TORONTO – “Am I ready? Am I ready? Am I ready?”



Randy Carlyle repeated that question thrown to him Monday morning as he walked through the visitors dressing room at Scotiabank Arena toward a hallway with a media horde full of familiar faces waiting for him. And the situation he is currently in, the setting surely felt all too familiar.



Carlyle managed quite a few smiles in what was a mostly pleasant question-and-answer session with interrogators he used to spar and commiserate with daily. He had to put on a brave face as his shattered Ducks continued to sink toward depths perhaps not seen in the entire history of the franchise. And there is some history now. Twenty-five years make it so.



The winningest coach in the team’s history that is now presiding over the worst stretch of hockey that’s been produced in Anaheim couldn’t be dour in Toronto. At least not after the morning skate. Not when things around the Ducks seem...