DALLAS — One day after getting caught with an illegal stick, Teemu Selanne sought to take ownership for the misdeed that played a key part in the Ducks' 3-2 shootout loss to the San Jose Sharks.
"I should have known better than that," Selanne said Thursday. "It was my fault. I should have been smarter than that."
The blade of Selanne's stick was judged to be wider than the maximum three inches allowed. Selanne said he began to use a wider blade years ago because of what he considered to be poor ice conditions across the league.
When asked if he would have used the same stick in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Selanne acknowledged that he would have if he hadn't been caught.
Instead, the Ducks' star winger spent the morning shaving down his blade.
"I decided to use a little larger blade so I can receive some passes better," said Selanne, who leads the Ducks with 45 goals and 91 points. "It was getting harder to do that because the ice was getting worse" around the league.
On Wednesday night, the Ducks, needing two points to pull closer to their first Pacific Division title, would have had a four-on-three power play to start overtime but that advantage disappeared when San Jose Coach Ron Wilson made his successful challenge after regulation ended.
Afterward, Selanne joked that Wilson "wasn't my favorite coach anymore." Selanne played under Wilson twice, as a member of the early Ducks and later with the Sharks.
If the Ducks had won, they would have eliminated the Sharks and put more pressure on the Dallas Stars. But Selanne said he doesn't think the incident will come back to haunt them.
"No, I'm not worried about that," Selanne said. "We still control our fate. We can win one of our next two games."
Indeed, the Ducks got some help from Columbus on Thursday as the Blue Jackets defeated Dallas in overtime.
A victory tonight in Dallas would clinch the division.
Selanne has a theory on how Wilson knew the stick was illegal. After a game in San Jose last month, Selanne was asked to sign one of his sticks, to be given to Wilson for coaching his 1,000th game in the NHL.
After Wednesday's game, Wilson professed that he had an "inkling" during the game but Selanne suggested he knew well before.
"He had to know," Selanne said. "He had my stick. Obviously, he knew it was too wide."
