Craig Hartsburg

There stands Craig Hartsburg, arms folded, sour look on his face. At first glance, he might simply be a well-dressed commuter waiting for his train downtown. He looks as if he would rather be somewhere else, distracted, ill-at-ease. This is the view most fans of the Mighty Ducks have of the franchise's third coach in its seven-season history. He never smiles, never laughs, never speaks, never gets emotional. Up six goals, down six goals, he's always the same rigid figure behind the Duck bench.

Time: 4:30 PST. On the air: Radio: 1150. Where: Scotiabank Place. AT OTTAWA Records: Kings 20-21-7, Senators 17-24-7. Record vs. Senators (2007-08): 1-0-0. Update: The Kings haven't won in Ottawa since Nov. 11, 2002, playing there only once in that span because of the NHL's unbalanced schedule. Forward Oscar Moller (fractured clavicle) participated in his first practice with contact since his injury, but it's not clear when he will return.

Minnesota North Stars defenseman Craig Hartsburg, 29, the team captain for the last six years, announced that he was retiring because of a variety of injuries.

You could see this one coming, right out of pages 1-3 of "The Hockey Coach's Handbook" under the heading, "It's Going to Happen to You." It works this way: * The boss says it's not your fault that the team isn't winning. * You say the players, even your stars, have quit on you. The players, even your stars, agree. * Then you're unemployed, with everyone around you expressing remorse, saying that they got you fired because they didn't play.

Most games the Ducks don't particularly worry about matching lines against the opposition--other than making sure their top line of Paul Kariya, Matt Cullen and Teemu Selanne gets plenty of ice time. But Wednesday against Philadelphia's Eric Lindros and John LeClair, Coach Craig Hartsburg wanted to have his second line of Marty McInnis, Steve Rucchin and Tomas Sandstrom facing the Flyers' big guns.

The Ducks have had their share of ups and downs so far this season. But goaltender Guy Hebert has been one of their steadiest players, according to Coach Craig Hartsburg. "You can't question our goaltending in any game," Hartsburg said. Hebert has been particularly hot in the last few weeks. He was 4-2 with a 2.01 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage in the six games before Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. "He's really on top of his game," Hartsburg said.

A must-win situation? Already? Coach Craig Hartsburg wasn't sure the Ducks had reached that point Saturday. But the Ducks, who are 1-6-1 in their last eight games, are probably pretty close. "There's no reason to panic," Hartsburg said before the Ducks' 1-0 loss to the Oilers. "There's no reason to think, 'Holy cow, it's slipping away from us.' Now's the time that we've got to turn it around and win seven in a row. . . . Every game is important now. It's also the fun time for the players.

Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg, at the season's midpoint, acknowledged he has had quite a few pleasant surprises. "Paul? Teemu?" he said, only half-joking about the first-half exploits of all-star wingers Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne, who went into Wednesday's game first and seventh in NHL scoring. "Coming into training camp, I didn't know Johan Davidsson, I didn't know Antti Aalto and I saw Matt Cullen only at the end of last season," Hartsburg said in a more serious tone.

Goaltender Guy Hebert heard the news Craig Hartsburg had been fired as Duck coach while watching a hockey game on television Thursday night. At first, he didn't believe the words at the bottom of screen. Left wing Paul Kariya received a phone call from new coach Guy Charron. Defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky's agent broke the news to him with a call. If the Ducks were shocked by Thursday's coaching change, it was difficult to tell by their reactions at Friday's morning skate.

Merry Christmas, Craig Hartsburg. You were fired to relieve tension. It sounds as if Pierre Gauthier had the choice of springing for a team massage or firing the coach. Choosing from the least-creative page in the manual they issue general managers, Gauthier, the general manager of the Mighty Ducks, canned the coach. And from the first page of the book on the Disney way to run a team, the Mighty Ducks got the cheap solution.

The Mighty Ducks fired Coach Craig Hartsburg on Thursday, reaching another signpost in a downward spiral after a promising beginning eight years ago. Hartsburg was let go 33 games into the season and replaced by his top assistant, Guy Charron, who has 16 games of experience as a National Hockey League head coach. He becomes the fourth coach for an organization that once soared, but now wallows. Hartsburg, who was in his third season, had a record of 80-88-29 with Anaheim.

Craig Hartsburg is the man with the iron face, a surface of no expression, a mask that hides all emotion. So don't look at the face. Listen to the words. Inside Hartsburg there is a passion for hockey, a fierce devotion to this game played on ice, a game that will never exactly belong to us in Southern California. Not in the way it belongs to Hartsburg. Hartsburg is the beleaguered coach of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. The Ducks lost to Dallas, 1-0, Sunday at the Pond.

The time for compassionate words for the Not-So-Mighty Ducks ended long ago for most followers of this woebegone franchise. Even Coach Craig Hartsburg finally chucked his "We just gotta keep pushing because we're on the right track" shtick after a 5-2 public humiliation Wednesday at the hands of the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

The Mighty Ducks, who are either a dead team skating or a work in progress, depending on the eye of the beholder, went through another practice and another team meeting Saturday. Their coach then went through another session trying to explain the demise. "We do good things each game that prove we can be a good team," Coach Craig Hartsburg said. "That's the thing that bothers me the most. We do some good things and then don't follow through on them."

Sunday's lethargic 3-0 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes notwithstanding, the Ducks had a pretty good October in winning six and earning 14 points in the season's first 13 games. The Ducks (6-6-1-1) have been at .500 after only one other October in their seven-season history, going 3-3-3 last season. Their record is not good enough, however, to please Coach Craig Hartsburg. "Losing stinks," he said. "If you accept it and walk out of the rink and don't worry about it, then you should get out of sports.

The Ducks' poor defensive play was the main topic of discussion for the second consecutive day. But Coach Craig Hartsburg was careful Monday not to pin the blame solely on his defensemen. "It starts with our goaltending, then moves out to the defensemen and the forwards," Hartsburg said. "We go in spurts. We play well, then we have a five-minute stretch where we get away from it."

Coach Craig Hartsburg lingered with reporters longer than usual after the Ducks' 3-2 loss Saturday to the Edmonton Oilers, attempting to put a positive spin on his team's fragile mental health. "I feel bad for our team," Hartsburg said when asked if the Ducks deserved a better fate Saturday than their 11th loss in 25 games. "They played like heck." The Ducks have indeed played strong hockey in their last five games, including a 6-2 victory Nov.