Training Camp 2005: Pens Birds of a Different Feather

Training Camp 2005: Penguins definitely birds of much different feather
Sunday, September 11, 2005
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

More Penguins Camp News:
Five Story lines (and they're not all about Sidney Crosby)
2005 Penguin Camp Data & Camp Roster

NHL training camps tend to look a lot alike, to become a blur of drills and chalk talks and forgettable exhibition games.

Especially when you've been through as many as Penguins coach Eddie Olczyk, who broke into the league in 1984.

But he isn't likely to confuse the camp the Penguins will kick off with a physicals-and-photos session Tuesday at Mellon Arena with the one they conducted in 2003. Neither is anyone else.
And not only because Ryan Malone isn't wearing No. 47 anymore.

This time, the new veteran forwards aren't Kelly Buchberger and Mike Eastwood, but John LeClair and Mark Recchi. The major addition to the defense corps is Sergei Gonchar, not Drake Berehowsky. And there is a goalie, Jocelyn Thibault, whose experience with NHL playoff games isn't limited to watching them on TV.

The extreme makeover the Penguins have received since the NHL lockout ended in July will allow them to enter camp with a few things that were in precious short supply two years ago.
Like talent. And depth. And hope.

It isn't necessarily realistic to believe that the team that finished with the league's worst record in 2003-04 is suddenly a short-list contender for the Stanley Cup, but the Penguins' pedigree is a whole lot more impressive than it was a few months ago.
"We really feel good about the way we're heading into training camp," Olczyk said.

They should, but the idea is for Olczyk to feel better about his team as it heads out of training camp early next month. The chances of that will be greatly enhanced if he and his staff can hit upon line combinations and defense pairings that allow his players to bring out the best in one another.

Monitoring the kind of chemistry that develops between various players will be one of Olczyk's priorities during camp because it will help to determine what roles some players fill. Or even if they make it onto the regular-season roster.
And while trying to cultivate chemistry on a club with so many new players has to be difficult, Olczyk should find it less demanding than duplicating the coaching alchemy he had to come up with to keep his 2003-04 squad competitive most games.
The Penguins' most prominent newcomer is super-prospect Sidney Crosby, regarded by many in the industry as the finest player to come out of junior hockey since Mario Lemieux in 1984. And even though most of the other big-name additions -- such as Gonchar , Recchi, LeClair and Zigmund Palffy -- arrived via free agency and are on the far side of 30, Olczyk said his team isn't doomed to be top-heavy with older players.
"It would not surprise me at all to see us have anywhere from six to nine guys under the age of 26 on our team," he said.

A lot of variables will influence that -- not the least of them being whether the Penguins opt to keep the maximum of 23 players on their major-league roster -- but the franchise has been collecting some nice young talent the past few years.

Goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and Andy Chiodo, defensemen Ryan Whitney, Brooks Orpik and Noah Welch and forwards Colby Armstrong, Ben Eaves, Shane Endicott and Konstantin Koltsov, among others, are on that list. And they're not the only ones.
"There are a lot of guys who we've signed but haven't had a chance to see up in Pittsburgh yet," Olczyk said. "They're going to get their opportunities."

That might be, but some players might find themselves compelled to accept revised -- or reduced -- roles if they want to stick in the NHL.
"There are spots available, there are roles available," Olczyk said. "It's whether or not guys want to accept and execute those responsibilities and the opportunities that they're going to get in camp."

Regardless of precisely who is on the roster when the Penguins open the regular season Oct. 5 at New Jersey, it's clear that the style of play will be more different than their lineup was two years ago.
Because of the talent and experience that has been grafted onto his depth chart, Olczyk will install a system that puts much greater emphasis on offense than there was two years ago. He won't allow team defense to become an afterthought, but his strategy won't be one-dimensional anymore.

"As far as the type of team we think we're going to have, the type of skill level and hockey sense and ability to make plays and force teams to do things, I think that will probably be a complete 180 [-degree difference in the approach]," Olczyk said.
"We've brought in difference-makers and feel we can play any way. I don't want to say we're going to be a high-risk, gambling-type of team, but, certainly, we want to use our speed, use the assets we have."

Do that, and the Penguins should be able to set the flow and pace instead of adapting to the way their opponents play.

(Dave Molinari can be reached at 412-263-1144.)