ANAHEIM – In John Gibson’s mind, enough was enough.

The Columbus Blue Jackets seemed to come with a mandate of spending Friday night in his crease and the Ducks had trouble keeping them out. Nick Foligno was first and foremost among them.

A huge scrum occurred after Ducks defenseman Kevin Bieksa helped ride Foligno into Gibson and the Ducks goalie put the Blue Jackets winger in a headlock and angrily tossed his helmet to the ice. It was one of a few collisions Gibson had to absorb.

In his first season as the Ducks’ clear-cut No. 1, Gibson is finding that such collisions occur with regularity and it has led him to stand his ground and push back when necessary. He isn’t about to complain about the treatment, but he also hasn’t received much help from the officials.

“I don’t think I’m doing anything differently,” Gibson said. “I think that’s just the game. Sometimes it’s just a combination of just the battle in front of the net. Maybe a defenseman pushes them in.

“They’ve got to maybe watch it a little bit. But I don’t think it’s anything crazy. It happens. Sometimes you get a guy that’s hauled down on a breakaway or something and takes you out. That’s accidental. Nowadays, everybody’s going to the net hard.”

Could it be that this is part of a book that opponents have on Gibson? Crash the net and see how he responds.

“I don’t know,” Gibson said. “If it is, it is. It’s not going to affect me either way. I don’t look into that stuff. That’s not something I worry about. We worry about what we’re going to do here. If they do that, I’m sure they’ll eventually get a penalty.”

On a couple occasions, Gibson has drawn the line and swiped back at players completely invading his space. Don’t look for him to go instantly into attack mode if someone wearing a different colored jersey gets too close.

“If you show that then it kind of shows frustration,” Gibson said. “And you don’t want to show the team that it’s even bothering you. You can go at it a couple different ways. I just kind of let it go.”

RAKELL MAKING PROGRESS

Rickard Rakell is getting closer to making his Ducks season debut and he has Tuesday’s game against the Kings at Staples Center in mind.

“That would be a great way to start it off, playing L.A.,” Rakell said. “Maybe it will be good for me to get hit hard, to get into it early. That’ll be a good test for me and the team. Yeah, that’s my goal.”

The practice Saturday offered another chance for Rakell to absorb contact in drills with his teammates. It is an important step toward playing as the forward comes back from abdominal surgery in September.

“I think it’s just about me feeling prepared to play now because this was my first practice with the team, doing team stuff,” Rakell said. “The battle drills and competitive drills. Probably going to feel on the practice on Monday see how that feels. Take it day by day.”

Ducks coach Randy Carlyle had Rakell on a line with Ryan Garbutt and Antoine Vermette. Carlyle said that could be a “starting point” but he also threw out the possibility of pairing him with Ryan Getzlaf and dropping Corey Perry to another line.

“He’s a good player,” Carlyle said. “We’ll find a spot for him.”

The Ducks get their first real break in the schedule after playing their first nine games in 16 days. Carlyle, who sharply criticized his team’s effort in the 4-0 loss to Columbus, noted that but wouldn’t excuse his team’s woeful effort due to fatigue.

“I didn’t get that feedback,” he said. “We struggled to play an effective game. Our passing was horrendous. Our positioning, our compete, which has been good for our group, wasn’t there. If we knew how to guard against that in sports, we’d be making a lot more money.”

NOTES

Jonathan Bernier, who’s still nursing an upper-body injury, hasn’t skated since getting hurt in Tuesday’s game at San Jose, but Carlyle expects the goalie to start facing shots on Sunday. … Shea Theodore and Dustin Tokarski were sent back to San Diego (AHL). Theodore figures to return Monday, while Tokarski could be back if Bernier is not ready to become available.

Contact the writer: estephens@scng.com