Perry likely to be out six weeks

Teemu Selanne slid an index finger along one of his skate blades Friday afternoon, illustrating one of hockey's biggest hazards.

"It's like a knife, you know, it's so sharp," the Ducks forward said. "If that slices the skin, you get bad damage."

The Ducks were reminded of the danger of the sport when news broke that Corey Perry, their leading goal scorer, will be lost for the remainder of the regular season because of a partially severed tendon in his right quadriceps muscle.

Perry is expected to be out for six weeks after undergoing surgery late Thursday night at Denver's Rose Medical Center to repair the tendon, which was inadvertently cut by the skate of Colorado goaltender Jose Theodore midway through the third period of the Ducks' 1-0 loss to the Avalanche.

"Corey is doing well this morning, thanks to both clubs' medical staffs," General Manager Brian Burke said Friday. "His injury is not career-threatening, and we expect him back 100% in approximately six weeks."

Avalanche team physician Andy Parker performed the surgery, and Perry is scheduled to be released this morning and return to Anaheim. Based on the timetable, Perry could be back for the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, if the defending champions get that far.

Ducks trainer Tim Clark, who attended to Perry when the winger left the ice, said that the tendon was "70 to 75% torn."

"If it became 100%, then you're taking significant time loss," Clark said. "You're talking months and months. We got lucky by 20 or 25%."

Clark said the cut was circular in nature and "probably three inches in diameter."

"He had an inch-long cut in his sock," he said. "When we took everything off, it was a lot bigger than we thought it was. It was very, very deep."

According to several reports, Perry was sliced by Theodore as he went to the net and the goalie's skate was in the air as he sprawled on the ice while trying to secure a loose puck during a scramble.

"As soon as he came to the bench, you can see the sock was cut and [Corey] was holding his leg and he said, 'There's something wrong, there's something wrong, there's a cut here," Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. "So we just cleared the bench and let him go and let our medical staff look after him.

"It's a credit to the people in Denver and the doctors and whatnot that they got it under control and put everything in perspective right away."