when the novelty disappeared. He gave the Ducks points when games seemed pointless. He was the face of the franchise when no one was using that tiresome phrase, although he was really the legs.

Then came the Cup and the Twins and the Hall of Fame defensemen and the annual playoff trips. Kariya missed all of that.

He retired in 2011, on terms dictated by the elbows of others. He is neither gone nor forgotten, but the essential Duck is now invisible.

Oh, you can catch him at a beach now and then, surfing. The concussions that robbed Kariya of a proper goodbye do not keep him out of the water. Scott Niedermayer joins him sometimes, watches him prepare and practice as if he were facing the Red Wings again.

“He has his little warmup, he works hard out on the water,” Niedermayer said. “For someone who isn’t a lifelong surfer, I would find it hard to believe someone could be better. He loves it. It’s fun to see. He’s having a lot of fun.”

“He reads the books about how to surf, he watches surfing videos,” Teemu Selanne said. “He wants to be as good as he can be. He’s out there every day. And he told me that once I’m done playing, we’ll play golf once a week.”

But Kariya will not ride a wave or a car or any other mode of transportation into Honda Center, and not because of any particular antipathy toward the Ducks, who have changed mightily since he left after the run to Game 7 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Final.

“He’s generous with the kids, and I was there one day when he gave away 10 pairs of skates and some sticks,” Selanne said. “I need to talk to him, find some way to get him back with the Ducks’ family. Obviously he was the No. 1 star here. He has a lot to give to this organization.

“They should retire his number. Absolutely. But he says, no, don’t ever talk to him about that. He’s still a little humble about that, for sure.”

Selanne senses Kariya is “bitter” about the way it all ended, about the fact that Kariya’s head became a piñata, and nobody seemed to care.

In 1997 he got his first concussion, from Montreal’s Mathieu Schneider. In 1998 he was pole-axed by Chicago’s Gary Suter and missed 28 games and the Nagano Olympics, where he would have been Canada’s best shootout weapon against Dominik Hasek.

In 2003 he took a head shot from New Jersey’s Scott Stevens in Game 6 of the Final. Carried off, he skated back and produced the most electric moment in 20 years of Ducks hockey: a massive slapper that zinged past Martin Brodeur.

In 2009, playing for St. Louis, Kariya came out of the penalty box just in time to take an elbow to the head from Buffalo’s Patrick Kaleta.

Suter got a four-game suspension. Stevens and Kaleta were not suspended.

Doctors told Kariya his career was over in the summer of 2011, just as the Ducks, at Selanne’s urging, were trying to sign him.

Kariya suggested at the time that general managers should be fined and coaches suspended over illegal head shots.

“With a concussion, you walk into the dressing room and they say, ‘How are you doing? Are you OK to go tomorrow?’” Kariya said. “It’s totally backward. I’ve had two hip reconstructions and I’ll take that any day over a concussion.”

Niedermayer was on the ice when Stevens caught Kariya.

“The game was good to him but in other ways it was tough on him,” Niedermayer said. “We’re still learning about concussions but we’re much more aware of them now than 20 years ago. I’m sure he was expected to do things that wouldn’t happen today. That day he made a decision to come back. We’re entitled to that, as athletes. Everyone respected that.

“I can understand that he isn’t left with good memories. Hopefully over time he can focus on the good stuff. He told me he’s feeling good. That’s good, right? That’s what you hope for.”

Kariya turns 39 next month. With a clearer head, he could still be playing supersonic hockey with the 42-year-old Selanne, especially with the post-2006 rules against obstruction.

“It was magic when we played together,” said Selanne, who joined Kariya in February of 1996. “We didn’t have to look at each other to know where we were. Every day we practiced different things, and there was always a competition. Who could score more goals? That’s how we got better.

“Expectations were so high. He would make a bad pass and we’d go to the bench and I was just giving it to him so bad. Teammates would say, ‘Holy smokes, what’s he doing?’ He would do the same to me. Not very often can any player have that type of chemistry.”

Kariya scored 11 goals in 47 games his rookie year. The coaching staff told him to go home and work on his shot. “Pound the puck,” assistant coach Tim Army recalled. Kariya pounded the puck all summer. The next year he scored 50.

“What I remember is how he could accept the puck, no dribble or anything, and then buggy-whip it so fast,” said Army, now an assistant in Colorado. “You couldn’t hear the puck hit or leave the stick. Brett Hull could do that. Paul just did it through hard work.”

That’s how he gathered a rolling puck on slushy ice in Phoenix and fired an overtime goal to win Game 6 of the Ducks’ first playoff series, setting up a Game 7 victory.

Kariya skated against the best defenders every night. In ’97 he was plus-36 on a team that went 36-33-13. That was the year he led the NHL with 10 winning goals.

He ended his career with a symmetrical 989 points in 989 games, with 402 goals.

The rafters at Honda Center will never be complete without his No. 9. But first Kariya must emerge from the quiet room.

Orange County Register: LOADED: 10.06.2013

719673 Anaheim Ducks

Ducks win on Perreault's OT goal

By ERIC STEPHENS / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Mathieu Perreault still needs to get to a comfort zone with the Ducks after being with his new team less than a week.

His impact Saturday night will be heartily welcomed by his teammates if there is more of it in store.

Perreault took an entry pass from Francois Beauchemin on a last-ditch shift in overtime and beat Minnesota goalie Niklas Backstrom to give the Ducks a 4-3 victory over the Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

The goal capped a wild sequence during four-on-four play in which Perreault was stopped on an odd-man rush but got another after Jonas Hiller foiled the Wild’s Kyle Brodziak on a two-on-one break up ice.

“Kind of got open there,” Perreault said. “A great pass by Beauch. Found a way to slide it through.”

Perreault didn’t need much time to leave a good impression after the Ducks didn’t give up much to acquire him from Washington on Sunday. The diminutive center also set up Jakob Silfverberg’s second-period goal in an effective night.

“We actually worked on that a little bit last practice,” Perreault said. “I was trying to give him a couple of passes in the slot to one-time it. Just kind of worked out the same way we kind of practiced it.”

The Ducks were far from perfect. They still struggled in their defensive zone and on the penalty kill with Zach Parise and Jason Pominville getting power-play goals to cut into their two-goal leads. Parise also tied it up early in the third.

But it was a far better showing that their opening-night debacle against Colorado. Saku Koivu and Nick Bonino got the Ducks (1-1-0) out to a quick 2-0 lead and Silfverberg made it 3-1 early in the second.

Hiller got his first start of the season and stopped 30 shots.

“We’re not perfect,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We’re not anywhere where we want to be in a week from now even. But as long as we can make positive strides every night, I think we’re sitting in good stead.”

Orange County Register: LOADED: 10.06.2013

719674 Boston Bruins

Power’s on as Bruins beat Red Wings

By Amalie Benjamin / Globe Staff / October 5, 2013

The Bruins spent the preseason working on a new-look power play, an attempt to conquer their man-advantage demons. They placed Zdeno Chara in front of the net, a big body in a big spot, hoping that the potential advantages would outweigh any injury concerns.

So far, the returns are good.

Boston scored twice on the power play Saturday night against the Red Wings, with both Torey Krug and Chara netting goals on the man advantage, as the Bruins beat their new Atlantic Division foe, 4-1, in front of a sellout crowd at TD Garden.

The first goal, scored by Krug worked exactly how Boston envisioned. Chara blocked goalie Jimmy Howard and Krug ripped a shot from the high slot putting the Bruins on the board. They came back again in the third, with Chara doing the honors, collecting a pass from Krug and putting a deke on Howard.

With the Red Wings playing on tired legs — Detroit was playing its third game in four nights and had played in Carolina Friday — they were outshot by the Bruins, 37-26.

Boston added two goals in the second period, one by Brad Marchand and one by Jordan Caron. Marchand scored just 36 seconds into the period, taking the puck down the right side and putting it on net. Caron’s goal made up for the one he should have had Thursday night that was erased by a quick whistle, and the resurgent left winger celebrated accordingly.

Marchand was later knocked down on a blindside hit by Justin Abdelkader that didn’t draw a whistle at 3:25 into the second. Marchand stayed down for a minute before skating off under his own power and heading to the dressing room. He only missed one shift.

Boston Globe LOADED: 10.06.2013

719675 Boston Bruins

Zdeno Chara thriving in his new special teams role

By Fluto Shinzawa

| Globe Staff

October 06, 2013

Jimmy Howard enjoyed five full seasons of practicing with Tomas Holmstrom’s back end just about rubbing his nose. Perhaps Howard’s six-year, $31.75 million contract includes back hazard pay for suffering such punishment.

But practicing against one of the game’s best net-front men was not enough to steel Howard for what he faced Saturday night at TD Garden.

Zdeno Chara, the biggest and strongest man in the NHL, is now the down-low behemoth on the Bruins’ No. 1 power-play unit. On four power plays, Chara staked his claim to the ice in front of Howard. The Detroit goalie had less breathing room than inside a typical Allston apartment.

The power play went 2 for 4 — Chara screened Howard on Torey Krug’s goal in the first, and beat the goalie with a backhander in the third — to lead the Bruins to a 4-1 win.

“It’s not easy when there’s somebody who’s [6 feet 9 inches] standing in front of you,” Howard said. “It’s something you’ve got to figure out and find a way to try and find the puck. It’s extremely difficult with him in front.”

For most of his career, Chara has manned the blue line on the power play. Chara distributes the puck adequately and is also known for owning one of the league’s hardest shots.

But the competition he repeatedly claimed in one of those All-Star Game gimmicks is literally set up for the strongman. The puck lies flat on the ice like a Titleist waiting to be thwacked. Chara leans into his slapper and brings down the hammer on his triple-digit heater.

The next time a situation like that happens in a real game will be the first.

Chara was once asked how he’d prefer his stick, provided cost, technology, or any other variable were no object. Chara answered that his dream stick would put the puck wherever he wanted. In other words, even Chara acknowledged that his aim had the dependability of the Fung Wah bus. Last year, the Bruins hemmed and hawed about using Patrice Bergeron in front because of the danger of Chara’s shot.

The brief down-low glimpses of Chara in Boston and Ottawa showcased a defenseman with a surprisingly slick stick. Of course, Chara can blot out any goalie’s sightlines. But he’s nimble at retrieving pucks. Chara’s strength guarantees him a win in just about every puck race.

“I talked to [David Krejci] about it,” said Krug. “He said, ‘What should I do with the puck?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, just give it to Z, throw it in the corner for him.’ He’s going to win the battle nine out of 10 times.”

Deploying Chara as the net-front man is a setup that’s always intrigued the Bruins. In previous seasons, during six-on-five end-of-game situations, Chara rotated from the point to the front. Chara’s screen on James Reimer in Game 7 against Toronto last season helped Bergeron score the tying goal.

But the Bruins didn’t pull the trigger on the shift until now. They had secondary concerns regarding the pounding Chara would take down low. The position is a magnet for hurtling pucks. Claude Julien needed Chara taking friendly fire like he needed a puck to his own head.

The No. 1 issue, however, was the absence of better point options. The Bruins didn’t think they had a trustworthy point man who could run the power play and hammer pucks on goal.

Until now.

Krug is the No. 5 defenseman. But Krug’s primary job title is power-play quarterback for the first unit. Krug is everything a coach wants in his point man. Krug pushes the pace, sees the ice with panoramic vision, and puts shots on net.

At 9:11 of the first period, after taking a power-play pass from Milan Lucic, Krug had space at the top of circles. With Chara set up in front, Krug gripped and ripped a screamer into the net to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. It was Krug’s first regular-season goal.

In the third, the Bruins went on their fourth power play (Johan Franzen, interference). This time, Krug was on the dishing end. Krug spotted Chara swinging through center ice. Krug snapped the puck onto Chara’s tape. Chara gained the offensive zone and lifted a backhander over Howard at 12:17 to make it a 4-1 game.

During his time in Boston, Julien has never had a PP QB like Krug.

“Zdeno’s on the point because we felt we didn’t have a ton of other options,” Julien explained. “Now we do. You’ve added [Dougie] Hamilton and Krug. The mobility has increased back there. That allows us to move [Chara] to the position where we thought he’d be better suited for us.”

As the point man, Chara going back for a puck was slower than dial up. In a typical first period, by the time Chara had retrieved the puck, the concession stands were shutting off their taps.

Krug, on the other hand, is 4G-fast. Krug sprints back for the puck and races it back into offensive territory. Krug pushes the pace so briskly that penalty killers don’t have time to take a breath, much less execute a quick shift change.

While Krug is retrieving pucks, Chara is serving as the stretch man. Chara’s job is to hang loose at the offensive blue line as a long-distance threat. It is not a taxing task. The training staff could hand Chara a cup of coffee to sip before his grinding begins.

Chara’s real PP work is hard. It’s difficult to joust with defensemen and absorb slashes from goalies. Being the biggest man in the game, though, blunts some of that pain.

Boston Globe LOADED: 10.06.2013

719676 Boston Bruins

Brad Marchand makes his presence felt

By Amalie Benjamin

| Globe Staff

October 06, 2013

Brad Marchand had started slowly. He didn’t have the best training camp, and his line had struggled a bit to find chemistry, as he and Patrice Bergeron worked alongside new right wing Loui Eriksson. But it came together with the winning goal for Marchand in Saturday night’s 4-1 win over the Red Wings.

“I think [Marchand] was much better tonight,” coach Claude Julien said. “We know what he can do, and I think the biggest thing for him was to try and play more of a north-south type of game, and he responded extremely well.

“I saw that a little bit more in him tonight; just kind of stabilized his game a lot more. Before, he seemed to be on the left side one minute and the right side the next; he was a little bit all over, and sometimes when you try too hard it just makes it worse and simple sometimes is better. So I thought he did that tonight and it was nice to see him get a goal because of that.”

Marchand also sustained a serious hit in the game, being taken out by Justin Abdelkader 3:25 into the second period. The Detroit winger came full force at Marchand, who appeared to never see him coming. No penalty was called on the play.

Marchand remained face down on the ice as the trainer came out to take a look. He eventually skated off on his own power, and was helped into the dressing room.