Ducks' Corey Perry gets star treatment, Ray Emery gets lower-body treatment

Ducks' Corey Perry gets star treatment, Ray Emery gets lower-body treatment: "

Ducks right wing Corey Perry got an unexpected perk for becoming the NHL’s first 50-goal scorer this season and a formidable most-valuable-player candidate.When the team’s practice ended Thursday, Perry had a new personal valet in the locker room to unlace his skates: linemate Ryan Getzlaf.

“He scores 50, I untie his skates,” Getzlaf said. “We don’t want him hurting his hands untying his skates.”

Perry, who hit 50 with a hat trick in the Ducks’ 6-2 rout of San Jose on Wednesday, said he didn’t feel much different Thursday than any other day.

“The phone was off the hook this morning that’s for sure,” he said. “I had a few text messages and voice mails but nothing’s changed. It’s another day and the sun came up again and you just go out again and practice.”

But it's also the day the Ducks can clinch a playoff spot if the Dallas Stars lose to Colorado. The Ducks must gain two points or have Dallas fail to gain two points in its remaining three games. If Dallas doesn’t oblige Thursday night, the Ducks can secure a spot by beating the Kings on Friday at the Honda Center in the opener of a home-and-home series that ends each team’s season.

The Ducks have several chances to clinch but would like to make quick work of it.

“It’s something we’ll keep a close eye on, for sure, but we know if we do our job and get a win that would be something we’re looking forward to,” Perry said. “We don’t want to go in with us losing the last two games.

“We know what’s at stake and we want to get the next four points.”

Goaltender Ray Emery, who left Wednesday’s game because of a lower-body injury but returned to back up Dan Ellis, worked out off the ice Thursday and said his injury felt a lot better than he expected. He will be reevaluated on Friday.

“It’s a thing where I’m trying to be cautious because I’m wary of things I had in the past and I want to be able to contribute when I’m in there for a long period of time,” said Emery, who underwent major hip surgery last April. “So it’s more me being cautious.”

He said he doesn’t think the problem is related to his old hip injury.

“Around the start of the second there I felt a little bit of something a bit funny and kind of tried it out for five, 10 minutes there and kind of told them I thought it would probably be best if I got out of there and took care of myself,” he said.

Coach Randy Carlyle said that if backup Ellis had been injured, enforcer George Parros would have gone in the net. Emery laughed when told that. “I think I could have got back in there last night,” he said. “He’s big, but that’s about it.”

Parros would have welcomed the chance even though he never played goal. “I would have loved to. That would have been my pleasure,” he said. “How many guys are going to get a chance to play goalie? I’ll definitely take that honor.”

And Carlyle came up with a new explanation for a player's absence from practice. Asked why 37-year-old Todd Marchant wasn't on the ice Thursday, Carlyle's answer was "birth certificate."