Can the Penguins protect Sid the Kid, or will the league?

Feb 10, 2007 04:30 AM
Paul Hunter
SPORTS REPORTER
The Toronto Star

It's a familiar scene: Sidney Crosby yapping in the middle of a scrum.

The setting, this time, is a low-lit corridor under the stands at Ricoh Coliseum. And the NHL's brightest young star is dutifully fielding questions moments after a Penguins practice.

"Every line is contributing every night ... we're happy to be competing for a spot in the playoffs ... just worried about winning, that's my biggest focus," the NHL's leading scorer says, as if by rote, neither the sweat nor the smile leaving his face.

Nine minutes in, a team flack jumps in to cut it off.

Crosby has his protectors off the ice. But the question being raised frequently these days is: "Who is looking after the league's future on it?"

Framed by highlights of impossible goals or breathtaking passes are frequent images of the 19-year-old being used like a pin cushion. A spear by Rob Blake here, a butt end from Maxim Lapierre there, a high stick from Francis Bouillon.

That kind of abuse prompted Don Cherry to preach from his CBC pulpit: "He cannot be whacked around like the way he gets whacked around. It's absolutely ridiculous the way he gets hit. He should have a guy running shotgun with him."

Crosby doesn't agree.

"We're working well right now with what I think you could call team toughness," he said. "We've got to make sure we're all sticking up for each other. There's not one guy I guess you could look to as a real enforcer, but I think each guy on the team takes it upon himself to really back the other guy up.

"Sometimes that's more intimidating than just one guy. I like our chemistry. There's no problem or issue there."

Crosby plays a unique game for someone his age and remarkable skill set. He drives hard into the danger areas around the net and battles for pucks. And he gets manhandled.

While no one expects him to get a free pass, some of Crosby's teammates think the league should do more to protect one of its greatest assets.

"I can see cheap shots all over the ice and, obviously, (league officials) have to do a better job protecting him," defenceman Sergei Gonchar said.

"He's the future of the league. He's advertising the game. He does everything for them to make sure that hockey is popular and hockey is moving forward. It's too bad they're not protecting him well enough."

In the pre-instigator days, it was a simpler world of instant retaliation. Touch a superstar and you paid the price. But the Pens have little interest in frontier justice.

"The guys aren't afraid to play the game or anything like that," said GM Ray Shero, whose father Fred turned intimidation into an art form while coaching the Flyers in the 1970s.

Shero said he has tough guys in the minors – Wade Brookbank and Matt Carkner – if things really get out of hand, but he said he's reluctant to change the chemistry on a team that is rocketing up the standings. One reason for Pittsburgh's hot streak – 10-0-2 in the last 12 games – is that coach Michel Therrien has been able to roll all four lines. Shero doesn't want to mess that up by acquiring a threatening presence who can't play; neither, it seems, do his players.

"I won a Stanley Cup with a team in Carolina that didn't have (an enforcer), so I'm not sold on the concept," Mark Recchi said.

Still, this is a new world for the hockey superstar. Wayne Gretzky, the player to whom Crosby is most compared, had a bodyguard in Dave Semenko and other protectors in Edmonton.

Long-time Edmonton hockey writer Jim Matheson tells a story of Oilers defenceman Lee Fogolin skating over to a centre lined up for a draw against a teenaged Gretzky and telling the Red Wing that if anything happened to No.99, he would personally carve the eyes out of the Detroit player's head. Oh, and spread the word, he added, likely with a smile.

These days, the only carving being done is of Crosby's reputation. Because he, figuratively, fights his own battles – and often tumbles to the ice when at the wrong end of a Synergy – he has been portrayed as a diver, a whiner and a faker.

"He doesn't whine. He just plays," Recchi said in passionate defence of his linemate.

"This kid takes more abuse than any young hockey player will take. Wayne never took this abuse. For whatever reason, people are tying to find negative stuff on this young gentleman who doesn't deserve it. This guy cares more about the NHL than any of these (media critics) will ever care about it.

"They should be feeding on the positives. Instead, they're trying to find negatives, which drives me absolutely up the wall."

Polamalu named YMCA's Person of the Year

By The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Saturday, February 10, 2007


Steelers Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu was named the Downtown YMCA's Person of the Year, the organization announced Friday.
Polamalu will be honored, along with 100 scholar-athletes from Western Pennsylvania high schools, at the YMCA's 33rd annual scholar-athlete banquet May 31 at the Hilton Hotel, downtown.

Committee members cited Polamalu's strength in spirit, mind and body and support of the YMCA's core values -- caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.

Last year's recipient was PNC Financial Service Group chairman and CEO James E. Rohr. Previous winners include Jamie Dixon, Jerome Bettis, Hines Ward, Dan Rooney, Lynn Swann, Bill Cowher, Jim Leyland, Dr. Freddie Fu, Stan Savran, Chuck Noll, Andy Russell, Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier.

"It is a great honor to be recognized by the YMCA, whose support of children, families and communities is of particular importance to me," said Polamalu, in a statement released by the YMCA. "The true champions of this event, however, are the students being recognized for their accomplishments as scholar-athletes. Their academic and athletic achievements and commitment to working to strengthen their communities are an inspiration to all of us."

Proceeds from the scholar-athlete banquet benefit the downtown YMCA's Strong Communities Campaign and Activate Pittsburgh initiative, which funds after-school programs and provides memberships to individuals and families who can't afford YMCA fees.

Crosby snaps shootout drought to beat Flyers, 5-4

Penguins' Sidney Crosby skates toward his bench after scoring the deciding goal in the shootout against the Flyers.

Friday, February 09, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PHILADELPHIA -- Sidney Crosby wasn't thinking about how Philadelphia had just shut him out for only the second time in 15 career meetings.

He wasn't dwelling on his history of shootout futility, either. On how he was 0 for 7 in them this season.

His only concern was figuring out how to put a puck past Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki.

"It's not that I don't care," Crosby said. "But after you miss so many, you kind of become numb and just try to go out there and put it in."

Which Crosby did, beating Niittymaki on the glove side to make the Penguins' 5-4 shootout victory at the Wachovia Center possible, although their two points weren't secure until goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped Simon Gagne -- who had scored Philadelphia's first two goals -- on the Flyers' final try.

Erik Christensen and Evgeni Malkin had failed to beat Niittymaki, while Fleury had denied Jeff Carter and Peter Forsberg, before Crosby got his turn in the shootout. And responded the way a big-time player is supposed to in high-stakes situations.

"It was nice for one to finally go in," he said.

Timely, too, because his goal stretched the Penguins' current roll to 10-0-2, improved their record to 28-17-9 and moved them into a tie with Ottawa for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

"They might be the hottest team in the league right now," Gagne said.

Crosby's goal also enhanced a compelling by-the-numbers case for the Penguins' chances of getting into the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2001.

Tampa Bay earned the eighth spot in the East with 92 points last season. Having earned 65 in their first 54 games, the Penguins need just 28 to exceed that total.

That would entail nothing more than playing .500 -- going 14-14, or its equivalent -- the last 28 games. Given that they have taken 22 of 24 possible points from the past dozen games, that doesn't seem like an unrealistic objective. At least not if they can improve on their fairly lackluster, up-and-down performance of last night.

"I don't think we played a solid game," coach Michel Therrien said. "We're disappointed, but the most important thing is that we ended up leaving this building with two points."

For, he might have added, the fourth time in four tries this season. The Penguins, who have won a season series from the Flyers for just the second time in the past 13 seasons, are 7-0 against them in 2006-07.

Whether they can sweep Philadelphia -- something they've never accomplished -- is a matter of semantics because, while the Penguins will have taken all eight games if they win March 4 at Mellon Arena, the Flyers did pick up a point for extending the game beyond regulation last night.

Jordan Staal gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 9:35 of the first period by chipping in a Christensen rebound for his 20th of the season just as a tripping minor to Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher was expiring.

Gagne got that goal back for the Flyers during a power play at 11:57, when he threw a shot past Fleury from along the goal line to the right of the net, and added another man-advantage goal with 72 seconds left in the period to put Philadelphia up, 2-1.

Michel Ouellet pulled the Penguins even at 12:56 of the second, as he pulled in a pass from Ryan Whitney and charged to the net before sticking a shot between Niittymaki's pads for his 12th. Fleury picked up the second assist.

Fleury preserved the tie by denying Michael Richards on a short-handed breakaway 56.6 seconds before the second intermission, and his teammates rewarded him with two goals in a 30-second span early in the third.

Mark Recchi put the Penguins up, 3-2, at 34 seconds by backhanding his own rebound past Niittymaki while falling to the ice, and Christensen scored from the front lip of the crease at 1:04.

The outcome seemed fairly secure at that point, but Mike Knuble made it 4-3 at 5:58, then tipped in an Alexei Zhitnik shot with 84 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

"They kept coming, and I think we panicked just a little bit," Christensen said. "It's not like we sat back and said, 'Ah, that's the game,' but they bumped it up a level of intensity and we didn't match it."

But they did survive, and Crosby's shootout goal allowed them to head to Toronto for a game tomorrow night with a couple of critical, if not richly deserved, points.

"It's been a long time since we had a bad game," Therrien said. "Tonight was a bad game. But the positive thing is that, even if you're not at your best, if you're capable of winning at this time of year, it's a good sign."


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(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com.)

Penguins digging deep

Washington Capitals' Boyd Gordon pursues Penguins Sidney Crosby as he controls the puck while falling in the third period Saturday. The Penguins won 2-0.

By Keith Barnes
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 8, 2007


When the Penguins practice, Sidney Crosby is usually the first player on the ice and the last to leave.

So, it somewhat surprising Wednesday when the first two players to hit the ice were Dominic Moore and Ronald Petrovicky.

"We just got lucky to be the first couple of guys out there," Petrovicky said. "Sid's got a passion for hockey, and you can see it all the time, and he's a prime example of a hockey player that's doing the right thing every time."

It wasn't the first time Crosby yielded ice time to Petrovicky, Moore and their linemate, Jarkko Ruutu. They've been taking an average of 13 shifts and nearly 10 minutes a game away from the top three lines during the Penguins' 9-0-2 streak that has them residing in fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

And the league's leading scorer doesn't mind a bit.

"They've been playing great," said Crosby, who has a league-high 86 points. "They've been playing physical and chipping in, and we need everyone."

It may not seem like much, but with a backloaded schedule that has the Penguins playing 29 games in the next 59 days, including 17 games in March, the players will take every break they can get.

"You just stay fresh as a team, they feel a part of it, and it's a big thing," Penguins forward Mark Recchi said. "Last year, going to Carolina (during the Hurricanes' Stanley Cup run) we had a very effective fourth line that we could throw out there anytime to do a job and play with energy, a little fire in their bellies and make it hard for the other team."

Unlike the many teams that limit playing time for the fourth line, the Penguins roll theirs out as part of their normal rotation. Only power plays and penalty kills interrupt the cycle and keep the fourth-liners planted on the bench for any length of time.

Even late in games, when many coaches think of shortening their bench and reducing play to three or two lines, the Penguins remain faithful to their four-line philosophy.

"There's a lot of hockey to be played, and those guys deserve to be on the ice as well," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "Our goal is to go with six defensemen and four lines with everyone involved, because we know that we're going to need everyone if we want to make the playoffs."

Playing the fourth line certainly proved beneficial Saturday. Stuck in a scoreless game with Washington, Petrovicky broke down the right wing side into the Capitals' zone, hesitated, then beat goaltender Olaf Kolzig for the winning goal in a 2-0 decision.

"Every time you score a goal and your hockey team wins, you feel good," Petrovicky said. "(Tuesday) we had a few chances to score, but we didn't, and we'll just keep working hard and hopefully we'll keep doing the same thing."

Scoring from a fourth line is generally considered a bonus, but the Penguins have been reaping consistent benefits of late. Over the past 11 games, the checking line has notched six goals, 12 points, one game-winning goal and an even plus-minus rating.

"I think when you look at successful teams, you can't have two lines or three lines going, because, in the end, in the playoffs, you need everybody," Ruutu said. "You have to trust everybody ... and I think there's a lot of advantages, because you're way less tired and you're fresher toward the end of the game."

More important, the Penguins may be fresher at the end of the season as they try to secure their first postseason berth in six years.

"Not that you want to save anything; you don't," Crosby said. "But you have to make sure that you're taking the time when you can to rest, and playing four lines is a big part of it."


Keith Barnes can be reached at kbarnes@tribweb.com or 724-853-2109.

Staal defies odds, gets career off to fast start

Evgeni Malkin and Michel Ouellet celebrate empty-net goal by Jordan Staal, center, Saturday against the Capitals.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Six months, three training camps, two contract deadlines and one All-Star side trip into his rookie NHL season, Penguins forward Jordan Staal is enjoying the kind of year that would suit a lot of veterans.

Going into the game tonight at Philadelphia, Staal is second on the team with 19 goals in 52 games, including an NHL-best five short-handed and two game-winners. He ranks second on the team with a plus-minus rating of plus-12. He leads the league with a shooting percent of 25. His 25 points put him seventh among league rookies.

He is getting stronger, with a goal in three consecutive games and at least one point in eight of his past 11 games.

He has done that while playing roughly half the time as a left winger instead of at his natural position, center.

And he is 18 and will be through the end of the season, no matter how far the Penguins might go in the playoffs.

Does Superman come in a blond-haired, blue-eyed Canadian farm boy model?

Staal, whose fair complexion gives way to blushing at the slightest bit of attention from people, is as pleasantly surprised as anyone.

"To be counted on every game, it's a little nerve-racking, but I definitely love it," Staal, the second overall pick in the draft last year, said yesterday.

When Staal left training camp with his junior team in Peterborough, Ontario, to come to Pittsburgh in September, the only guarantee was that he would turn 18 during the Penguins' first rookie camp. Once in the main training camp, he was given a fair chance to make the team. Then came a couple of cutoff dates during the season, but Staal wasn't returned to his junior team.

In hindsight, the thought that he belonged anywhere but the NHL seems almost comical.

"The biggest thing for me is that he's absolutely had to learn a new position and is doing it as an 18-year-old in the NHL," said veteran winger Mark Recchi, who has Staal living in his guest house and sits next to him in the Penguins' locker room.

"He's a force out there. He's a powerful skater. He holds the puck. He's probably one of our best penalty-killers, if not the best penalty-killer. He just does so many good things for an 18-year-old. It's pretty scary.

"He's getting rewarded because he's doing good things that are making him successful."

Some of those rewards are more tangible than others.

After making an appearance in the YoungStars game during All-Star week last month and closing in on some nice round numbers, Staal is sure to collect bonus money on top of his $850,000 rookie salary.

"It's always in the back of your mind, but you're really worried about every game and the team," Staal said. "It's always nice to get those extra bonuses, though. I'm real close."

If it bothers him at all that he has been asked to play so much at winger, he doesn't let on.

He takes instruction from assistant coach Mike Yeo on playing along the boards. He taps the brains of teammates.

"It hasn't been easy, but I think my whole life I've had to adjust quickly and learn," Staal said. "The biggest thing is keeping up your speed. When you're on the wing, you're standing still a lot more than when you're at center. You've got to really accelerate to those openings and find those openings."

While most young forwards have to be cajoled into minding their defensive responsibilities, Staal already is a solid, two-way player. That's partly because he uses his size to its fullest advantage. At 6 feet 4, 220 pounds, he is the second-biggest player on the team, just four pounds lighter than winger Ryan Malone and just as tall.

"For a big guy, I can control guys down low," Staal said. "And, personally, I just really don't want to get scored on."

Penguins coach Michel Therrien nearly is driven to giggling when asked about Staal because the young player has been such a delight.

"I don't know what's going on with this Staal family," Therrien said, referring older brother Eric Staal of Carolina, "but one thing I know, he's getting better."

Staal has moved up steadily and now is on the second line with center Evgeni Malkin and right winger Michel Ouellet.

If not for Malkin, a 20-year-old Russian who has 26 goals and 59 points, Staal would be a solid candidate for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year.

Whereas Malkin is heading into new territory having never played in more than 66 games in a season, Staal played 87 games last season while helping Peterborough win the Ontario Hockey League championship and advance to the Memorial Cup tournament.

"With three training camps and, hopefully, the playoffs, it's probably going to be a long season," Staal said.

He's loving every minute of it.



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(Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721. )

New coaching staff must get Big Ben back in high gear

Roethlisberger in Super Bowl XL

Thursday, February 08, 2007

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The primary job of the Steelers' new coaching staff? Resurrect the Ben Roethlisberger of 2004 and '05, when he was the best young quarterback in the NFL.

Roethlisberger will have a new center and perhaps as many as three different offensive linemen since last season. What he needs most is the kind of protection even the best of blockers cannot bring him -- one that prevents traffic accidents and emergency surgeries.

"We have an elite quarterback -- or someone who can be elite -- and we need to get him to that level," said Bruce Arians, who was promoted to replace Ken Whisenhunt as offensive coordinator.

It's the most important job that Arians and new quarterbacks coach Ken Anderson have, and it starts in March when the players begin their offseason program.

Roethlisberger has some big shoes to fill -- his own. He broke Dan Marino's rookie records in 2004, when he compiled the best starting record of any quarterback in the game's history by going 13-0. All he did his second season was become the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl. His combined passer rating in his first two seasons was a lofty 98.3.

He hit the ground with a thud last year, starting with his June 12 motorcycle accident and continuing with his appendectomy five days before the start of the regular season. His misfortune continued on the field, as he led the NFL with 23 interceptions -- more than his first two seasons combined -- and ranked in the bottom half of the league with a 74.8 passer rating.

The first remedy for what ails Roethlisberger is rest, said Arians, who believes his preseason trauma set the tone for a tough 2006.

"For him to even play after that was amazing. And to play as well as he did [at times], and one thing after the other. He needs to get back to being healthy and relaxed."

After that, Arians and Anderson will work on other procedures with Roethlisberger.

"We want to see him improve from the minute details of footwork all the way through his completion percentage and his touchdown/interception ratio, to get back to where he's one of the three or four elite guys in this league, because he has that ability."

Roethlisberger ranked 19th in the NFL by completing 59.7 percent of his passes last season (compared to 62.9 his first two seasons). He was minus-five in his TD/interception ratio after having a plus-14 in his first two seasons.

Arians and his offensive coaches are updating a playbook that became cumbersome over the past 15 years as six different coordinators added their own particulars to the original. It should help Roethlisberger calling plays and checking out of them.

"We'll streamline things that can come out of his mouth easier, that he can see more pictures with words [rather than] call exotic formations and not know where everybody's at," Arians said.

Now, for the rest of the players on offense.

"I think our personnel is more than adequate," Arians pronounced. "We've built some depth at some spots."

An overhaul could take place in the offensive line, with possibly three new starters -- at center, right guard and right tackle.

A new center will replace the retired Jeff Hartings from among the group of longtime backup Chukky Okobi, 2006 rookie Marvin Philip or starting right guard Kendall Simmons. Chris Kemoeatu will compete to become the starter at right guard and Willie Colon, who started the final two games of last season as a rookie, will compete with Max Starks at right tackle.

Simmons played two games at center for the first time in his life when Okobi was hurt last preseason.

"He looked good," Arians said. "It's an option that I like and I would like to explore more. He's a powerful, fast guy. We've got some guys in here at guard, where the competition will be real good. You just want to get as much competition at every spot as possible and find the five best."

Hartings made the switch from guard with the Detroit Lions to center when he signed with the Steelers in 2001 and replaced the retired Dermontti Dawson.

"Some guys can play with the ball between their legs, and some can't," Arians explained. "Kendall walked in there and looked natural at it. He could step and snap and go; that's the No. 1 hurdle. It's a viable option."

Marvel Smith will remain at left tackle and Alan Faneca at left guard.

"From the center through the right side, there's a lot of competition," Arians said. "We want to build some depth on that left side."


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(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com. )

Archive: Lemieux was a player for the ages

By Larry Wigge
NHL.com columnist
Jan. 25, 2006

Michael Jordan had it. So did Babe Ruth and Joe Montana, Jim Brown, Wayne Gretzky, Magic Johnson, Bobby Orr, Bill Russell and Mario Lemieux.

From his first shift in the NHL in October, 1984 against the Boston Bruins when he beat Hall of Fame defenseman Ray Bourque for a breakaway goal, Mario Lemieux showed us the "it" that makes certain athletes that once-in-a-lifetime player.

Le Magnifique? Super Mario? In either French or English, Mario Lemieux had "it". He was special, not just being great individually, but also because he had the innate ability to make players around him better.

And what separates Lemieux from the rest of the true superstars in sports is that he continually was able to achieve those heights while trying to overcome pain in his back and hip that was so intense that he couldn't bend over to tie his skate laces, not to mention the ordeal of beating cancer.

Each time, Super Mario came back to write another glorious story for all of us to follow. I'll never forget driving into Pittsburgh in September, 1995 to do a story about Mario's comeback after a year away from the game after complications from Hodgkin's disease.

"I'm not coming back to be an average player," he told me, emphasizing each word with meaning. "There are scoring titles and Stanley Cups to be won. I won't settle for being anything less than what Mario Lemieux was before he retired for a year."

It wasn't a boast. Or a threat. Or a warning. Just a simple statement of purpose.

Lemieux's 69 goals, 92 assists and 161 points in just 70 games after one year off were all League-leading totals. He went on to win two more scoring titles, but no Stanley Cups.

Even if Lemieux's numbers this season showed him with only seven goals and 22 points in 26 games before he was sidelined by heart palpitations in late November, he still wasn't an average player before he announced his retirement on January 24, citing health problems once again and a feeling that he no longer could be the same Super Mario that we all expected to see on the ice during his 17-year career.

Nothing is worse than the sight of a person agonizing over the easiest tasks in life, like tying shoelaces. But that was the case with Lemieux, this star of stars who revolutionized the game, but often couldn't skate many days in his career without first having a clubhouse boy tie his laces. He often had to order a special mattress on the road or face waking up so stiff that he couldn't straighten up. But he played nonetheless.

Think about it for a moment, five times in his 17-year career Lemieux played in less than 30 games. Five more times he played in less than 65 games. Only four times did he play in as many as 75 games. And yet here we are comparing this hobbled great with among the best in sports.

In the end, his 690 goals in just 915 games were eighth all-time, his 1,033 assists were 10th and his 1,723 points were seventh. His 1.88 points per game was second only to Gretzky's 1.92 (it was better than 2.00 points per game for much of his career).

I remember asking Mario the what-if questions we all had back in 1995 like: What stratosphere his statistics would be in if he had had a career without health concerns? I wondered, since his mind had fought his body for so long, if he would make a trade of body parts, would he? There was no hesitation.

"God gave me a lot of talent and skill. I think my record shows it has not been all bad," he said, looking me square in the eyes. "(Former Baltimore Orioles star) Cal Ripken is getting a lot of acclaim for playing in more than 2,000 consecutive games, but I wouldn't trade this body just to be in the lineup every night.

"We're put on this world with certain gifts, certain flaws. I'll forever be grateful for the skill and talent and family and friends I've got. I wouldn't change my life at all."

Joie de vivre. Lemieux had that incredibly keen enjoyment of life ... and everything hockey.

Time stood still for a player like Lemieux from 1984 until just the other day, even if some questioned this quiet French Canadian's passion and willingness to pay the price to win early in his career.

Super Mario had a career-high of 85 goals, 114 assists and 199 points in the 1988-89 season, numbers only surpassed by Gretzky. Lemieux led the Pittsburgh Penguins to Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992. And he kept coming back for more. He kept coming back to treat us more. Like in December of 2000, when Lemieux returned after 3 1/2 years of retirement, getting one goal and two assists -- dramatically setting up a Penguins goal on his first shift back just 33 seconds into game against Toronto.

"From the get-go he looked like John Elway or Joe Montana, a quarterback coming out of the huddle, surveying the defense and then picking it apart with play after play," then-Maple Leafs goaltender Curtis Joseph told reporters afterward. "There are players out there in all sports who make great plays, but not many who can dominate a game like that ... and do it after being retired for more than three years."

And, as always, Lemieux did it with an exclamation point.

Je ne sais quoi. A certain flair and style.

Like Elway leading a fourth-quarter drive. Or Jordan waiting and waiting, then popping a 25-footer at the buzzer to win the game.

"The vision is still there. The hands are still there," Lemieux said at his press conference after that 2000 game. "I didn't have any problems finding players and making good decisions. A lot of times I didn't see things developing, but I felt them."

Like a chessmaster running the board, thinking three and four moves ahead of everyone else. And it always came after we got to watch the long, elegant stride of a 6-foot-4, 228-pound star who was able to make the moves that were usually designed for smaller men, and yet he had the size to bull through players like Jim Brown trying to tackle him.

"You'd have to have been living on a Russian space station not to understand how important Mario's return is to our game," then-Toronto backup goalie Glenn Healy told reporters.

It's a fact that everyone's a sucker for comeback stories -- and Lemieux never seemed to get tired of making us happy. We're talking about an athlete who missed six weeks of the 1992-93 season while undergoing radiation treatments for Hodgkin's disease only to return and win the scoring title. We're talking about an athlete who took a one-year sabbatical in 1994-95 to try to recover from his assorted ailments, then returned to win back-to-back scoring crowns.

Gordie Howe and Guy Lafleur weren't the same after they returned from shorter layoffs, but neither of them averaged 2.005 points per game as Lemieux did, an average surpassed by no one, not even Gretzky during Super Mario's first decade and a half in the NHL.

His first game back after 3 1/2 years in retirement had the instant impact we expected. It was the kind of storybook performances stars like Lemieux learn how to write when they are kids and never forget how to produce.

Failing was never in Lemieux's vocabulary.

"I haven't thought that way in 35 years," Lemieux said halfway through the 2000-01 season, when others were already in midseason form. "I have a lot of confidence in my ability to come back and play at a high level and be at the top of my game by the playoffs. I didn't come back to be ordinary."

Like Orr and Gretzky before him, he truly defied the common theory that no one player can dominate a game today.

Magnifique mystique. The predatory instincts that made Lemieux an unstoppable force, no matter how long dormant. He defied conformity, defied the shackles the game put upon him. And defined time itself.

Mario Lemieux never came back to be an average player -- and no one will ever think of him that way.

Mario was Super ... Le Magnifique.


Larry Wigge has covered the NHL since 1969. The longtime NHL columnist for The Sporting News, Wigge is now an NHL.com columnist and a frequent contributor to the website.

Myron Cope: Mario, do the right thing

Myron Cope announces his retirement June 2005

Money won't make you happy; emulate The Chief and keep the Pens in Pittsburgh

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I hope somebody reading this is close enough to Mario Lemieux to call it to his attention.

Mario, I've known you since your rookie season and have always found you a fine fellow, so I'm going to ask a lot of you. In these cynical times when the bottom line so often rules, it's perhaps silly to ask, but consider emulating The Chief -- the late Art Rooney Sr.

Actually, this is a follow-up to a letter I wrote that the Post-Gazette published a year ago. I wrote that The Chief, saying not a word of it publicly, rejected highly lucrative offers from five cities entreating him to move the Steelers. He loved Pittsburgh and felt the city would be greatly diminished by the loss of a big-league franchise.

I also pointed out that Art Modell suddenly moved his Cleveland Browns to Baltimore after politicians for years did nothing to renovate ancient Cleveland Stadium. I faulted Mr. Modell for not hanging in longer, but I said that the silence coming from then-Mayor Bob O'Connor, County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Gov. Ed Rendell on the matter of a new arena was shaping up as a repeat of Cleveland. I hope I'm wrong. (Mr. Rendell's Plan B, by the way, has seemed to me all along to simply muddy the waters.)

At any rate, Mario, I assume you have a great affection for Pittsburgh, or else you would not have made it your residence. Perhaps unfairly, I'm asking that you disregard bottom-line offers and keep the Pens here, simply because it's the right thing to do. Disregard our political leaders staying on the sidelines for so long. I doubt you'll ever regret doing the right thing. You'll feel good about yourself.

Some people protest the use of taxpayer money to give huge subsidies to club owners. Or they don't care about hockey. Their arguments are understandable. But, folks, the realities are that this has been the way of America for many years now and losing the Pens would be a severe blow to our region in too many respects to enumerate.

Mario, you've got the politicians over a good-sized barrel. Reason one, they sat as silent as stone pillars while you sought an arena agreement for years. Reason two, the state Gaming Control Board, by rejecting a casino bid that would have led to an arena, rendered a decision so stupefying as to cause me to wonder: Had board member Sandy Rivers behaved similarly when he officiated NFL games, might he have led the league in calls overturned by instant replay?

Anyhow, Mario, get the deal done in Pittsburgh.

America still includes many who do the right thing. Do it, Mario, and I'll even forgive the time you stood on a high tee at a par three and saw a runt on the green below standing over a 2-foot birdie putt. You cried out: "Cope! Choke!" As you know, I made birdie.

It's your turn for a Pittsburgh birdie. It's a hard one; more's the reason you'll be proud of it.

The Chief put it this way: "Money has never been my god -- never."

Myron Cope, the retired Steelers sportscaster, lives in Mt. Lebanon.

Penguins' surge hits 9-0-2 with 4-1 win

Mark Recchi celebrates with Evgeni Malkin after Malkin scored the go-ahead goal In the second period against Nashville last night at Mellon Arena.


Tie Ottawa for 5th in East with win against No. 1 team in NHL

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

By Dave Molinari
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When 82 games are over and all the points have been accumulated and accounted for, these two won't look much different from any of the others earned by the Penguins.

They'll be no more -- and no less -- valuable than the ones they picked up for any other victory, against any other opponent.

But the payoff for their 4-1 victory against Nashville at Mellon Arena last night went beyond just a couple of points because the Predators are not just any team.

Nashville has piled up a league-high 77 points by virtue of outstanding speed and skill and depth and might be the finest team in the game. But, at least on this night, the best team in hockey was not good enough to defeat the Penguins.

"It was a good test for us, to see how good we really are," said Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton, a Nashville alum. "And we responded."

The victory ran the Penguins' current surge to 9-0-2, raised their record to 27-17-9 and lifted them into a tie with Ottawa for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. They have a game in hand on the Senators.

The Penguins didn't dominate, but they had an edge in nearly every pivotal aspect of play. While each team generated 26 shots, goalie Marc-Andre Fleury of the Penguins outplayed his Nashville counterpart, Chris Mason, and the Penguins won the special-teams battle, scoring on one of seven power plays while holding the Predators 0 for 4 with the extra man.

"We have to be happy with the way we played," Penguins center Sidney Crosby said. "It wasn't a conference game, but we were playing a tough team and we wanted to make sure we came out and really made it tough on them."

Which is pretty much what Nashville had anticipated.

"They're filling their team with stars, and surrounding them with workhorses," Predators center Jason Arnott said. "There's no surprise, though. They're a good team, a fast-skating team"

So are the Predators, who have come by their 37-15-3 record honestly. There's nothing fluky about a team that's on top of the overall standings in February, and no one argued when Penguins coach Michel Therrien characterized Nashville as "a team that would be a great contender to win the Stanley Cup this year."

"That's how I remember them," Eaton said. "They're a hard-forechecking team, they live off turnovers, they're a quick counter(-attacking) team and they have a lot of speed."

The Penguins, thanks in part to three tries with the man-advantage, ran up a 10-5 edge in shots during the opening period, but Nashville got the only goal.

Scott Nichol scored it at 17:53, when he deflected a shot by defenseman Sheldon Brookbank, playing in his first NHL game, past Fleury. That gave the Predators at least one first-period goal for the 18th game in a row -- and their only lead of the evening.

"They got that one, but we outplayed them," Eaton said. "We just needed to keep doing what we were doing."

Which is precisely what they did and, after nearly pulling even several times early in the second -- Mason denied Evgeni Malkin from the right side of the slot at 1:44 and a few minutes later, a Ronald Petrovicky shot from the left side hit Mason's glove and went off the right post -- the Penguins finally broke through on Jordan Staal's 19th goal.

Crosby rushed the puck from Penguins' zone into the Nashville end before sliding a pass to Staal, whose shot from the left side glanced off Brookbank's stick and sailed behind Mason at 5:46.

With that goal, Staal, 18, joined a select group of teammates whose goal output surpasses their age.

"He's gone beyond all of our expectations," right winger Mark Recchi said.

The Penguins went in front to stay during a power play at 8:05, when Malkin took a feed from Recchi and beat Mason from the bottom of the right circle for his 26th. Crosby picked up the second assist, pushing his league-leading points total to 86.

Recchi, who assisted on the Penguins' first two goals, expanded their comfort zone considerably at 3:10 of the third, when he threw a wrist shot past Mason from inside the right circle -- "That was a huge goal for us," Crosby said -- and Jarkko Ruutu closed out the scoring with an empty-netter at 18:36.

And, in the process, guaranteed that it would be a most satisfying evening for Eaton.

"I'm not going to lie to you," Eaton said. "I enjoyed that one more than a lot of other wins."

Just like a lot of his teammates.


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(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )

Hartings Makes Retirement Official

Jeff Hartings throws a block on Philadelphia's Nate Wayne in a game in the 2004 season.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

By Robert Dvorchak, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

One year, you are watching with your wife and kids as the confetti falls on you and the Super Bowl trophy. The next, you are explaining how the pain in your knees has taken the fun out of the game and that it is time to retire,

Jeff Hartings, the Steelers' center since 2001, made it official yesterday after word leaked out last week that he had told his teammates he was done. After speaking with new coach Mike Tomlin on the phone, he told the Pittsburgh media by conference call that it is time to move on to a new calling in his life.

"I'm getting out at the right time because I felt I wasn't going to be able to go into the offseason to work out and be prepared," Hartings, 34, said. "I don't enjoy working very much anymore because it's painful. When it starts becoming painful, you'd rather not do it. Since I'd rather not do it, it's time for me to retire.

"I'll always love the game. But the injuries, and the playing with pain, and having to take medicine to practice and play, has taken away some of the joy."

Hartings, who took a pay cut to play last season, had a year left on his contract. Although he had never played center before signing as a free agent, Hartings was a fixture at a position that has become a legacy with the Steelers since 1964.

Ray Mansfield, Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawson and Hartings were the starting centers who initiated nearly every offensive play in 43 years. Hartings missed only six games in six seasons because of injuries. But it is a position and a profession that takes its toll on the body, and Hartings didn't want the deterioration in his achy knees to infringe on family moments like playing with his six kids.

"It would diminish my ability to play in the back yard with my kids," Hartings said. "[It's] literally not being able to run around and to catch them without doing all the things you do before a practice or a game because your knees are sore. That's been going for two or three years, and, this year, it finally got to the point where I decided I didn't want to sacrifice any of my joints in my body that would diminish my ability to be able to play with them for the next 15 or 20 years. For me, it definitely tipped the scales."

It was an injury to his left knee four years ago -- one that robbed him of most of his cartilage -- that got Hartings to think about life after football. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in Salt Lake City and plan to open a non-denominational church. In his ministry with Luther Elliss, a former teammate when he was with the Detroit Lions, Hartings wants to work with kids because an 11-year career in the NFL has given him financial security. He'll be in action Sundays, but in a church, not butting heads with nose tackles and linebackers.

"I'll definitely be in some kind of ministry," said Hartings, a first-round draft choice out of Penn State who has done missionary work in Nicaragua.

"Just working with kids, doing something that could last for an eternity in some people's lives, making peoples' lives better."

Chukky Okobi has been groomed for the past six years to take over the position, but the Steelers also have Marvin Philip on the roster.

"The position has been very important to the Steelers, and I'm sure they're going to find a very good replacement for myself," Hartings said.

Hartings watched the Indianapolis Colts succeed the Steelers as NFL champions Sunday, a year after the Steelers went on an unprecedented run of winning three road playoffs games before beating Seattle in the Super Bowl.

Winning a championship was his greatest moment in the game, but he could not help but think about what might have been in an 8-8 season that fell short of the playoffs.

"Every year, you work hard and go into season with one goal, and that's to win a Super Bowl," Hartings said. "[On Sunday] I was thinking about the record we could have had. I think it was the most disappointing season I've had in the NFL. We didn't play well. Made too many mistakes. From a team standpoint, I think every guy on the team should be disappointed. I think it's just because our expectations are so high."

A new era begins next year with a new coach, a new offensive lineman and a new center. But Hartings thinks the future is still bright for the Steelers.

"They're definitely a Super Bowl contender. When you have that much talent that you can turn the ball over five times and still go into overtime, there's not very many teams in the NFL that can do that," he said, recalling losses to the Oakland Raiders, Cincinnati Bengals, Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos that could have made the difference in making the playoffs.

Dealing with success and disappointment is part of being a professional athlete, and Hartings figures he'll be able to use his experiences in his ministry.

Art Rooney II, president of the Steelers, wished him well.

"Jeff Hartings embraced switching to a new position when he joined the Steelers and continued our team's legacy of outstanding players at the center position," Rooney said. "He was highly respected throughout our entire organization for being a tremendous role model on and off the field."



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(Robert Dvorchak can be reached at bdvorchak@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1959. )

Pirates re-sign Sanchez, add Kolb to deep bullpen

Pirates get busy

February 3, 2007 8:14PM


PITTSBURGH (AP) -- National League batting champion Freddy Sanchez chose not to go to arbitration and agreed to a one-year, $2.75 million contract Saturday with the suddenly active Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates, who made almost no player moves for the first 3 1/2 months of their offseason, signed former Brewers All-Star reliever Dan Kolb to a minor-league contract.

Sanchez, a reserve infielder when last season started but the Pirates' 25th NL batting champion when it ended, gets a big raise over the $342,000 he made last season. He sought $3.1 million in salary arbitration while the Pirates offered $2.15 million.

Given that Sanchez hit .344 during a virtually slump-free season and drove in 85 runs despite hitting only six homers, he appeared to have a good chance of winning an arbitration case that was to be argued Feb. 8.

Despite saying he wasn't worried the club would try to downplay his accomplishments during the arbitration hearing, the 29-year-old Sanchez chose to settle in advance. The Pirates' only remaining arbitration-eligible player is second baseman Jose Castillo, whose hearing is set Feb. 14.

"You've got to have thick skin through this process and I don't take anything personal," said Sanchez, who led the NL with 53 doubles. "I understand what's going to go on."

Sanchez's .344 average was five points higher than Florida's Miguel Cabrera. Sanchez's average was the highest for a full season by a Pirates player since Roberto Clemente hit .345 in 1969.

The Pirates began pursuing the 32-year-old Kolb after they dealt closer Mike Gonzalez to the Braves on Jan. 17 for first baseman Adam LaRoche, Kolb's former teammate in Atlanta.

Salomon Torres (3-6, 3.28 ERA, 12 saves) finished up last season as the Pirates' closer after Gonzalez sat out the final five-plus weeks with a sore left elbow. But Torres often pitches better in the second half of a season than the first, and adding Kolb gives the Pirates some protection should Torres not pitch well in April and May.

The right-handed Kolb, who turns 32 in March, was 2-2 with one save and a 4.84 ERA in 53 appearances as a Brewers setup reliever last season. He had a 2.75 ERA after the All-Star break, making 14 consecutive scoreless appearances at one point. Kolb allowed only eight runs over his final 25 appearances.

Kolb had 60 saves in 67 chances with a 2.55 ERA as the Brewers' closer in 2003 and 2004, making the NL All-Star team in 2004. But Kolb struggled after signing with Atlanta in 2005, going 3-8 with a 5.93 ERA and blowing saves in seven of 18 chances.

Kolb was seeking a spot on a 40-man roster, but the Pirates currently don't have an opening. Instead, they agreed to allow him to become a free agent if he doesn't make the team out of spring training.

Kolb is expected to join Torres and setup men Matt Capps and John Grabow, Damaso Marte in what looks to be one of the NL's deepest bullpens even without Gonzalez.

In 10 career appearances at PNC Park, Kolb has four saves and hasn't allowed a run in 10 1/3 innings, permitting six hits, striking out five and walking four.

Super Bowl Lacks Luster Without Steelers

By Mike Wereschagin

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Sunday, February 4, 2007


On the bright side, it'll be a lot easier to get a seat at the bar.
A year after Pittsburgh fans celebrated a fifth National Football League championship with jubilant screams and thumbs thrust skyward, much of the city is greeting Super Bowl XLI with a shrug and a yawn.

Trevor Melville said the Super Bowl party he's hosting this year will be geared more toward his guests than the game.

"I didn't think anybody was doing anything," said Melville, 36, of Bridgeville. He invited about 15 college friends to his Sunday soiree.

One friend replied in an e-mail, saying she'd be there and asking, "Who's playing?"

"It's more of a social gathering than a football gathering," Melville said.

Steelers merchandise is the best-selling of any team in the league, but sales have drifted back to normal after the stratospheric numbers in 2006, said local shopkeepers.

"Last year, they were lined up out the door. We had to hire security guards," said Marcia Hellman, manager of Mike Feinberg & Co. in the Strip District, which claims to have the city's largest stock of Steelers paraphernalia. "This year, you could have the whole store to yourself."

Hellman declined to release sales figures comparing the past two years, as did Shawna Kocik, manager at Hometowne Sports in Station Square.

"This is more normal than last year," Kocik said.

Penguins merchandise sales, however, have been on the rise as hockey fans, some of whom were angered by the 2004-05 player lockout, trickle back to the sport. The team features several of the NHL's best and youngest stars and is in the midst of a multi-game winning streak.

"We really didn't sell a lot of Penguins gear last year. This year, the Penguins are really booming," Kocik said. "Of course, the Steelers are still the biggest hit."

Sports bars are bracing for brisk business tonight, but it's nothing like last year, said Stephanie Wagoner, manager of Hi-Tops in the North Side.

This year, the bar won't charge a cover, and it will be giving out prizes all night. Last year, no such enticements were necessary. Before Super Bowl XL began, Hi-Tops sold enough $75 admission tickets to keep the bar filled all night.

"We're still going to have a pretty good crowd," Wagoner said. "But last year was just insane. ... We were at maximum capacity the whole night and it was a crazy party all day."

Pittsburgh police last year dispatched dozens of officers in riot gear to the South Side and Oakland, where they tried to contain crowds who set fire to couches and overturned cars. This year, the department is planning only on dispatching roving patrols to catch drunken drivers, said police spokeswoman Diane Richard.

The easygoing atmosphere is fine with Melville, who said he's looking forward to a Super Bowl that's just a game.

"It's a good excuse for friends to get together -- watch the game, watch the commercials."

Mike Wereschagin can be reached at mwereschagin@tribweb.com or (412) 391-0927.

Happier Times From a Year Ago

Dapper Dan Sportsman: Sidney Crosby

Dapper Dan Sportsman: Sidney Crosby / Pittsburgh's adopted son

Sunday, February 04, 2007

By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Although he grew up in the Canadian Maritimes steeped in hockey, Sidney Crosby quickly became a fan of other Pittsburgh sports teams after joining the Penguins.

He's met Jason Bay, the Pirates' Canadian outfielder. He's been to the Steelers' home opener the past two seasons.

"Pretty much every Sunday we were off, I was watching the Steeler game," Crosby, the top overall pick in the 2005 NHL draft, said last week.

"I think it's just natural to pull for the other teams in the city you're in. It's a good atmosphere in a city when they pull together and pull

for the teams that are there. You see other athletes at our games, and you see us at Steelers games, baseball games."

So, despite being such a recent transplant, Crosby has an appreciation for the Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year award he will receive at the annual charity dinner and auction April 15 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

"It means a lot, especially here with this being the sports town that it is and to join that company that's gone through here," Crosby said. "It's a huge honor. To have that support from people outside of hockey, that's a good feeling. When I came here, people were so welcoming. I couldn't get over how nice they were. That really means a lot."

Crosby, 19, is the youngest recipient of the honor since the Dapper Dan's inception in 1939. He's one year younger than 2003 Sportsman of the Year Larry Fitzgerald, then a Pitt receiver and now with the NFL Arizona Cardinals.

Crosby edged Pirates third baseman Freddy Sanchez, who hit .344 last season to win the National League batting title. Last year, the recipient was Steelers running back Jerome Bettis.

Crosby is the fifth from the sport of hockey to be named Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year and, assuming the Penguins remain in Pittsburgh, could make a run at Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux's three awards.

Although he finished second to Washington's Alex Ovechkin in the chase for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's top rookie in 2005-06, Crosby's 102 points eclipsed the team rookie record set by Lemieux in 1984-85.

It also set the stage for a superb sophomore season. He is making a strong run at the scoring title and his first Hart Trophy as league MVP. He's a huge reason the Penguins could make the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

Going into the weekend, Crosby led the NHL with 82 points, including 25 goals, in 47 games. He took over the scoring lead in December and is just the second teen-ager to sit atop the statistical rankings. The other was the legendary Wayne Gretzky.

For calendar year 2006, Crosby led all NHL players with 118 points. He turned 19 in August.

He's also an alternate captain -- no doubt on his way to the captaincy -- and has become not only the Penguins' spokesman but perhaps also the face of the NHL.

It would be difficult to find anyone on the team with a stronger work ethic.

"The way that that kid approaches every single game and every single practice, it's like all the rest of the team, they buy into that," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "They follow their leader. There's no doubt he's got a big responsibility on our team, and our young players are following that young leader.

"I've never seen such young player so dedicated to the game, dedicated to his teammates, dedicated to his team like Sidney Crosby."

Penguins veteran Mark Recchi, who is in his third stint with the team, has been to Dapper Dan banquets and has a good grasp of the cross-section of talent that is represented on the banquet dais and among the award winners.

With Western Pennsylvania's deep pool of athletes through the decades, the Sportsmen of the Year have come from several sports and include many Hall of Famers and national and international stars.

"I think it's a great honor," Recchi said. "This is a fantastic sports town, and to be the Dapper Dan Sportsman of the Year, that's a pretty significant thing."

"And it's well deserved by Sid. He's been everything everybody expected, and more. He'll enjoy it. He has a great understanding of stuff like that."

There's little about hockey and his career so far that Crosby hasn't enjoyed.

"It's been fun," he said. "With such a young team, it's exciting to be a part of something where everyone is growing and experiencing a lot of things for the first time. At some points it's busy, no doubt, but I don't think I or anyone else would trade playing here -- and, hopefully, playing here for a long time."


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(Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721. )

Joe Starkey: Malkin's magic obscured again

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 2, 2007


It was a fairly typical night for Penguins rookie Evgeni Malkin.
He scored on a spectacular waist-high deflection in the first period, assisted on a goal in the second period, blew the roof off Mellon Arena with the winning goal in the shootout - and was named the game's third star.

That's not easy to do.

Nor is it easy to dramatically flee your homeland in August, sign an NHL contract in September, turn in one of the more spectacular first halves of any rookie in NHL history and go largely unnoticed.

Yet that is precisely what Malkin has done.

"It's hard to believe," Penguins general manager Ray Shero said Thursday night, between the first and second periods of a rousing 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. "What's he got, 25 goals? I mean, there was hype on him early, and then all of sudden he was almost a little bit under the radar. It's pretty incredible."

If he could speak English, Malkin would probably tell you that being under the radar isn't always a bad thing.

It comes in handy when you've just run away from your employer. That's for sure. It's not a bad thing when you're hiding out in a foreign country awaiting your visa, either.

Which is where Malkin was six short months ago, after he bravely bolted his Russian team during a stop in Finland.

A modern-day Russian defector, Malkin feared for his family's well-being but pushed on. Nothing was going to stop him from realizing his NHL dream, not even the best efforts of his former team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, which sued to stop him from playing for the Penguins.

That hassle finally disappeared yesterday afternoon, when a court ruling in New York dismissed the Russian club's complaints against the NHL and the Penguins.

Not that those complaints were distracting Malkin. It's the rest of us who've been distracted, what with Sidney Crosby's rapid rise to the top of hockey's food chain, the Penguins' headline-grabbing pursuit of a new arena and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's scintillating performances of late.

Is it possible we've taken Malkin for granted?

Shero's probably right. Malkin's early success made it seem normal for a 20-year-old who missed half of training camp to be lighting up 10-year NHL defensemen on a nightly basis.

And on the rare night Malkin went scoreless, we were disappointed.

Some of us complained.

For the record, Malkin has 55 points through 46 games. That's four more points than Crosby had through 46 games last season.

It also puts Malkin (25 goals, 30 assists) on pace for 92 points, which would be one of the top 10 rookie point totals in NHL history. If he never played another game, he'd have a higher career points-per-game average (1.195) than Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, Ron Francis and Steve Yzerman.

Imagine if he gets white-hot the way Crosby did down the stretch last season.

Imagine the kind of numbers he'd putting up if he didn't miss half of training camp and the first four games of the season with a shoulder injury, if he'd played every power play and if he hadn't been forced to adjust to playing a little left wing.

Geez, we might be talking about him then.


Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com

Penguins turn back Canadiens in shootout

Michel Ouellet (7), Sidney Crosby and Colby Armstrong celebrate with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after winning the shootout against the Canadiens last night at Mellon Arena.

Game had intense play, physical confrontations

Friday, February 02, 2007

They don't share a division anymore. And for all of Montreal's fabled playoff history, the Canadiens have had one postseason series against the Penguins in the past four decades.

But none of that seemed to matter while the Penguins were running their winning streak to five with a 5-4 shootout victory at Mellon Arena last night.

Serious intensity -- and hostilities -- began a split-second after the opening faceoff, when Montreal's Maxim Lapierre dropped Sidney Crosby with a butt-end to the stomach, and didn't let up until shortly before goalie Marc-Andre Fleury clinched the victory by stopping Tomas Plekanec on Montreal's final shootout try.

"It was a big-time playoff atmosphere out there," Penguins defenseman Rob Scuderi said.

No one responded to it better than Fleury, who rejected 40 of 45 shots in regulation and overtime, then denied Chris Higgins and Plekanec in the shootout after being beaten by Alex Kovalev.

"He's been so good for us, the difference in so many games," said Crosby, who again failed to score in a shootout, but had three assists to push his league-leading points total to 82.

Canadiens goalie David Aebischer stopped Crosby in the shootout but was beaten by Erik Christensen and Evgeni Malkin as the Penguins (25-17-8) moved to 7-0-1 in their past eight games.

Although both teams will play tomorrow afternoon -- the Penguins face Washington at home; the Canadiens play the New York Islanders in Montreal -- they might already be thinking ahead to the rematch at 2:08 p.m. Sunday at the Bell Centre.

"It's going to be intense," Canadiens defenseman Sheldon Souray said.

Especially for Souray, whose evening ended abruptly at 4:53 of the second period.

Seconds after Penguins winger Colby Armstrong drove a shoulder into Canadiens captain Saku Koivu, laying him out behind the Penguins' net, Souray dragged Armstrong to the ice in the slot and began throwing punches at him.

"It was a pretty clean hit, but we wanted to let him know that we don't want to have [Koivu] treated like that," Montreal winger Mike Johnson said.

Souray's message was tough to miss. So was the one sent by referees Francois St.-Laurent and Don Koharski, who gave him a minor for instigating, a fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct.

Armstrong wasn't penalized, so the Penguins ended up with a seven-minute power play, during which they scored twice. That was a high price to pay for avenging Koivu, although coach Guy Carbonneau didn't seem to mind.

"Saku's our best player," he said. "If somebody does something like that to him, I have no problem with what Sheldon did."

While the Canadiens might be the NHL's best special-teams club -- they entered the game with the No. 2 power play and the third-ranked penalty-killing unit -- the Penguins ended up with a nominal edge in that facet of play. They were 3 for 6 with the extra man; Montreal failed to score on six power plays but got two goals while short-handed.

Malkin gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 18:19 of the first, and Sergei Gonchar made it 2-0 at 8:40 of the second. After Radek Bonk picked up Montreal's first short-handed goal at 10:35, Gonchar countered by lashing a slap shot past Aebischer from the slot at 11:38.

Bonk, who hadn't scored in the previous 19 games, got that back by deflecting in a Sergei Samsonov feed at 17:13, but Christensen restored the Penguins' two-goal lead at 9:09 of the third.

That seemed secure when Plekanec was penalized for roughing at 14:25, but four seconds later, Johnson deflected a Craig Rivet shot behind Fleury for the Canadiens' second short-handed goal, and Mathieu Dandenault forced overtime when his shot from the right point bounced off Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton and Scuderi before ending up in the net.

But the Penguins survived those -- and a 7-0 disadvantage in overtime shots -- en route to a compelling victory against one of the clubs they're trying to overtake in the Eastern Conference.

"If you look at the points, there are five or six teams that are so close and fighting for playoff berths," Gonchar said. "That's why the playoff atmosphere starts in February, because everybody really has a chance."



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(Dave Molinari can be reached at DWMolinari@Yahoo.com. )

Steelers' Hartings retires

Starks, Okobi say long-standing knee problems a big factor in center's decision

Friday, February 02, 2007

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Another era has ended for the Steelers, who have been informed by center Jeff Hartings that he will retire.

Hartings, who succeeded Dermontti Dawson at a position that has been the team's most stable and successful for the past four decades, told his fellow offensive linemen shortly after the season ended that he planned to retire.

"He's done. He told all of us," said offensive tackle Max Starks, an Orlando, Fla., native spending time around Super Bowl activities this week. "He said, 'Hey guys, I'm going to retire, I just wanted to let you guys know before it came out.' We had our moments with him; we shared our last moments, gave him a big hug and wished him well in all his future endeavors."

Hartings ends an 11-year playing career with two teams at two positions. He began as a guard after the Detroit Lions drafted him in the first round from Penn State in 1996. He switched to center, a position he had never played, when he signed with the Steelers in 2001 as an unrestricted free agent.

Dawson was forced into retirement after the 2000 season because of lingering hamstring injuries. Hartings moved in and started all but six games over the past six seasons at center despite chronic problems and soreness with his knees because of a loss of cartilage.

Hartings made the Pro Bowl as a center after the 2004 and '05 seasons.

"He had some issues with his knees and everything," said Chukky Okobi, Hartings' backup the past six years who likely will take his spot next season. "He did everything he possibly could do in a career, went to Pro Bowls, won a Super Bowl, and won a bunch of games. Whatever more can he do?"

Okobi, speaking from his home in Pittsburgh yesterday, confirmed that Hartings told his teammates he had retired. Hartings did not return a telephone message left for him yesterday. There's no guarantee that Okobi will take over -- rookie Marvin Philip also was on the roster last season -- and the Steelers have a new head coach and offensive line coach. But they have been grooming Okobi for this day.

"From what I understand, I have an opportunity now after six years," Okobi said. "I think I deserve a shot. I think everything will work out."

Hartings' tenure followed a rich tradition at that position. Ray Mansfield started from 1964 into the mid-1970s when he began sharing the position with Mike Webster. Webster, elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, started through 1988 and made nine Pro Bowls. Dawson took over and made seven Pro Bowls.

Okobi said he wants to continue that custom at center.

"They'd probably run me out of town if I don't. The standard's been set. I have no choice. There were four centers before me, all made Pro Bowls. I don't want to be that guy that they say, well he just filled in for a couple years and they got someone else."

Hartings has talked about retiring for several years because of his achy knees, which actually improved the past two seasons. He took a pay cut to return to play for the Steelers last season at $2.2 million. He had one year left on his contract for 2007.

Starks said Hartings told his teammates that he plans to enter an entirely new kind of profession in Utah, where he lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Rebecca, and their six children.

"He's going to start a church," Starks said. "He's helping to build one."

According to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Hartings is a born-again Christian who has performed missionary work in Nicaragua and plans a new non-denominational church with former Lions teammate Luther Elliss.

Hartings made the adjustment to center from guard seamlessly, although there were early problems between him and quarterbacks with the snaps from center. He was not as quick as Dawson, but Hartings was agile enough to block on the move and didn't require help from the guards on blocking assignments.

"Jeff was kind of the father of the offensive line," Starks said. "He's an elder statesman in the room. When he spoke you always listened.

"We respected him, and he was ultimately the captain of the offensive line because he made all the calls and put us in the right position to be successful. He's a valuable asset and he's going to be missed."



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(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com. )

Dungy proud to be Noll's protoge

By Scott Brown

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, February 1, 2007


MIAMI - A bad back will force the legendary coach to watch Super Bowl XLI from the comfort of his seasonal home on the other side of Florida. Chuck Noll, however, will be very much on the sideline when the Indianapolis Colts play the Chicago Bears in the same city where the Hall of Famer led the Steelers to their third world championship in 1979.

Colts coach Tony Dungy has made that abundantly clear in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.

Dungy and Chicago's Lovie Smith are the first African-American head coaches to make it to the Super Bowl, but Dungy seems just as proud to carry the title of Noll protege into Sunday's 6 p.m. game.

Dungy, who played for Noll on the aforementioned Super Bowl team and later coached under him, has made numerous references to his mentor during his daily media briefings.

He did so again Wednesday when he talked about why he simplified things during the regular season -- "something I got from Coach Noll," Dungy said, "when you struggle, you do less." -- and even when he addressed his decision to bring his team to Miami on Monday instead of Sunday.

The move allowed the Colts' players to spend extra time with their families, though it led to a letter of protest from the Pro Football Writers Association to the NFL because it denied the media a day of access (the Bears arrived here Sunday).

"I don't think there's anything wrong with that, and I'm not going to apologize for it," Dungy said. "I saw you could win and win Super Bowls and still place your family as a high priority."

Dungy has emerged as perhaps the most prominent member of Noll's coaching family, and it's safe to say he has not strayed far from his roots.

That is evident in everything from his sideline comportment -- like Noll, Dungy sometimes seems almost detached from a game as he coaches in it -- to his style of defense.

"My philosophy is really out of the 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers' playbook," said Dungy, who played for the Steelers in 1977-78 and then coached in Pittsburgh from 1981-88. "That is why I have to laugh when I hear 'Tampa 2.' Coach Noll just believed in fundamentally sound football, a lot of zone defense, getting fast guys who flew around to the ball and were well-disciplined, and that is my background."

Dungy's background, specifically that he learned from the only coach to win four Super Bowls, is something he still brings up to his staff in Indianapolis.

"What he found was there were a lot of similarities between how he would handle things and how coach Noll handles things and I think coach Noll resonated with his spirit," Colts quarterbacks/assistant head coach Jim Caldwell said. "Therefore, you'll hear (Dungy) refer to him quite often because Coach Noll had some things in place that Coach Dungy agreed with and has since implemented."

Tom Moore, the Colts' offensive coordinator and former Steelers assistant (1977-89), said no one shaped him more as a coach than Noll. It is probably not an overstatement to say the same thing about Dungy.

"He's not an up-and-down guy," Moore said when asked about Dungy and his similarities to Noll. "He's the same every week."

Last week, Dungy showed just how much Noll has meant to his success by calling him less than a day after his greatest victory as a coach.

Dungy didn't get a chance to talk to Noll after the Colts overcame a 21-3 deficit to beat the New England Patriots, 38-34, in the AFC Championship Game. He did leave, according to Marianne Noll, a "beautiful message."

"It was really personal, very nice," Noll's wife said Wednesday from Bonita Springs, Fla. "I sure hope they win (Sunday)."

A Colts victory would allow Dungy to join Noll as a Super Bowl-winning coach. His ultimate tribute to Noll, however, may end up being new Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

Just as Noll did with him, Dungy brought Tomlin into the NFL as a coach and taught him many of the things he learned while in Pittsburgh.

Now, Tomlin will try to carry on the tradition of excellence Noll started in the 1970s when he turned the Steelers into a dynasty.

Because of Dungy, Noll is a mentor, once removed, to Tomlin.

Of his connection to the past Steelers coach and the current one, Dungy said, "It's a cycle I'm a glad to be a part of."


Scott Brown can be reached at sbrown@tribweb.com or 412-481-5432.

Recchi enjoying being part of team's resurgence

By Keith Barnes

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 1, 2007


So much has happened to Penguins right winger Mark Recchi over the past few weeks that he's spent quite a bit of time reflecting on his career.
"It's gone way too quick, absolutely, it does," Recchi said Wednesday. "But I'm not ready to hang them up, so I'm just going to try to enjoy these last few years and try to win another Stanley Cup."

Recchi turns 39 today and is, by far, the elder statesman on the team. In their 3-0 win Tuesday over Florida, the Penguins dressed only two other players, defenseman Sergei Gonchar and forward Jarkko Ruutu, that were over 30.

Recchi feeds off his youthful teammates.

"It's terrific because you can see how they want to get better every day, their attitude's unbelievable, and they get on the ice and work hard," Recchi said. "It's really fun being around these guys."

If the 17-year veteran ever wanted perspective on how long he's been around, all he has to do is look to his immediate right in the dressing room. The player next to him, Jordan Staal, was only 67 days old when Recchi made his NHL debut Nov. 16, 1988 in Toronto.

"It's amazing because he doesn't look out of place one bit and he deserves to be here," Staal said. "He's been playing amazing for us and, more power to him. I think he's got a lot of years left."

Age hasn't been a factor for Recchi this season. In fact, he's playing as well as he did in his first full season in the NHL. In 1989-90, he scored 30 goals and was the team's rookie of the year.

"I just admire him even more to be able to do what he's doing, and I'm careful about saying 'at his age,' because, even though he's 39, I don't consider him an old guy," said former Penguins forward Phil Bourque, a teammate of Recchi's during the 1990-91 Stanley Cup season. "He doesn't act like an old guy, he doesn't play like an old guy, and I've always had a lot of respect for him, but now I have even more respect for him to watch him do what he's doing."

One of only three Penguins players to appear in all 49 games this season, Recchi is third on the team and tied for 34th in the league with 17 goals and 48 points. The reigning player of the week, Recchi played in his 1,300th career game Jan. 16 against the New York Islanders and celebrated with an assist in a 5-2 win. On Jan. 26, he became the 38th player in league history to reach the 500-goal plateau, is 28th all-time in scoring with 1,313 points and has a pair of Stanley Cup championships to his credit.

All these accomplishments for a player who was taken 67th overall in the fourth round of the 1988 draft. And he's now playing with a center who is young enough to be his son.

"I don't really think about it anymore," 19-year-old Sidney Crosby said. "I thought about it a little bit my first couple of games ... but you see him in practice every day, and he's just so consistent. That's why he's been so successful for such a long time. He takes care of himself and, obviously, you have to train hard and take care of your body."

Not including a brief 15-game call-up in 1988-89 and the strike-shortened 1994-95 season, Recchi has averaged an impressive 79.5 games per season. He has played in every one of his team's games seven times. Twice, when he was traded -- in 1995 and 2006 -- he played one more game than was scheduled. During the 1994-95 season, he played in 49 games instead of the scheduled 48, and he was involved in 83 games a year ago with the Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes.

Part of that consistency stems from the fact Recchi has never suffered a major injury in his 16 professional seasons.

"I guess I've had a lot of luck through the years," Recchi said. "I don't know if it's the way I'm built or what, but there's obviously got to be some luck in there that I've avoided major stuff."

What he may not be able to avoid are a few birthday practical jokes from his teammates. Just because Recchi has their respect doesn't mean they won't rub it in by putting a walker or some other gag gifts in his locker stall.

"We'll try something funny, but not a walker," Crosby laughed. "We can't go that low."

Still, even with a 40th birthday on the horizon, Recchi doesn't plan on walking away from the game any time soon.

"Obviously you have to think about health and how healthy you will be," Recchi said. "If I can keep skating the way I'm skating, I don't think two more years is out of the question."