Ryan Getzlaf said he is hopeful for possibly returning to the ice this weekend and hasn’t ruled out participating in the Olympics.
“We’re definitely hopeful for the weekend and see how things go from here,” Getzlaf said in a brief media session Tuesday morning at Honda Center, before he was scheduled to undergo and MRI exam for a sprained left ankle.
“I’ll probably know a little bit more tomorrow.”
What about his availability for the Olympics, which begin for Team Canada in one week?
Were the Kings sputtering toward the end of a club-record winning streak, or were the Ducks further establishing their recent dominance at home? 
The answer usually lies somewhere in between, but the consensus was that the Ducks finally put together a more complete game against their crosstown rivals in a 4-2 victory Monday.
“Anaheim brought their ‘A’ game here today, and we didn’t match it,” Kings coach Terry Murray said.
“They were (taking) the game to us. We were chasing in the first and second period in particular and we didn’t manage the puck through the middle of the ice. Too many times we let them come out with a lot of speed in transition.
The pace of the game was pretty intense. They brought the best that they can bring and took it to us. So we spent a lot of time in the D zone.”
Ducks defenseman James Wisniewski knows full well about the trade rumor out there that has him heading back to the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Yeah, I heard that they’re going to trade Marian Hossa, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and a first-round pick,” Wisniewski cracked.
OK, maybe the Blackhawks throwing in the first-round pick might have pushed that offer over the top. All kidding aside, it’s believed that Ducks GM Bob Murray has some interest in 23-year-old Chicago defenseman Cam Barker and Wisniewski does know that he has an uncertain future with the club.
The NHL standings give you wins, losses and overtime losses. That’s to differentiate a loss in which you get no points from a loss in which you get one.
The only problem is it can make you appear to have a better season than you are indeed having. If you’re 20-11-10, that looks nice. But you still haven’t won half your games.
The following is how the NHL would look if you counted those losses as what they are: losses. Call it the Curmudgeon Standings.
Not only will the Ducks wait on pins and needles for the results of Ryan Getzlaf’s MRI exam on his sprained left ankle but an entire nation will join in the concern over the big center as well.
Getzlaf injured his ankle when he got tangled up with Kings captain Dustin Brown while the Ducks were on the power play early in the second period.
Minutes earlier, Getzlaf had scored his 15th goal of the season. The Ducks persevered, getting a goal and two assists from Corey Perry in a 4-2 win, but they can ill afford to lose their leading scorer for an extended period. The MRI is expected to show the severity of the sprain.
A look at the Ducks by the numbers after a 4-2 victory against the Kings on Monday night … 
10: Number of consecutive home victories by the Ducks, which ties the mark set Feb.17-March 26, 2008 for longest in club history. The Ducks have earned points at home in 11 straight games.
2: Number of power play goals by the Ducks, who last had more than one power play goal in a game on Dec.19 against Phoenix.
215: Number of career power play goals by Teemu Selanne, who tied Joe Nieuwendyk for 10th on the all-time list. Selanne also had an assist to take sole possession of 58th on the all-time assists list with 642.
7: Number of hits credited to James Wisniewski.
.944: Save percentage (169 saves on 179 shots) by Jonas Hiller over his past five starts
Corey Perry had a goal and two assists as the Ducks ended a five-game losing streak against the crosstown rival Kings with a 4-2 victory Monday night at Honda Center.
Some Ducks fans trace their club’s playoff habit directly to the departure of general manager Pierre Gauthier.
pierre gauthier
That’s not completely fair, since Gauthier did acquire Jean Sebastien Giguere and Samuel Pahlsson.
But the Ducks did get bigger and more physical after Gauthier left, and Bryan Murray drafted the core of the current Ducks lineup.
Gauthier wound up in Montreal as an assistant to general manager Bob Gainey. Now he’s running one of the most famous franchises in the world, after Gainey resigned Monday, as the Montreal Gazette reports.
Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf left the ice early in the second period after he suffered a sprained left ankle in front of the Kings’ net as they built a 3-1 lead tonight at Honda Center.
Getzlaf was trying to spin out of the way of a shot taken by teammate James Wisniewski that eventually ended up as a rebound goal by Corey Perry that was waved off by referee Kelly Sutherland, who determined that Perry was in the crease.
A Ducks spokesman said X-rays taken on Getzlaf’s ankle were negative but that he will undergo further tests tomorrow.
Getzlaf immediately went to the dressing room after hurting himself. The Ducks’ leading scorer had given his team a 2-1 lead with a goal at the 3:27 mark of the second.
Posts on the Register’s Olympics blog:
Who can forget The Great One? No. 99 from the Edmonton Oilers and, of course, the LA Kings — among others?
In something of a no-brainer, Canadians want Wayne Gretzky (pictured) to carry the torch in the final leg of the of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Friday night, according to a poll by The Globe And Mail.
But what else do they expect during the Olympic hockey tournament? Click here for the Register’s Olympic blog and find out.
Also on the Olympics blog:
Adam Brady's Ducks blog
