ANAHEIM — He’s baacck.
Teemu Selanne may have rejoined the Ducks in late January, but it was only in the last week that he really returned to being, well, Teemu Selanne.
The 37-year-old right wing from Finland capped a five-goal week by collecting five points — on his 20th career hat trick plus two assists — in Sunday’s 6-3 win over Chicago.
That earned him NHL’s “First Star of the Week� honors, moved him past Rocket Richard into 25th on the all-time list with 546 goals — and announced that Selanne has, in fact, regained the form that has made him the franchise leader in career scoring.
“I knew there’s a little price to pay when you take so much time off,� said Selanne. “I think the first couple weeks it was very important to try to get the timing and everything.
“But obviously, this was a good confidence boost. In the last two or three games, I’ve had some really good chances, so it was good to see those pucks going in.�
Said coach Randy Carlyle, “Those were goal scorer’s goals. … I thought he was pretty dynamic, him and (left wing Chris Kunitz), and credit (center Andrew) Ebbett for getting them the puck in the right situations.�
For the time being, at least, that’s Selanne’s new line combination. During most of the previous two seasons, he played with Kunitz and Andy McDonald, but McDonald was traded away in the deal bringing Doug Weight to Anaheim. And with centers Weight and Ryan Carter both on the injured list, it’s Ebbett — who was playing just his second NHL game Sunday — who finds himself centering the two wingers who are very comfortable with each other.
“We have a little bit of chemistry from years past,� said Kunitz, “and it looks like we kind of built it back a little bit here with Andrew Ebbett in the middle.�
Kunitz says he’s not particularly surprised to see what Selanne is doing, despite his advanced age by NHL standards and his long layoff while he considered retirement.
“He’s always a physical kind of specimen,� Kunitz said. “He works out hard and is trim and in shape. I didn’t think that was a factor. It’s just making sure the desire’s there in place.
“When he made that decision to come back� — which indicated the desire still existed — “we knew he was going to be as good as before. It would probably take a couple weeks to get his game legs back, but after that, we knew he was going to be good for us.�
Selanne did indeed need some time to regain the level of conditioning you can only achieve by playing games.
“The last week or so, I’ve been feeling great,� Selanne said. “My legs are back, my body’s back, it’s just fun to skate. Every stride is enjoyable. … The first couple weeks, (my legs were) quite heavy. I really had to grind for every stride.�
As a veteran, Selanne certainly appreciated the situation the Ducks faced Sunday: With their next game not until Friday, the team had an opportunity to make its life easier or more difficult, depending on the result.
“If you were to lose this, knowing Randy Carlyle, it would be a miserable week, I can tell you that,� said Selanne, laughing. “He gave us a little promise that if we win, we’re going to have (Monday and today) off. So I knew we were going to win this game. … Oh, God, this is big for us.� He and his audience both laughed.
The often-dour Carlyle — who was a teammate of Selanne in Winnipeg during the Finnish player’s rookie season and Carlyle’s last year — confirmed the carrot-and-stick approach.
“Not often do you get an opportunity at this time of year to have a couple of days off. So we put on the board that if two points are what we get … we don’t have to come back to practice until Wednesday.
“That seemed to stimulate some energy,� Carlyle said, smiling, “specifically out of Teemu Selanne.�
Deadline day: Sunday’s game was the last activity for the Ducks before today’s noon PDT trade deadline. And while a rumored deal for Toronto’s Mats Sundin seems unlikely after the Maple Leaf captain said he would not waive his no-trade clause, the Ducks still have sufficient cap room to make a deal if they wish.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of rumors going on about a lot of great players,� said Selanne, “so it’s going to be really interesting about what happens at the deadline.
“Let’s see what happens. Those are things you can’t really control, but I think it’s going to be very exciting. There might be more trades than we think, but who knows.�
Then again, with the return of both Scott Niedermayer and Selanne, the Ducks have likely done more than any deadline deal could bring.
“You never know what’s going to happen,� noted Todd Bertuzzi. “I think going into it, you’ve got to see what you’ve got first. And if it’s going well, some guys don’t tinker, but some guys do. We’ll see what happens.�
Right now, with nine wins in their last 10 games, things are clearly going pretty well for the Ducks.
“We weren’t playing well defensively,� said Bertuzzi. “Scotty came back, and we started playing well defensively. Then we needed a couple more goals, and Teemu came back and provided them.�

If you were surprised when the Kings recalled goaltender Dan Cloutier from the minor leagues, well, you’re not alone.
Cloutier didn’t see it coming, either.
“I was extremely surprised,� Cloutier said Monday, after the pregame skate for the Kings’ game with Phoenix. “I certainly wasn’t called up for my performance, because I wasn’t playing.�
Cloutier played just 14 games in Manchester, going 4-9-0 with a 3.50 goals against average and .869 saves percentage — numbers that don’t exactly scream for promotion. He was idle for more than two months because of what he calls, rather dryly, “a mysterious hip injury.�
Explains the goalie, who missed 44 games last year with a hip injury that required surgery, “The rotator in my hip, the soft tissue, was inflamed, and I got a cortisone shot. And the doctor had told me to take three or four days and let it settle down, and then get back to practicing.
“And after that, for some reason, the organization felt it was better I take six to eight weeks for whatever reason. I was pretty upset and disappointed
“I wasn’t the happiest camper after I heard that, but did what I was told, worked hard. And we were getting ready to go on a 12, 13-day road trip. I’d worked hard for three weeks and then came to the rink and they told me I wasn’t going on the road. I was pretty upset again; I’m a pretty emotional guy.�
And so, for two weeks, he stayed in Manchester, skating for 45 minutes a day with teammate Joe Piskula, who was recovering from a broken hand and “couldn’t really shoot,� Cloutier said.
“I kind of lost that two weeks, but came back and played one, played two and then I was up here again. So who knows?�
In those two games,
So I stayed at home for two weeks, then came back and played two games and got called up.�
In those two games, Cloutier stopped 13 of 16 shots in a 3-2 loss to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, then saved 20 of 24 shots in a 5-4 win over Milwaukee. Three days after the win, on Feb. 7, he was recalled to the Kings.
Before those games, he said he’d figured he’d never be called up again.
“I know they have to play the young guys, too,� said Cloutier. “It’s a young guys’ league, but I didn’t know what was going to happen
And then Hexy (Kings assistant GM Ron Hextall) called me: ‘Yeah, we’re calling you up.’ I was (thinking), ‘Who’s hurt? What’s going on?’ �
It wasn’t the first time Cloutier had been baffled. He said that, after his initial disappointment at being sent down at the start of the season, he was enthused about the chance, because the Kings told him he’d have the opportunity to play every day to regain his form.
“Then I had a good attitude going down there, that this is great for me, you know?� Cloutier said. “Obviously upset at first, but then you realize, I do need it.�
But as time went on and he saw little action, he became upset, and admits he “kind of got into it a little with the coach down there (Mark Morris). And he’s like, ‘No, it’s coming from upstairs.’ And what can you do?�
What he did was hang in, and now he hopes to take advantage of the unexpected opportunity with the Kings. He has nothing but good things to say about the way the Kings have allowed him to gradually reacclimate himself by watching a couple of games and getting some practices in before he started — and won — at Columbus. He started again Saturday at Phoenix but had to leave after two periods with the flu, giving him a 1-0 record and 2.86 goals-against since his return.
“So it’s been a really funny type of last couple months,� said Cloutier. “But that’s hockey for you. You never know what could happen. Now I’m up here and stay in the now, and don’t look at the past or the future, and see what happens.�
Probably staying put: It appears increasingly unlikely that defenseman Rob Blake, the subject of much trade speculation, will be going anywhere at next week’s deadline.
Blake, currently sidelined with a broken left ankle, said Monday he has not been asked to waive his no-trade clause and doesn’t have any desire to do so.
“I went in and expressed my opinion about staying here,� said Blake. “It’s the same as I had two years ago when I came here, and that’s how it was left.�
Blake also says he wants to play at least one more year, in L.A., having been encouraged by the way he rebounded from a hip injury earlier in the season.
“A quarter of the way into the season, I could tell it was coming around a little more where I wanted to be. I had a little setback with the broken foot; there’s nothing you can do about that. But as far as feeling on the ice, I would like to play another year, for sure.�
Blake says he’s still a week or two away from returning. “It’s two weeks into a fracture,� he said. “I played on it there for a while. It doesn’t really heal when you’re doing that. We didn’t know it was fractured; it felt more like a bruise, but when it didn’t get better, I knew something else was wrong.
“I’ll probably skate next week. … I can do all the other stuff. It’s when it gets in the boot and you twist a little bit (that remains the issue).�
The Manchester shuttle: In the Kings’ latest transaction, forward Brian Boyle (four goals, one assist and a plus-4 in eight games) was returned to Manchester on Saturday to make room for right wing Lauri Tukonen, who becomes the 14th player to see action in both Manchester and L.A. this season. Tukonen, a 21-year-old from Finland who was a first-round pick in the 2004 draft, had six goals and 13 assists in 38 games in Manchester and was minus-1 at the time of his recall. He had no points in four games with the Kings last year.
Coach Marc Crawford said the move was mostly about getting “a chance to see all our prospects.
“Brian played well. He’s quite obviously a guy that looks like he’s going to be a very good player at the National Hockey League level, and I think this is just part of the growing process for him, to go down there and now try and help a team to win. You’re put in more prominent situations down there. He’ll be on every power play, maybe get a chance to kill penalties and be a dominant player. We’ve been quite pleased with his progress. It’s quite possible he’ll be back before too long.
“In the interim, we get a chance to see Lauri Tukonen, who’s been playing very well of late. I talked to Mark Morris, and he said over the last couple weeks, he’s been playing great hockey. So hopefully it’s a case where he comes in and looks as relaxed as some of these other guys who have come up and shown to be.�

Dan Cloutier’s victory Sunday at Columbus — positive as it may have been — underscored one of the reasons the Kings are where they are this season: They’ve made some truly regrettable contract decisions.
The next time you hear a Kings fan complain the team doesn’t spend money, correct them. The team spent more than $17 million on free-agent signings last off-season.
Spending money and spending it well are, of course, two different things.
Cloutier wasn’t a free-agent acquisition, but he still underlines that point quite well. Coming off injuries, and before he’d done anything with the Kings, the team signed him to a two-year, $6.2 million contract extension. He went on to post a 6-14 record last year — a season defined by injuries and poor play — while earning $2.55 million under his prior contract, which means Thursday’s win was the team’s first return on that $6.2 million investment.
Unless Cloutier suddenly elevates his game to become a No. 1 goalie, or a team takes him off the Kings’ hands at the trade deadline, he’ll remain the worst of general manager Dean Lombardi’s contract decisions. (That hope for a trade may well be one reason Cloutier has been brought back, given that he was just 4-9 with a 3.50 goals-against with minor-league Manchester).
But with the Feb. 26 trade deadline looming, this might be a good time to assess last summer’s signings, if only to see which contracts the Kings would be happiest to shed.
Here, then, is the free-agent class of 2007, in order of their 2007-08 salary:

Center Michael Handzus, signed to a four-year, $16 million contract.
Career stats at time of signing: 517 games, 115 goals, 185 assists, 300 points; 0.58 points per game.
Average year (eight seasons): 65 games, 14 goals, 23 assists, 37 points, plus 8.
Last season (with Chicago); Eight games, 3 goals, 5 assists, eight points, plus 4. (Sidelined after suffering knee injury in October.)
This season: 58 games, five goals, 11 assists, 16 points, 0.28 points per game, minus-17.
Comment: Second on the team in salary, 13th in scoring, and the second-worst plus-minus. You’d have to say this one is a disaster — particularly since, given those three years remaining on the contract, there’s almost no chance of moving him in a trade.

Left wing Ladislav Nagy, signed to a one-year, $3.75 million contract.
Career stats at time of signing: 397 games, 106 goals, 179 assists, 285 points, 0.72 points per game, plus-37.
Average year (six seasons*): 66 games, 18 goals, 20 assists, 48 points, plus six.
Last season (Phoenix/Dallas): 80 games, 12 goals, 43 points, 55 assists, 0.69 points per game, minus-5.
This season: 38 games, nine goals, 17 assists, 26 points, 0.68 points per game, minus-2. Currently on injured reserve.
Comments: When he’s in the lineup, his production is basically in line with his career figures. The problem is the “in the lineup� part, which should be no big surprise: Two of his previous three NHL seasons, he played 55 games or less, and generally has not been considered the player he was before suffering a knee injury in 2005-06. If he gets healthy, someone might take a chance on him at the deadline, since there’s little contract risk.

Defenseman Brad Stuart, signed to a one-year, $3.5 million contract.
Career stats at time of signing: 507 games, 53 goals, 153 assists, 206 points, 0.41 points per game, plus-11.
Average year (seven seasons): 72 games, 8 goals, 22 assists, 30 points, plus 2.
Last season (Boston-Calgary): 75 games, 7 goals, 15 assists, 22 points, 0.29 points per game, minus-10.
This season: 57 games, 5 goals, 12 assists, 17 points, 0.30 points per game, minus-11.
Comments: You’d have to say he’s been exactly the player the Kings should have expected; the minus-11 ties him for the third-best mark among the seven defensemen who have played at least games. Not sure that justifies the fourth-highest paycheck on the team, though.

Left wing Kyle Calder, signed to a two-year, $5.5 million contract.
Career stats at time of signing: 437 games, 99 goals, 146 assists, 245 points, 0.56 points per game, minus-52.
Average year (six seasons): 73 games, 17 goals, 24 assists, 41 points, minus-8.
Last season (Philadelphia/Detroit): 78 games, 14 goals, 21 assists, 35 points, 0.45 points per game, minus-25.
This season: 50 games, 7 goals, 10 assists, 17 points, 0.34 points per game, minus-9.
Comments: The numbers aren’t impressive, but he’s probably the player least served by raw stats; for much of the season, those who watch the Kings on a regular basis have considered him the most effective of the free-agent signings. The kind of role player who might be attractive to fill a need on a contending team, although he does have a year to go on his contract.

Defenseman Tom Preissing, signed to a four-year, $11 million contract.
Career stats at time of signing: 223 games, 20 goals, 80 assists, 100 points, 0.45 points per game, plus-65.
Average year (three seasons): 74 games, 7 goals, 27 assists, 34 points, plus-22.
Last season (Ottawa): 80 games, 7 goals, 31 assists, 38 points, 0.48 points per game, plus-18.
This season: 53 games, 5 goals, 12 assists, 17 points, 0.32 points per game, minus-5.
Comments: Second-best plus-minus among defensemen (Jaroslav Modry, minus-2, is first). A solid defensive defensemen; a friend of mine who was a Division I college defenseman noted earlier this year that Preissing is a pleasure to watch because he’s always in the right position. A solid pickup.

Goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin, signed to a one-year, $525,000 contract.
Career at time of signing: 199 games, 75 wins, 77 losses, 11 ties, 4 overtime losses, 2.91 goals against.
Average year (eight seasons) 25 games, 9-10-2.
Last season (Toronto): 20 games, 3-5-2, 3.43.
This year: 19 games, 5-6-1, 3.19.
Comments: No one expected much, and that’s pretty much what he delivered. Back in the minors, at least for now.

If you wanted to grade them, you’d probably say the Calder and Preissing signings were positive, Handzus and Nagy haven’t been, and Stuart and Aubin are, well, neutral. It should be interesting to see if any of them draw interest at the deadline.