Jordan Staal
By Rob Rossi
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Since inviting Jordan Staal to share his house a few months back, Mark Recchi has tried to give his heralded young teammate some space. Lately, though, Recchi has likely sounded a lot more like a parent to Staal than a teammate.
"We've talked a lot about eating right and getting enough rest," Recchi said. "We're kind of getting into that grind where before you know it, the games are going to be coming every other night in the playoffs. You've got to take care of yourself."
Recchi was 20 when he made his NHL playoff debut with the Penguins during their Stanley Cup-winning 1990-91 season. By then, though, he was already 167 games into his NHL career.
If these Penguins hit the playoff ice next month, Staal likely will have played only 81 NHL games.
Also, he is just 18.
"That's not a small point at all," Recchi said. "For an 18-year-old young man with really only two years of junior hockey under his belt -- to come to the NHL and make that adjustment is really a tough task. He's done remarkable. I'm sure he's been a little tired lately, but he'll catch his second wind when the playoffs start. We all will."
Evgeni Malkin
If the promise of the silver-lined opportunity that will await the Penguins in the playoffs is to be realized, chances are Staal and fellow rookie Evgeni Malkin, 20, will play key roles.
With 31 and 28 goals, respectively, Malkin and Staal are the league's leading rookie snipers. Their 59 combined tallies represent roughly 23 percent of the Penguins' production this season.
However, with their club involved in a grueling stretch of 17 games over 31 days in March, neither Staal nor Malkin has made a routine habit of lighting the lamp of late.
Staal has scored only three goals this month and failed to record a point in four consecutive games. Malkin's four-game point streak ended in a loss to the Islanders in New York on Thursday. He has gone six contests without a goal, of which he has scored only two in 12 games.
"It's been tough, definitely. I'm feeling the grind," Staal said. "You can't really think of the whole picture. You've got to take it day-by-day and keep going. Every player goes through this."
Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury did last season -- his first in the NHL as a workhorse goaltender.
Compared to Staal, Fleury is a middle-aged man despite his tender age of 22. Still, Fleury can relate to the physical and mental fatigue that occasionally keeps Staal from performing at his peak.
"There is not a lot of time to recover, not right now," Fleury said. "You're always tired."
To stay energized, Fleury has cut back this season on late-night revelry in order to maintain the stamina necessary to help the Penguins chase their first playoff berth since 2001.
"We don't think about it like we're giving something up because you have to be professional and treat this like a job," Fleury said.
Playing in the NHL is a job that Recchi joked requires "cutting back on beer," and Fleury admitted to eating vegetables on their own, "instead of just getting them on pizza."
Besides, if the Penguins' young core of stars such as Fleury, Staal, Malkin and Sidney Crosby -- still only 19, by the way -- doesn't tucker out over the coming weeks, they could have plenty of time to live the sweet life of a Stanley Cup champion this offseason.
"You're tired, exhausted, running off fumes ... and, somehow, when the playoffs start you have still got all this energy," Recchi said. "You get there, and I'm not sure how, but guys suddenly know what it takes to play in that atmosphere.
"The playoffs truly really are a second wind, and everybody will say that they could not come at a better time."
On the plus side
With 17 games over 31 days in March, the Penguins are experiencing a test run for the grind of the upcoming Stanley Cup playoffs. A look at how their two star rookies, 20-year-old Evgeni Malkin and 18-year-old Jordan Staal, have fared over a grueling stretch that has seen the team play 12 times since March 1:
Player Goals Assists Points Plus/Minus
Malkin 2 7 9 Plus-2
Staal 3 3 6 Plus-7
*Malkin has not scored a goal in six games, and Staal has failed to record a point in his past four contests.
Rob Rossi can be reached at rrossi@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5635.
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