His team had just managed to turn a win into a loss — its fourth straight defeat, dropping it to 4-8-1. The next game was four days away.

It seemed like a perfect time for Randy Carlyle, the always-demanding coach of the Ducks, to blow up, melt down, or schedule a three-day boot camp to get his team's attention.

Carlyle, though, had other plans.

In the wake of the Ducks' 3-2 shootout loss to Edmonton on Sunday — a game they'd led 2-1 until giving up a shorthanded goal with 1:27 left in regulation — Carlyle was asked, routinely, about his approach for the three days leading up to the Ducks' next game, at home against Columbus on Thursday.

"We're going to give them two of them off," he said.

"It was planned on the schedule that we would take two of the next three off, because it's been a very, very taxing month on our group. We haven't had much of an opportunity (to rest). We feel that it's in the best interest of the work ethic they've put forth, that they've earned it. Maybe they haven't earned it on the score sheet and in the standings, but their work ethic has been strong. They've committed to that. And we will skate Wednesday morning."

In part, this is no doubt recognition that the season is a long haul, as well as an acknowledgement of an atypical first-month schedule that has taken the Ducks across eight time zones for those first 13 games.

But it also reflects the message on one of the signs Carlyle had posted in the Ducks dressing room when he became coach two seasons ago, the one that reads, in part: "Maintain a positive attitude. Stay positive when things get tough."

Things are clearly pretty tough right now for the Ducks, who are struggling with injuries, an inability to score (just 27 goals so far) and a not-uncommon post-championship hangover.

But the Ducks are doing their best to stay positive.

On Carlyle's part, that meant talking more about the good aspects of Sunday's game ("we had a lot of good effort") than the negative ("we didn't have a very good start"), and harkening back to that motto on the dressing-room wall: "We have to continue to build on the positives and work ourselves through this."

That's not necessarily an easy thing to do, but on Sunday, the Ducks were trying.

"We're down right now," said center Andy McDonald. " We did some good things tonight, and have to hope we focus on them, and try and correct the mistakes."

Noted goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, "We found a way to lose tonight, so it's disappointing for that. But you build with positives, and I thought there was a lot more positive tonight than negative. If we keep playing that way, we're going to get a lot more wins than losses."

So the players are aware of Carlyle's message — one that would have been undercut if the coach had decided to do away with one or both of those days off.

So the Ducks took a break. Now they'll see what that positive reinforcement does for them.

The scorer: Things are a little better up the freeway at Staples Center, where the Kings have now won four straight games — their longest such streak since February and March of 2006 — to share first in the Pacific Division (albeit with a modest 6-6-0 record) and have league's goal-scoring leader on the roster.

That would be Mike Cammalleri, who scored his ninth and 10th goals last week in a 6-0 pounding of Nashville. Through Sunday's games, that was good for a one-goal lead over Eric Staal of Carolina, Henrik Zetterberg of Detroit and Vaclav Prospal of Tampa Bay.

"It's nice to hear, but it's early," said Cammalleri, asked about the distinction. He found it much more significant to be leading the team, not the league.

"It's something I take responsibility for, being able to produce offensively for the team, so that part feels good," said Cammalleri, the 25-year-old from the University of Michigan in his fifth season with the Kings. "It feels all that much better when we win, and when we play well, and we've started doing a lot of really good things."

Not surprisingly, coach Marc Crawford is quite happy with the early season-play of Cammalleri, signed to a two-year contract after an off-season salary arbitration hearing.

"He's just so hungry to score," said Crawford. " He goes to the scoring areas, and he goes there with a purpose, and he just has such great habits.

"He's in double figures now, and he wants to score. I don't see him changing his game at all. He's going to be a guy that continues to pursue the puck and has great goal-scoring habits to go along with his instincts.

"You have to get to the front of the net to be a scorer, and at his size" — Cammalleri is 5-foot-9, 185 pounds — "you have to appreciate his determination to get into those areas, where you know you're going to get hit, you know you're going to get banged."

— David Lassen's NHL notebook appears Tuesdays.