A deeper team with high expectations

The Ducks introduced their new slogan Friday, its white letters imprinted on gray T-shirts players wore on the opening day of training camp at Anaheim Ice. “Close is not good enough,” is this season’s motto, simple and certainly catchier than declaring, “We’re going to win a Game 7 at home someday.”

They could have recycled their old slogan, “Unfinished Business,” after they followed another strong regular season with a loss to Chicago in the Western Conference finale. They did something better, making changes that increase their chances of finally finishing that business.

In acquiring winger Carl Hagelin from the New York Rangers, the Ducks got a premier penalty killer and the kind of speed that rattles defenses. In acquiring defenseman Kevin Bieksa from the Canucks, they added a huge dose of physicality. They’re hoping those elements will end a hollow progression of Game 7 playoff losses in the first round in 2013, second round in 2014 and third round last spring.

“Close isn’t good enough and guys know that,” said Bieksa, who was on the ice for shooting practice 15 minutes early Friday. “Expectations are high in here.”

As well they should be with the addition of Hagelin, a member of the Rangers’ 2012 Cup runner-up team, and Bieksa, who’s still haunted by losing Game 7 of the 2011 Cup final to Boston.

“They’ve been to the dance a couple times and they bring speed,” said center Ryan Kesler, who was Bieksa’s teammate in Vancouver and sold him on the virtues of Anaheim. “With Kevin he brings toughness. People are scared of him on the ice and he holds people accountable, and we need that in the lineup.

“I like the moves we made. I think we’re a deeper team this year and we’re faster, which is something I think we lacked a bit last year. So hopefully we jell together like the team did last year.”

Hagelin, who signed a four-year, $16-million contract in August, said he didn’t expect to be traded by the cap-squeezed Rangers but adjusted quickly.

“It’s a great organization, a great team,” he said of his new club. “You look down the lineup, you know there’s going to be a lot of good players and I think we’re going to make some damage this year.”

The transition had a few awkward moments for Bieksa, who waived his no-trade clause to go to Anaheim for a 2016 second-round draft pick. He was accustomed to harassing Ducks forwards Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry in the heat of battle but got a new perspective when they were among the first players to welcome him.

“There’s been a lot of chirps over the years that we’re going to try to ignore and put on the back burner and not bring up too much, but we battled for a long time,” Bieksa said. “But always two guys that I respect a great deal, even playing against them. Obviously, I didn’t like them a lot and I played almost every shift against them but I always had a lot of respect for their games….

“The hockey world, it’s weird because you battle with guys for so long, and I’ve had guys that I’ve been in fights with before and then they come to my team and you’re great friends with them. It’s funny how it works. You think you’d hate a guy. You get on the same team and you realize you’re pretty much the same kind of guy and you become friends.”

Notes

Coach Bruce Boudreau said he plans to mix his lines to get better reads on his many new forwards. Hagelin and free-agent signee Chris Stewart were Getzlaf ’s wingers Friday, while Kesler centered for Jiri Sekac and Jakob Silfverberg.

Defenseman Clayton Stoner stayed off the ice because of an upper-body injury and is day to day. Through a club spokesman he declined to comment on having been charged on five counts related to his alleged illegal killing of a grizzly bear in Canada in 2013.

Former Ducks Sheldon Brookbank and Vitaly Vishnevski are in camp on tryouts, though they’re longshots to crack a deep, talented defense corps. Vishnevski, 35, spent the previous seven seasons in Russia’s KHL but kept a home in Southern California. “I want to say thank you to Ducks for giving me an opportunity to make the team,” said Vishnevski, who impressed players during pre-camp workouts. “I’m just working hard and happy to be with the guys.”