Anaheim Mighty Ducks Hockey Team

The Mighty Ducks essentially owned up to a mistake Tuesday when they traded center Bob Corkum to Philadelphia for prospect Chris Herperger and a seventh-round draft pick in 1997. Corkum, 28, was one of the players the Ducks decided were "keepers" from the 1993 expansion draft after he led the Ducks with 23 goals in their first season. Management thought, if anything, he'd play better.

The Mighty Ducks owned up to a mistake Tuesday when they traded center Bob Corkum to the Philadelphia Flyers for prospect Chris Herperger and a seventh-round draft pick in 1997. Corkum, 28, was one of the players the Ducks decided were "keepers" from the 1993 expansion draft after he had led them with 23 goals in their first season. But he scored only 10 goals in the lockout-shortened season last year and had only five this season. The Ducks moved him to make room in the lineup for J.F.

The Ducks traded Bob Corkum to the Flyers Tuesday for a minor leaguer and a future draft pick, which, bottom line, means the Ducks traded a player who wasn't helping them in '96 for two players who won't help them until '97. This is not the playoff-push blockbuster Duck fans were hoping for, unless this trade leads to a bigger one, and I believe it does. How does "And starting at center for the Mighty Ducks, No. 99, WAYNE GRETZKY" sound to you?

At the first practice, Teemu Selanne smiled and the Mighty Ducks smiled along with him. He laughed, they laughed. He skated like the wind, they skated like the wind. Or tried to, anyway. Right from the start, it was clear something would be different about the Ducks. Selanne would make it so. After all, that's why they put on his shoulders the burden of leading the franchise out of its infancy and into maturity. It's why he was acquired in the Feb. 7 trade with the Winnipeg Jets.

What's Ahead for Holan Doctors discovered Mighty Duck defenseman Milos Holan's leukemia after an abnormal blood test in September. Holan has a form of the disease that, without a bone-marrow transplant, would eventually be fatal. Marrow, the soft, fatty tissue found in bone cavities, is the body's "blood factory." A look at how his treatment is expected to progress. * Feb.

The most extraordinary thing about Milos Holan's moment of high drama Wednesday morning was how ordinary it seemed when it arrived. At about 4 a.m., in a quiet hospital room at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, a nurse started the transfusion of about a liter of bone marrow--the gift of an anonymous donor--into a catheter implanted in Holan's chest.

The extraordinary thing about Milos Holan's moment of high drama Wednesday morning was how ordinary it seemed when it arrived. At about 4 a.m., in a quiet hospital room at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, a nurse started the transfusion of about a liter of bone marrow--the gift of an anonymous donor--into a catheter in Holan's chest.

He was everywhere and yet nowhere, foiling the Montreal Canadiens at every turn. They simply couldn't get a handle on stopping him. Paul Kariya? Teemu Selanne? Yes, but no. The Mighty Duck in question was Todd Krygier, whose strong game produced a rather easy-looking 5-2 victory over Montreal Wednesday at the Pond. It's easy to overlook Krygier, particularly with Kariya and Selanne wrecking havoc at every turn.

For Milos Holan, the hope is stronger than the fear. "I have to do it," he said with a smile as he and his wife, Irena, snuggled and joked and greeted friends and well-wishers at the Mighty Ducks' game Wednesday. "I'm not excited. It's real hard. I know what I'm going to go through." Holan will enter the hospital Monday to begin a six-day regimen of radiation and chemotherapy to rid his body of disease in preparation for his Feb. 20 bone marrow transplant.

The loose puck was there for the taking, so Teemu Selanne pounced on it, turned in a flash, sped around an opposing defenseman and fed a perfect pass to Paul Kariya, who slammed the puck into the back of the net. Suddenly, the silent Nassau Coliseum erupted in shouts and whistles of approval Friday afternoon. Moments later, Selanne unleashed a blistering slap shot from the top of the left circle that hit nothing but net. More cries of "Whoooooa." More smiles and chuckles.