ANAHEIM — So what are they going to do? And when are they going to do it?
The season may be under way for the rest of the Ducks, but Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are still in limbo, not in action.
Niedermayer, the captain and playoff MVP of last year’s Stanley Cup champions, and Selanne — who led the team in scoring in the regular season, and tied for second during its playoff run — were back in the Honda Center Wednesday night as the Ducks raised their Stanley Cup championship banner prior to their home opener with Boston.
But both were in street clothes, since they continue to consider retirement. And consider. And consider.
A sellout crowd did its best to nudge them back to action, chanting “One More Year� when they were introduced and at a couple of other points during the banner ceremony.
“I knew the crowd would do that,� said coach Randy Carlyle. “That’s good. Put a little pressure on them.�
Did he join in? “No,� he said, and laughed. (Which in itself qualifies as a stop-the-headline moment.)
Niedermayer called the chant “pretty convincing� — which is not to say he immediately announced plans to return. Or that he’s likely to do so any time soon. If he’s close to any kind of decision, he’s still not tipping his hand what it might be.
He did say, though, that he was probably closer to that decision this summer — when he told general manager Brian Burke he was leaning toward retirement, prompting the signing of Mathieu Schneider — than he is now. He has a deadline date in mind (“I probably won’t share that,� he said), but has no particular expectation that he’s going to wake up one morning and suddenly know for sure what to do.
“I don’t think it will ever be like that,� he said. “Some people say it might, that one day an answer’s going to come to you, that that’s the right answer. But I think the situation that I’m in, at this point in my career with everything that’s gone on, I don’t know if I can see that happening.�
Ultimately, his decision may hinge on — or at least be influenced by — how well the Ducks do without him.
“There’s no doubt I feel a responsibility to the guys in the room,� he said. When the team struggles, he said, “I feel I should be out there, helping any way I can. That’s been my mentality as long as I’ve been playing hockey. It’s sort of hard to turn that off.�
Selanne sounded less conflicted, but no less non-committal.
“I think it has been so easy,� he said of his new status as a non-player, “because I haven’t been around this place with the fans and this game that much. But of course, when Scotty and I were on the ice, I was getting goose bumps … It was very exciting.
“I know I’m going to get to be around more, and get the feeling if I want to do it again. … Let’s see what happens.�
As much as Selanne had enjoyed the last two years in Anaheim, he also knows how much work went into playing as well as he did, and he still needs to convince himself he’s willing to make the commitment to continue to work that hard.
“In this game, this game, at this level,� he said, “you have to be so motivated and so hungry about going out there and doing your best. I’m going to be honest with myself. If I don’t have that feeling, there’s no reason to come back.�
Predictable, but not fatal: Given that half-hour ceremony, it was no big surprise when the Ducks needed just 65 seconds to get into a 1-0 hole against the Bruins.
“It’s always difficult when you have a half-hour ceremony that’s not part of your normal preparation,� said Carlyle. “And we knew that. … But it’s a lot tougher to live than to just alleviate through conversation. I thought we showed a tremendous amount of resiliency when the first shot went in.�
Said Ryan Getzlaf, who scored one goal and assisted on the other in the Ducks’ 2-1 win, “They came out skating a little bit and we weren’t really prepared. … I think we played pretty well the rest of the night. We made good decisions with the puck, and got everybody skating the way we needed to.�
Defenseman Francois Beauchemin, who scored the game-winner, said, “The first five minutes were kind of tough, but after that we got our game going and we did the little things to win.�
One fancy dog dish: Every member of a Stanley Cup championship team gets a day with the Stanley Cup to spend as he wishes, and the Ducks’ media relations department compiled a list of what players did during those days.
That list noted that Jean-Sebastien Giguere’s dog, Henri, “was allowed to have his dinner out of the Cup, after which the Cup was thoroughly scrubbed so that people could drink out of it.�
Giguere was asked about this Wednesday, as it was suggested that Henri must be a fairly big dog. After all, the Cup is 35 ¼ inches tall.
“Well, he’s a Lab,� said Giguere, “but yeah, I made it possible for him to eat out of there.
“It was great,� he said, laughing. “… He’s just an eater. He wants to eat, and he couldn’t believe it. He was drooling. I didn’t tell anybody else that.�
Giguere said he’d always known he’d want to feed Henri from the Cup if he had the opportunity.
“There was no question about it. I think if you have kids, you’ve got to eat your cereal with your kids and all that. My kid’s a little too young� — his son, Maxime, is six months old — “so I’ll feed my dog.�