Ducks aren’t an easy sell despite success

Brian Burke has found it easier to transform the Ducks into one of the NHL’s top teams than to turn them into one of the NHL’s top draws.

The Ducks’ general manager acknowledged that although he has “changed the culture” by signing Scott Niedermayer, trading for Chris Pronger and assembling a team that’s swift and smart, he hasn’t triggered a box-office boom.

The Ducks, who set an NHL record by earning at least one point in each of their first 16 games, averaged 14,832 fans over their first 12 home games, 86.5% capacity of the Honda Center. That’s up from their average of 13,433 after 12 games last season. Burke said sponsorships and revenue are up too, but the club is budgeted to lose “several million dollars” this season.

Good as they are -- and this season they’ve usually been very good -- the Ducks are not the easy sell they were during their first five seasons, when they filled more than 99% of their available seats. They bottomed out at 12,002 in the 2001-02 season and have had a slow climb back.

After reaching the conference finals last spring, they’ve had only one announced sellout this season and have offered two free season tickets for every two purchased in select locations. Burke, in his second season on the job, is realistic about the obstacles he faces.

“I don’t think you can eclipse fans’ memories with one good playoff run or good month,” he said. “We were not a successful team for a long time and we drove people out of the building. Bringing them back is not as easy as getting rid of them.”

Winning helps, and the Ducks’ attendance rose last season as they hit a successful stride. They sold out nine of their last 19 home games, including each of their final five, and 12 overall. They averaged 15,131 per game, their best since 1998-99.

“I’m really happy where we are as a hockey team,” Burke said, “and from a business perspective.”

The team’s on-ice performance has been the least of his concerns.

Although they lack a classic dominating center and have no one among the NHL’s top 20 scorers, the Ducks lead the West with 66 goals. They’ve gotten enough contributions from Dustin Penner, Corey Perry, Chris Kunitz and Ryan Getzlaf to compensate for losing Joffrey Lupul to Edmonton in the Pronger trade, allaying one of their big fears.

At the other end, goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere has generally been impressive. He pared his goals-against average below 2 and raised his save percentage to 92.8% before he and the Ducks were routed by the Flyers on Wednesday, a 7-4 stinker that gave the Ducks their first taste of adversity this season.

They became the last NHL team to lose a game in regulation last Friday when they were defeated by Calgary, 3-0. But they weren’t outclassed, and they rebounded for a solid 3-2 victory over Minnesota in their next game. However, they then stumbled against the Flyers, setting up tonight’s game against Chicago at the Honda Center as a gauge of their resolve.

“You want to come back strong, but I think it’s early in the year to say this is a must win,” defenseman Sean O’Donnell said after the loss to the Flyers.

“When you have these kinds of games, I think we realize what it was, that nothing kind of went right. You sweep it under the rug and get ready for the next game. But you make sure you get everything back on track the way you can. So, I anticipate a pretty solid game from us against Chicago and getting back to what we do.”

Rookie center Ryan Shannon agreed that the Ducks learned an indelible lesson Wednesday.

“No matter how good you’ve done in the past, if we don’t show up and execute our game plan, you can get beat and embarrassed,” he said.

“We know we can play so much better. We had a couple bad bounces right in the beginning and that kind of set the tone. At times we played hard and played smart, but we need that for a full 60 minutes.”

Anything less than full effort every night will sentence them to struggle for a playoff spot. Even though the Ducks and Buffalo Sabres lead the league with only two regulation losses each, the Ducks are merely two points ahead of San Jose for the division and conference lead. It’s that close, and figures to be that way all season.

“The frightening thing is we haven’t lost anybody,” Burke said. “We haven’t gained ground. It’s pretty scary for that to be the case when you have your foot on the accelerator.”

Burke said he’s “content to just sit tight with this group” for now, having remedied a lack of toughness by trading for George Parros. He’s always listening, but he has no glaring holes to fill. The Ducks are a top-tier team. Over the long haul, they won’t be as imposing as they were in their first 16 games, but they’re better than the team that flailed against the Flyers.

“We go 16 in a row getting a point in every one, and people are giving us a place in the finals against Buffalo. We lose two of three, you can’t start to go, ‘What’s wrong?’ ” O’Donnell said. “We’re somewhere in the middle. The bottom line is we’re 13-2-4.... We didn’t get two points or a point. We just have to turn it around [tonight] and get back to what we do.”

Whether that’s closer to what they did in their first 16 games than their most recent one will say a lot about how far they’ll go.

helene.elliott@latimes.com