WESTERN CONFERENCE Mighty Ducks, Wild hurting for goals

Last season's playoff sensations are off to slow starts.
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Darlings of the Stanley Cup playoffs four months ago, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Minnesota Wild are learning that past accomplishments are worth about as much as a used puck.
After coming within a game of winning the Cup, the Ducks have scored a total of two goals while losing their first three games and are the only Western Conference team without a win.
The Wild, which advanced to the conference finals by upsetting the Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks, lost two of its first three games without top scorers Marian Gaborik and Pascal Dupuis, who are involved in contract disputes.
The Wild also is without its third-leading scorer, Cliff Ronning, an unrestricted free agent the club chose not to sign.
It's early, of course, but the Wild will be hard-pressed to duplicate last year's success without Gaborik and Dupuis; they combined for 50 of the 198 goals the defensive-minded Wild produced.
Revised lineup
The Ducks, meanwhile, are playing without Paul Kariya for the first time in 10 years and have looked discombobulated on offense despite the presence of free-agent signees Sergei Fedorov and Vinny Prospal. They've been especially inept on the power play, failing to score on 12 of 13 man advantages.
"We had training camp and you're supposed to have your team prepared, and we haven't played like we're prepared in three nights," second-year Ducks coach Mike Babcock told reporters. "Our general manager [Bryan Murray] did a real good job in the offseason to acquire a group of players, and here we are in this situation.
"We have to respond, as a coaching staff and as players. I'm not putting this on the players, because obviously this is my job, but the reality is, 'Wake up, fellas.' The year has started."
At least goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere appears to be rounding into form after a poor effort in an opening-night loss in Dallas. Giguere, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs, stopped 26 of 27 shots in the Ducks' most recent outing, a 2-0 loss to Phoenix that included an empty-net goal.
"We've already addressed it, and I think the leadership in this room is even better than we had last year," Giguere said of the Ducks' lackluster play. "We have a lot of guys who are not afraid to talk, a lot of guys who are willing to talk. It's all there. We know about it. We just have to do it."
It looks like the Wild will be without Gaborik and Dupuis, both restricted free agents, for a while.
Gaborik, who led Minnesota with 30 goals and is one of the NHL's best young forwards, has been at his home in Slovakia since the summer and, once he's signed, would need to practice with the team for at least two weeks before playing, according to assistant GM Tom Lynn.