THE WRITING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL HEAD QUACKER FAILS LOYALTY TEST.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

Seems like only yesterday when the captain, Paul Kariya, stood before the thousands of ludicrously loyal Mighty Ducks fans outside the Pond in Anaheim and proclaimed: ``Next year, same time, different result.''

How were we supposed to know he was making eye contact at the time with a limo driver standing off to the side wearing the Rob Blake Avalanche sweater, ready to whisk him away to Denver.

If the NHL is supposed to be the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, then that fowl-smelling stunt Kariya pulled last week with partner Teemu Selanne in sneaking off to set up bunk beds with the Western Conference rivals from Colorado won't do anything to help a campaign to add a third Lady Byng Trophy to his den.

Forgive our naivete, but ducks are supposed to fly together. At least, that was the message we came away with after forcing ourselves to watch all three Mighty Ducks movies - even the one in which Kariya himself made an appearance.

So when you're the Head Quacker, you're supposed to set an example. You explain to the kids wearing the oversized No. 9 green-and-white shirts that, after going to the Stanley Cup Finals and coming within one win of a championship, this team is so detestable that you're willing to take an $8.8 million pay cut just so you can spread your offensive wings again.

Who in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks deserves this kind of treatment?

Point a finger at Ducks general manager Bryan Murray for gambling that the franchise's marquee man would stay and play even after they respectfully declined to renew his contract at the outrageous $10 million qualifying offer that set him free in the first place.

Point another at the Ducks' goofy ownership team for not ordering Murray to avoid the ultimate public-relations blunder and keep Kariya around at any cost, as if selling another few Tinkerbell snow globes wouldn't have magically made that happen.

But unless he took one too many blows to the head - and by all indications, he has - point the last finger of choice directly at Kariya, who must realize he's ultimately to blame for this nasty taste left in every fan's strap-on duckbill.

We get the fact that the team's defensive style was a little inhibiting for Kariya. Forgive the Ducks for trying to win the right way.

We even understand how he longed to play again with his buddy Selanne, who made it look so easy on the ice when they were Duckmates for the last half of the '90s. And this deal gives him free-agent status when the season is up, right before the predicted player lockout will happen and the league is shut down over more greedy issues.

What we don't get is why Kariya decided not to show any allegiance to a franchise that was built around him when it first started drafting players 10 years ago and has handed him more than $70 million over the past nine years.

Murray says he was willing to work with Kariya and his agent, Don Baizley, to keep him happy in Anaheim.

``I thought we had sent that message across,'' Murray said after the dust settled. He added that he wanted to sign Selanne, which is why he couldn't give Kariya all the cash he wanted in the first place.

There are those in the league who think Murray did everything right in this case.

``(Kariya) is a good player,'' said Vancouver general manager Brian Burke in the Toronto Globe and Mail. ``But he has not been worth what he's been paid for the last three years ($30 million). (Words) like loyalty don't leap to mind.''

Nor should they when agents get into the mess. Baizley pulls the strings not only for Kariya and Selanne, but also Colorado stars Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic. How convenient.

With those four together, Colorado would seem to be a logical favorite, along with Detroit, to snuff out the Ducks and win back the West.

Only thing that might hold the Avs back is that with Patrick Roy retired, they are about to give someone named David Aebischer and Phil Sauve the job of stopping the puck.

The Ducks know how important a goaltender can be. Maybe Kariya will realize that, too, when Jean-Sebastian Giguere is on another hot streak during the playoffs making the Avs look like a frustrated bunch of overpaid mercenaries.

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Paul Kariya vowed to lead the Mighty Ducks back to the Stanley Cup Finals. Then he signed with Western Conference rival Colorado.

David Zalubowski/Associated Press