Bob McManaman

For a while Sunday night, it looked as if Kirill Safronov was going to pull a Jason Doig.

Doig was the Coyotes' young defenseman who, in his first NHL game in Phoenix, was a minus-5 against the Montreal Canadiens. He was shipped out of the organization within a year.

Safronov, 20, wasn't faring much better early in the Coyotes' 4-0 loss to the visiting Mighty Ducks. Two straight turnovers by the Russian defenseman in the first period led to two straight Anaheim goals and a 3-0 lead in a span of 51 seconds.

''I didn't play the game I had to play tonight," said Safronov, who was recalled from Springfield a day earlier to fill in for the injured Radoslav Suchy (jammed finger). ''On the first (goal), I was trying to throw a pass to Danny Markov in front of the net, and one of their guys picked it off. The next one, the guy chopped at my stick and stole the puck.

''It's tough. The game is much quicker here, and I have to work harder and play way better than I did today. I'm just going to try and forget this game and try to make up for it the next time I get a chance."

If Suchy can play Wednesday against Los Angeles, Safronov might be headed back to the minors.

''He's going to have a tremendous career," Coyotes coach Bobby Francis said. ''We put him in a situation where quite frankly we didn't want to put him into. He was Springfield's best defenseman, he was improving, and we didn't want to disrupt his development stage, but we were forced to.

''He's going to be OK."

Francis' 200th game

Francis coached his 200th game for the Coyotes, the fourth-most of any bench boss in franchise history. He has 88 victories, which leaves him just three shy of Dan Maloney for second place in coaching wins, and 17 behind all-time leader John Paddock (106).