GAME TIME
DUCKS at OILERS
Puck drops at 7: 30 p.m.
Media: 630 CHED Radio, RSW
The running joke is that a documentary film crew has been following Teemu Selanne for the last four years, trying to capture the final days of his Hall-of-Fame NHL career.
But there hasn't been a skate-into-the-sunset moment for the Anaheim Ducks winger. There has been the odd vignette, like on Sunday in Anaheim against the Edmonton Oilers, when fans stood and cheered as the Oilers' Teemu Hartikainen lined up for a faceoff against Selanne. A sheepish Selanne then tapped the linesman with his stick to get him to drop the puck.
On Thursday at Rexall Place, Oilers fans may get their last chance to see Selanne play when the Ducks pay a visit in Edmonton's final home game of the 2011-12 season.
Only he knows when he'll hang 'em up, but maybe the Oilers should prepare a bigscreen tribute, just in case, because Selanne has beaten them up over the last 20 years.
Maybe Hartikainen and fellow Finn Lennart Petrell will ask Selanne to sign a stick.
Oilers head coach Tom Renney is also an unabashed fan.
"He's so good for the game and at some time you move over, but the way he skates I think he could play until he's 45," said Renney.
"Just a wonderful career ... and guys like me have had a chance to witness it."
There has been no farewell tour, no quiet signing of game-worn jerseys for Selanne in anticipation of the end of his playing career. Not yet, even though he turns 42 in July.
Selanne won't admit he'd quit if the Ducks wanted to begin a rebuild like the Oilers. He likes being part of a competitive team, but also likes seeing young players like Devante Smith-Pelly and Cam Fowler, Luca Sbisa and Kyle Palmieri on the team. He doesn't feel like he's their dad. He's a player, just like they are.
Selanne, however, is better. He has 66 points this season, which puts him in 30th place in NHL scoring. He leads the Ducks with six more points than forward Corey Perry.
"There is no textbook on how to retire," said Selanne. "Players retire because of injury or they are almost in survival mode where they can't compete. They can't play at their old level.
"But I don't feel that. that's why it's hard to figure out when it's time (to quit). It would be easy to say, 'I can't do it anymore.' But when you don't feel that, you want to keep going.
"It's still fun to come to the rink, it's fun to play the game. I'm thinking, 'Why would I retire?' But it's getting to the point where you do think it's time," he said.
"At my age, you have to be dedicated."
"You have to commit yourself to the whole process, starting to work out at the end of the June. It's 100 per cent or it's nothing."
Wayne Gretzky quit because he didn't want to be an average NHL player. He didn't want people to look at him and say, "Why didn't he quit two years earlier?"
What would Selanne do if he quit playing?
"I'd like to stay in hockey. Like something Jari (Kurri) does. He's got the perfect job (manager of the Finnish national team program)," said Selanne, laughing. "He's got three or four tournaments a year and between those tournaments he can do what he wants. He comes over to North America to scout, like he doesn't know the players. He comes to Anaheim for a week to watch me play."
"Jari's got the dream job. Maybe I could be his righthand (man)."
The will-he-retire story has been around for years, of course. Selanne actually retired after the Ducks won the Cup in 2007, but the team didn't file his retirement papers. Then Ducks general manager Brian Burke talked him into playing again because veteran blueliner Scott Niedermayer had agreed to keep playing.
Selanne's heart was pumping hard when the Anaheim fans, wondering if this was the last game they would see him play in their building, started their ovation on Sunday against the Oilers. He eventually had to get the linesman's attention.
Was he overcome with emotion, or did he not want to take anything away from the other players on the ice?
"Both. It wasn't the time to start thinking of this. It was great, the (fans') reaction, and he (the linesman) was willing to wait longer, but I wanted to game to get going," said Selanne, who then almost sent the game into ovetime as the clock ticked down, rushing up ice to break around Hartikainen.
"It would only have been fitting with the tribute he had got to score a goal then ... that would have been fabulous, TV and video coverage," said Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau. "The building would have exploded. It would have been one of those moments, no matter how long you play or whatever you do, you remember it.
"Like the game in Winnipeg (this season, Selanne's first trip back as a player since the former team left for Phoenix). I was almost frigging crying, with the goosebumps and everything."
Maybe Oilers fans will salute Selanne, too, on Thursday.
"You can't force them to do anything. It's a tough game, but he's been so great for hockey. It would be nice to have the Edmonton fans give him a big welcome or a going away ... I mean we don't know what's going to happen next year," said Boudreau.
"He's got a passion for the game of hockey, very similar to Wayne Gretzky," said Boudreau. "The passion and love for it will keep you going as long as you keep yourself in good shape."
jmatheson@edmontonjournal.
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