Hicks Stands Up as Wilson Hides

Ron Wilson blew off the media again Sunday, precisely seven days after aborting another postgame interview attempt at the one-question mark, so maybe it is time the Ducks’ publicity staff add a new column to the stat sheet.

Postgame Questions Actually Answered By Head Coach On A Sunday:

Totals for December: 1.

What are we to make of this curious new trend?

Some possibilities:

a) Wilson has undergone a religious conversion and is now forbidden to speak after sundown on Sunday.

b) Wilson has a team that can’t protect a one-goal lead at home for three minutes or an overtime tie for much more than two.

c) Wilson has a team of stand-up, face-the-music types who Wilson knows will always be there, ready to pitch in and help, whenever he chooses to bail on the media-relations process.

No word yet on a, but b and c were definitely in effect during and after the Ducks’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Alex Hicks had given the Ducks a 2-1 lead with 10:46 left in the third period, boding well for an upbeat atmosphere in the home team’s dressing room and many lengthy, insightful comments by Wilson.

But the evening darkened less than three minutes later when Duck goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov and defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky stood and stared at a loose puck behind their own net, allowing Maple Leaf center Darby Hendrickson to snake his way between them, dig out and puck and whip it into the open net.

This was the hockey equivalent of two outfielders circling under a pop fly and neither one calling out “I got it!” as the ball plops untouched onto the turf.

As a consequence, the hockey equivalent of extra innings was soon to follow.

Wilson’s bullpen promptly pulled a Mitch Williams. After two minutes and five seconds of overtime, the red light behind Shtalenkov was blinking and Toronto’s Dave Andreychuk was accepting congratulatory bearhugs as the game-winning hero.

So, yes, it is safe to surmise that Wilson walked into the tunnel a little cranky.

After all, his team hadn’t won a game in, oh, 45 hours.

A shame, because Wilson might have had something useful to say about Hicks, a prototypic Duck if there ever was one.

Hicks, appearing in his 16th NHL game Sunday, is a 26-year-old rookie who played his collegiate hockey at Division III Wisconsin Eau Claire, where he walked on; was never drafted; racked up 552 penalty minutes in three minor-league seasons; also, incidentally, scored 81 goals in those 190 games; signed a free-agent contract with the Ducks in August; and impressed the Duck coaching staff during training camp with his willingness to give and take a punch better than Buster Mathis.

Hicks punched home a goal in his NHL debut--Nov. 15, a 7-3 triumph over Colorado; Wilson was happier then--and rang up his third a month later, giving the Ducks their short-lived lead against Toronto’s Damian Rhodes.

It looked to be the winning goal “for about a second,” Hicks said. “It’s a little disappointing. You hammer in a goal on a rebound like that and you end up losing in overtime. I probably won’t sleep too well tonight.”

Hicks also had a chance to win the game in regulation, taking a feed from Garry Valk near the left circle, eluding Toronto’s Kenny Jonsson and rifling the puck from short range, only to hit nothing but goaltender with 1:17 remaining.

“Nice pass from Valkie there,” Hicks said. “It just happened so fast. I got good wood on it, it’s just unfortunate I hit [Rhodes] in the pads. Hopefully in the future I can sneak it between those pads.”

It was a revelation to watch Hicks skate out on Pond ice for the first time wearing a purple No. 32 on his back.

What, you mean they didn’t retire Stu Grimson’s old jersey?

Hicks knows the legend behind the shirt. “Big fists to fill there,” he said with a grin that, fittingly, is adorned on the right side with a crimson scar. Hicks was a scoring machine in college--257 points and 98 goals in fewer than 100 games--but only found his niche in the pros by following the same road as Grimson.

Along a trail of dropped gloves.

“I was a finesse goal-scorer in college,” Hicks said, “but there are a thousand guys around the country with the skill level I have. I figured out early that if I was going to have a chance in the pros, I had to make the transition to more of a checker and a grinder.”

That is the way of life in the East Coast Hockey League, where Hicks spent his first two professional seasons. Hicks broke in with Toledo gingerly, managing but 100 penalty minutes in 50 games in 1992-93, but found himself the following season, logging 240 minutes in 60 games.

From there he moved to Las Vegas and the International Hockey League in 1994-95. Seventy-nine games, 212 penalty minutes.

An NHL career was born.

“I think the Ducks liked my work ethic,” is how Hicks words it. “They knew I worked hard and played hard, and I also scored 24 goals in the ‘I’. So they knew I could muck and grind a little, and do a few things with the puck, too.”

And, he’s a good quote to boot. On this team, that quality never be underestimated. When the head coach decides he’s unavailable for comment, somebody has to be there to pick up the slack.