Instructions for Ducks: Win Stanley Cup. Repeat.

What can a large, shiny silver chalice better known at the Stanley Cup do for you?

If you’re the Ducks, it can get you on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” earn you a lavish party and a fireworks display at your owner’s palatial home and make you the toast of celebrations in cities and communities across the hockey universe.

“Quite a summer,” defenseman Sean O’Donnell mused with reflection.

It can also put you in the cross-hairs of 29 other NHL teams.

“It was obviously a tremendous accomplishment,” defenseman Chris Pronger said of the Ducks’ first Cup title. “At that point, you feel it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event. But now you’ve got to push yourselves even harder now.

“You’ve got an even bigger target on your back. Everybody’s going to be shooting for you, being the Stanley Cup champions.”

There is one goal left -- one that only two teams have achieved in the last 20 years.

Repeating.

It’s rarefied air, especially in the days of parity and the salary cap. Since the Mario Lemieux-led Pittsburgh Penguins won in 1991 and 1992, only the 1998 Detroit Red Wings have successfully defended the Cup.

The closest any team has come to doing it since was in 2001, when the New Jersey Devils, who won in 2000, lost in the seventh game of the next year’s finals to the Colorado Avalanche.

The most recent example, Carolina, flopped in its bid.

Enter Anaheim.

Yet, as the Ducks open training camp today at Anaheim Ice, there are doubts that could shadow them into the season.

Most of the last few months have centered around the one-two punch leveled by Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer after both men said they would spend the summer thinking about retirement.

Selanne’s thoughts of leaving were not unexpected, having finally won his first Cup at age 37.

Niedermayer’s announcement, however, blindsided the Ducks and their fans. The team’s stoic captain had just won the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player, was coming off a career-best 69-point season and was still one of the very best in the game.

Neither man appears close to a decision. Niedermayer, who turned 34 on Aug. 31, isn’t at camp and wants to see if his competitive hunger is sharp enough to overcome the bone-wearying grind of the NHL. Selanne showed up at the Ducks’ rookie camp on Saturday but has yet to discuss his plans with General Manager Brian Burke.

“They’re being allowed an opportunity to make a decision that’s going to affect them for the rest of their lives,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We’ve shown them the respect they’ve earned by trying not to put any extra pressure on them.

“Would we love to have them back? Yes.”

Losing either would be huge -- something the Ducks don’t deny, even though Burke acted quickly in each instance by signing proven free agents in defenseman Mathieu Schneider and forward Todd Bertuzzi.

“That’s a big hole to fill,” Pronger said. “You’re not going to be able to overnight change the chemistry of the team and have the same chemistry that we had last [season].

“It’s asinine for anybody to think that.”

Niedermayer said last week that he didn’t want to become a distraction, but the Ducks realize that his absence is precisely that, as is Selanne’s.

“We have to move past them and it started today,” Carlyle said. “Those are the things you have to do. It’s the cruel part of the sport but it’s not anything different than we’ve done in the past. This is what we have. This is our starting point.”

Possibly losing two players so critical to winning the Cup isn’t the Ducks’ only problem.

Playoff stars Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Samuel Pahlsson also won’t be on the ice today because of sports hernia surgery.

Giguere is expected to return for some exhibitions but Pahlsson had surgery Sept. 5 and could be in danger of missing the team’s season opener Sept. 29 in London against the Kings.

“There’s all sorts of questions that need to be answered,” Pronger said. “At the end of the day, all we’ve got to do is prepare and focus the same way, if not better than last year.”

There is also the $8-million gamble that Bertuzzi, injured for most of last season with Detroit and Florida, will again be the 40-goal scorer that he was under Burke with Vancouver.

The saving grace is this Ducks team appears to have enough to head back up the mountain.

“It takes more than winning one Cup,” Pronger said. “You want to be looked at like Colorado or Detroit was in the ‘90s where every single year you’re a favorite and you’re a contender where people legitimately think you can win it.

“And we’ve certainly got the pieces in place. It’s just a matter of building on what we accomplished last year and building on the way we played.”

The Ducks know it’s time to put the Cup aside, all the while hoping it’s just for now.

“It was an exciting ride,” Carlyle said. “The ride has come to an end. We’re back to work.”

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