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.�