Spring Training: Freddy not scripting sequel

Sanchez says consistency the priority, not another batting title

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Two springs ago, Freddy Sanchez kept a low profile in a quiet corner of the McKechnie Field clubhouse. His main concern: Stay healthy after a long bout with an ankle injury.

Last spring, Sanchez was back in that same corner with another modest concern: Earn a place on the bench, backing up Joe Randa.

This spring?

Suffice it to say that it is amazing, given all Sanchez has experienced in the past year, that his head fit through the doorway when he showed up at McKechnie yesterday morning for a light workout.

Never mind that National League batting title.

Or even the multimillion-dollar contract he signed last month.

This is someone whose offseason included having "Freddy Sanchez Day" declared in his native Burbank, Calif., having his uniform No. 21 retired by Burbank High School and being counted among Pittsburgh Magazine's 25 most beautiful people.

"Yeah, it's been a lot," he said yesterday after suiting up for the first time. "But nothing's going to change about me, I can promise you that. Nothing's going to change as far as the hunger and the way I play my game, no matter what happened last year. My game stays the same."

Well, one aspect might change, as he allowed in the next breath.

"What I think can change is that I go into the season with a little more confidence, and maybe I can try to become a little more of a leader. We all need to get things going early for us to be successful, and we need to work together to make that happen."

It is not uncommon for Sanchez to talk about the team even when asked about himself, and that again appears to be his mind-set.

"It's time for us to start winning. That's what I'm thinking about. No more excuses. And that means players like me, Jason Bay, Jack Wilson, Xavier Nady ... we all have to step it up and make sure we're setting the right example."

For Sanchez to step it up individually might be more difficult than for the team. It is not easy to produce an adequate sequel for a season's output that includes a .344 average, 200 hits and 53 doubles.

Which probably explains why he is setting no such goal.

"It's not a matter of trying to get better. It's a matter of being consistent, of doing it year in and year out," he said. "I'm not looking at this like I've got to do better than last year. Am I going to hit .340 every year? No. Not even the best hitter in the world hits .340 every year. But can I take the same approach and be consistent for my team? Yeah, I think I can do that."

As such, this spring promises little new for Sanchez, save a couple of elements.

One is that he might not know which position he will play this season until just a few days before the April 2 opener in Houston. Management is having Jose Castillo and Jose Bautista duel for the lone remaining starting job in the infield. If Castillo keeps his place at second base, Sanchez will stay at third. If Bautista wins, Sanchez will switch full time to second.

"I'm not worried about that at all. I'm used to it," Sanchez said. "Wherever they play me, I'm ready for either. Obviously, I'm going to have to work hard at each position. It's possible I might not know which one I'm playing until three days before the opener, but that's fine. If I work hard at both all spring, it won't matter."

The other change: Sanchez's locker stall finally is out of that corner and part of a set of three that stands prominently at the forefront of the clubhouse, alongside fellow All-Stars Bay and Wilson.

As for that head fitting through the doorway ...

"It's not swelled," Sanchez said. "I'm a firm believer in that it doesn't matter what you did last year, whether you hit .202 or .342. I'm the same person, and I'll work hard to be the same player."


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(Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com. )

Bob Smizik: Penguins' turnaround defies odds

Jordan Staal of the Penguins checks Patrik Elias of the Devils (2/16).

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

How did this happen?

Here are, in no particular order, the top five reasons why the Penguins are where they are today, according to Bob Smizik:


* Jordan Staal: He wasn't supposed to make the team. In the slight likelihood he did, he would be along for the ride to kill penalties and play on a fourth line. After all, he is only 18. He was barely old enough to be drafted. But he has 24 goals and has moved from center to left wing to give the Penguins a formidable second line. Not bad for a kid who scored 28 goals in Juniors last year.


* Sidney Crosby: Everyone knew he was marked for greatness. But at 19? He leads the league in scoring with a 15-point lead over Vincent Lecavalier. The 16th-leading scorer in the league is closer to Lecavalier than Lecavalier is to Crosby.



* Evgeni Malkin: He will do what Crosby could not do last year -- win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. He leads all rookies in scoring by 14 points. His 67 points are double the output of all but three NHL rookies. He's on pace to score 93 points, a Crosbyesque total.


* Marc-Andre Fleury: He's living up to the hype that comes with being the first pick in the draft. His 29 wins are fourth best in the NHL. Despite being only 22, he's developing into a franchise-type goalie. It's looking more and more like the Penguins made a serious mistake by not keeping him with the team at the start of last season.
















* Michel Therrien: Best known as a harsh disciplinarian when he took over the team last season, Therrien has been tough but also flexible enough to let his young team grow. He installed a system that makes their NHL growth come easier.In the recent history of professional sports, there have been rare occasions when a team has gone from last place to first place in one year. The Atlanta Braves, for example, went from sixth and last place to first place in 1991. The advent of free agency in all sports and the ability it gives teams to make an almost immediate and drastic revamping of their roster, along with a trend toward smaller divisions, makes this unusual development possible.

But here's what would figure to be impossible.

Going from last to last to last to last to first.

That's what the Penguins, who are 14-1-2 in their past 17 games, are attempting to do. After four consecutive sixth and last-place finishes, the Penguins aren't just playoff contenders, they're candidates to finish first in the Atlantic Division and a threat to any team in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It's questionable whether the Penguins' furious charge up the NHL standings eventually will carry them to first place in the Atlantic Division -- they trail New Jersey by seven points -- but the mere fact the subject is up for discussion is testimony to one of the great revivals in sports history.

No one expected this. There was hope the team would make the playoffs, which often does not require a winning record. But the Penguins are 32-18-9 going into their game tomorrow night at Florida. Considering the team's youth, their slow start was not unexpected, but now the Penguins are among the elite of the league.

With 23 games remaining, they already have 10 more wins than last season and nine more than the previous season.

It has all served to markedly increase the interest in the Penguins. Games are regularly sold out, and there is a distinct buzz about the team that hasn't been here since the 2000-01 season, when Mario Lemieux was at the height of his comeback and the Penguins were thick with talented veterans. That's the beauty of this team and why the buzz is so intense. It's thin with talented veterans. Mark Recchi, at 39, is enjoying a memorable season -- 20 goals and 55 points. Sergei Gonchar, 32, is the second-leading scorer among NHL defensemen. There are five other players over 30, 14 in their 20s and two teenagers. Eleven of the team's players were born in the 1980s.

It is too early to call this a dynasty in the making but such a future is not out of the question. What makes that future even brighter is that the Penguins will become a desired destination for free agents. With the salary cap in place, there's not a tremendous difference between what teams can pay free agents. Why not come to Pittsburgh where a championship team is being built? If you're a winger, why not come to Pittsburgh and play beside Crosby or with Malkin and Staal?

It looks like all those last places are soon to be equaled and surpassed by first places.

Penguins' streak comes to an end

Marc-Andre Fleury surrenders the winning goal in the third period yesterday against the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. The Islanders defeated the Penguins, 6-5.

Fleury caps shaky performance by allowing a goal with 26.8 seconds remaining

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- Marc-Andre Fleury obviously did not stop every shot he faced during the Penguins' 14-0-2 run.

He didn't even stop every one he could have. Or should have.

But Fleury invariably seemed to come up with the key save when his team needed it most. Sometimes in regulation. Sometimes in overtime. Sometimes in a shootout.

Almost always, when it truly mattered.

Not yesterday. Fleury's performance in the Penguins' 6-5 loss to the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum -- their first defeat in regulation since a 5-2 setback Jan. 10 at Florida -- ran the gamut from awful to abysmal, with a bit of average sprinkled in.

And his afternoon came to a horrific end when, with 26.8 seconds left in regulation, Islanders center Mike Sillinger took a drop pass from Andy Hilbert and beat Fleury with a terribly ordinary shot from the top of the left circle to break a 5-5 tie.

"[Sillinger] shot from beside my defenseman's leg," Fleury said. "I don't know. It went [between] my pads and my glove."

Fleury's teammates, not surprisingly, had no qualms about giving him a mulligan for stopping just 24 of 30 shots. They noted that they were guilty of breakdowns that let New York score twice in 15 seconds early in the second period, and that they had leads in every period and were unable to protect any of them.

"We made some mistakes that really, really hurt us," right winger Mark Recchi said. "Especially when it was 3-1. There were some big momentum-killers there."

Coach Michel Therrien, however, wasn't nearly as charitable.

People near the Penguins' dressing room immediately after the game reported that Therrien gave Fleury a blistering assessment of his play, and he wasn't much easier on him when speaking with reporters.

"Fleury was not good," Therrien said. "This is four games in a row that he's given up way too many goals. ... Lately, we give him like four or five or six goals to help us to win games.

"He's got to be better than that. It can happen once in a while. This is four games in a row that I think Marc was ... fair. That's not good enough."

Therrien said that the idea of replacing Fleury with Jocelyn Thibault during the game "crossed my mind," but he did not make that switch.

While Fleury had a game he can't forget soon enough, his co-workers shrugged it off as an unfortunate, but inevitable, occurrence.

"He had a tough night, but we all have tough nights," center Sidney Crosby said. "When a goalie has a tough night, there are a lot more eyes on it than [when it happens to] a forward or a defenseman.

"He's saved our butts a lot this year. Hopefully, we'll all bounce back."

Fleury, one of the game's truly happy spirits, was visibly upset after the game, removing his equipment in a manner that bordered on violent, and punching the door that separates the visiting team's quarters at the Coliseum.

Whether that was Fleury's response to his own play -- or to Therrien's critique of it -- isn't known. What seems clear, though, is that Therrien's harsh evaluation almost certainly will have some sort of impact, positive or negative, on Fleury.

The loss stripped most of the luster for a spectacular afternoon by the Penguins' No. 1 line, which accounted for all five of their goals.

Left winger Ryan Malone got his second hat trick of the season -- the other came against the Islanders Dec. 15 at Mellon Arena -- by scoring in the first minute of each period, while Recchi scored two goals and assisted on the other three and Crosby had four assists to push his league-leading points total to 95.

Few would have expected the Penguins to lose a game in which their best line was so productive.

"That's how the hockey gods work sometimes," Crosby said. "It's not always fair or right."

There was, however, probably some justice in the Penguins finally losing a game in which they squandered yet another multiple-goal lead. That has become a staple of their game and the hard reality is that if a team lives on the edge long enough, eventually, it's going to fall off.

Especially when its goaltender isn't there to save it. Which is why the Penguins' 14-0-2 streak is now nothing more than a footnote in franchise history.

"Everybody wanted to keep it going," Fleury said. "It was going well for us. ... It would have been a good two points."


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

Ron Cook: Malkin outplays Ovechkin again

Sergei Gonchar and Evgeni Malkin celebrate Malkin's second-period goal against the Capitals yesterday at Mellon Arena.

Malkin continues to get the best of Ovechkin in rivalry

Monday, February 19, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Where was George Birman when we really needed him?

A Penguins employee, he serves as the team's Russian translator.

Where was he when the Penguins' Evgeni Malkin hooked up with the Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin in the bowels of Mellon Arena early last night after the Penguins' 3-2 win?

Wouldn't you have loved to been a part of that little chat between the two good friends and former Russian national teammates?

Here's a guess how their conversation might have went:

"Hang in there, Ovie. Keep playing hard. One of these days, you'll get the best of Sid and me."

Actually, we won't attempt to speculate Ovechkin's response.

It can't possibly be suited for One of America's Great Newspapers.

"Yeah, of course, I'm enjoying playing against him, especially when we win," Malkin had said through Birman a bit earlier in the Penguins' locker room. "He's getting pretty mad."

No translation was needed to decipher Malkin's and Birman's laughter.

Yes, these are fabulous times for the Penguins, who ran their unbeaten-in-regulation streak to 14-0-2 with another workmanlike performance. These are fabulous times for Malkin, who, strange as it seems now, was something of a consolation prize for the Penguins in the 2004 NHL entry draft. Despite finishing with the league's worst record the season before, the Penguins lost the draft lottery to the Capitals, who took Ovechkin No. 1. The Penguins settled for Malkin at No. 2.

Talk about a lovely parting gift.

Talk about the start of a beautiful rivalry between friends.

For the next 10 or 15 years, the Penguins-Capitals series figures to be noted for the duel between Sidney Crosby and Ovechkin. Because of the NHL lockout in 2004-05, the two came into the league together last season. Ovechkin edged Crosby for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

That's about the only time Ovechkin has beaten Crosby, by the way. His Capitals are 1-6 against Crosby's Penguins.

Ovechkin has had even less success against Malkin, who almost certainly will succeed him as the Calder Trophy winner. The Penguins are 3-0 against the Capitals this season with Malkin playing a huge role in two of the wins. Ovechkin, meanwhile, didn't score a goal.

"I'm sure [Malkin] gets extra motivation when he plays a good friend," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said.

That first showed when the clubs played a mid-December game in Washington. Malkin tied the score with a goal late in regulation, then won it in a shootout. It showed again yesterday when Malkin gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead late in the second period with a sick goal, beating goaltender Brent Johnson to the short side with a rocket shot from a ridiculous angle to Johnson's left.

"An amazing shot," Crosby said.

"An incredible goal," teammate Mark Recchi said.

"A perfect shot," Therrien said.

Yeah, that sick.

"Only a few guys can score that goal. Most don't even try that shot," Recchi said, shaking his head.

Thing is, Recchi has seen that goal before. In the same old building, no less. That goes back to his first stint with the Penguins in the late '80s and early '90s. Though he admits to feeling sacrilegious at times, he has not been afraid to compare Malkin to you know who.

Mario.

"I've said that from day one," Recchi said. "His size, his hands ..."

Malkin has a ways to go to match Lemieux's popularity here, but he's off to a nice start. Look at the adversity he has shrugged off. His odyssey from Magnitogorsk last summer. The language and cultural differences. A shoulder injury in his first exhibition game that wiped out most of his preseason and cost him the first four games of the regular season.

Despite it all, Malkin is the NHL's leading rookie scorer with 29 goals, 37 assists and 66 points. He has scored at least a point in his past 14 home games. And he has been his best in the clutch with 12 goals and 14 assists in the third period and overtime.

There is one more thing.

Malkin has pulled within six points of Ovechkin in their personal battle.

Do you think Malkin might have mentioned something about that to Ovechkin last night?

Really, has anyone seen George Birman?


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(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1525. )

Thibault brilliant in 3-2 win

High-flying Penguins don't lose any momentum with Fleury getting the day off as Thibault stops 29 shots

Monday, February 19, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jocelyn Thibault didn't steal the Penguins' No. 1 goaltending job from Marc-Andre Fleury yesterday.

He didn't earn his own segment in the team's highlights tape, and didn't make the folks who selected the Eastern Conference All-Stars second-guess the decision to leave him out of the game.

But he did stop 29 of the 31 shots he faced during the Penguins' 3-2 victory against Washington at Mellon Arena. And, in the process, reinforce bosses' and teammates' faith that he can be a significant contributor during the stretch drive.

Whether they all share center Maxime Talbot's feeling that "he's definitely the best backup in the league" isn't clear, but they clearly expect quality work from Thibault anytime he's called upon.

"We have full confidence in him," defenseman Mark Eaton said. "He showed us again today that he's a top-notch goalie."

The start was Thibault's first since a 7-2 victory in Phoenix Jan. 27, but he isn't likely to go three weeks without working again this season. Not with 17 games shoehorned onto the schedule in March.

"We're going to have to use both goalies, because there's a lot of hockey to be played in a short period of time," coach Michel Therrien said. "It was great to see Jocelyn performing the way he's capable."

Thibault helped to extend the Penguins' surge to 14-0-2, raise their record to 32-17-9 and move them back into sole possession of fourth place in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of Ottawa.

They have the third-highest total in the East, but are ranked fourth because Tampa Bay, which has four fewer points, leads the Southeast Division. Division winners get the top three seeds in each conference.

Penguins center Sidney Crosby recorded a narrow victory in his head-to-head competition with Capitals left winger Alexander Ovechkin, who beat him out for the Calder Trophy last season.

Crosby picked up one assist, raising his league-leading points total to 91. He has one goal and two assists in three games against Washington this season, and four goals and eight assists in seven all-time meetings; Ovechkin has two assists against the Penguins this season, three goals and five assists all time.

Ovechkin tied Alexander Semin for the team lead with five shots on goal yesterday, but was held fairly well in check. Therrien credited that mostly to the defense pairing of Eaton and Sergei Gonchar.

"They were really solid," he said. "They didn't give [Ovechkin] much."

The Penguins did a lot of solid things, like neutralizing Ovechkin. The only spectacular moment of the game, however, carried the signature of Penguins rookie Evgeni Malkin.

With the score 1-1 late in the second period, Gonchar threw the puck to Malkin, who was along the right-wing boards, near the bottom of the circle.

The logical play was for Malkin to take the pass, then look for a teammate in a more favorable scoring position and try to set him up.

Malkin apparently didn't see the need to involve a middle man, however, because he rifled the puck past Capitals goalie Brent Johnson from a ridiculously sharp angle without ever bothering to stop it.

Therrien described it as "a perfect shot," which might have been understating its brilliance. And while Malkin isn't the only one in the world who could pull that off, the contingent of guys who can could commute to work together in a minivan.

"Probably nobody in the building was thinking that he would shoot from that angle," Gonchar said. "But he's a special player who sees the ice differently.

"I'm sure he saw an opportunity, and decided to take advantage of it. That's why he's a great player."

And why Thibault, who watched the play unfold from about 175 feet away, could empathize with Johnson.

"I thought [Johnson] got across [the crease] pretty good," he said. "But it was just one of those shots where it's almost impossible to stop."

Penguins right winger Mark Recchi (5:59) and Richard Zednik of the Capitals (7:04) had traded goals in the first period, and the outcome was in doubt until Malkin scored at 18:44 of the second.

His goal invigorated the Penguins -- "We attacked the third period with confidence," Therrien said -- and Talbot put them ahead by two at 1:10 of the final period.

Semin, who hit the crossbar on a third-period penalty shot -- "It was luck," Thibault said. "I was beaten" -- made the score 3-2 on a blind backhander with 43.6 seconds to play, but that infusion of suspense didn't last.

"That was one of the better thirds we've had in a while," Recchi said. "We did a lot of good things. They scored at the end, but we really had a good, solid third period."

And their goalie had three of them.


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

Penguins hold on to beat Devils, 5-4

Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur reacts after giving up a a goal to Sidney Crosby of the Penguins.

Crosby nails winner as Penguins keep riding high, close gap on East-leading Devils

Saturday, February 17, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- How can a hockey team tell when things are going its way?

Sometimes, there can be a few subtle clues.

Like when the fourth-line left winger just can't make it to the bench for a line change and ends up getting a goal.

And when a defensive defenseman who has not scored in 110 games -- and has done nothing to suggest he will do it in the next 110 -- beats the best goaltender in the game with a long-range wrist shot a couple of minutes later. Then can't give the goal away, no matter how hard he tries.

And especially when the team finds itself on a 13-0-2 roll, as the Penguins are in the wake of their 5-4 victory against New Jersey at Continental Airlines Arena last night.

The victory gave the Penguins (31-17-9) sole possession of fourth place in the Eastern Conference -- they actually leapfrogged Atlanta for third place in total points, but division-winners are guaranteed the top three seeds -- and, more important, moved them within five points of the Atlantic Division-leading Devils.

The Penguins are hardly a lock -- or even a reasonable bet -- to overtake New Jersey, even though they have a game-in-hand on the Devils. But the fact that it is a mathematical possibility at this point is little shy of remarkable.

"We were pretty far away not too long ago, and now it just seems like we can win our division," goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said. "We just have to keep going, keep winning, keep getting points, and we'll see."

Mind you, the Penguins make every point an adventure. After blowing multiple-goal leads in each of the previous three games, they failed to protect three separate three-goal advantages last night, although the Devils never pulled even after the Penguins got the first goal.

"We're not going to be able to beat good teams toward the end of the year if we keep doing this," defenseman Rob Scuderi said. "We'll take the win but, at the same time, it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue."

The Penguins took a 1-0 lead at 3:02 of the opening period, when left winger Jarkko Ruutu didn't have a chance to get off the ice when his line was replaced by the Penguins' No. 1 unit.

That meant Ryan Malone couldn't make it off the bench for that shift -- and that Ruutu was in position to steer a Josef Melichar shot past Devils goalie Martin Brodeur.

"I wanted to go change, but then I realized to go deep, that there was nobody in front," Ruutu said.

If that goal surprised the Devils -- and it clearly did -- the Penguins' second one absolutely had to stun them as Scuderi threw a shot past Brodeur from along the boards at the top of the right circle.

Scuderi immediately told the officials that Malone had deflected in his shot -- "It was pretty obvious that it was tipped," he said -- but the scorers did not find video evidence to support his contention and gave the goal to Scuderi, whether he wanted it or not.

The goal was his first since March 7, 2004, and pretty much filled his quota for the decade.

That gave the Penguins two goals on their first three shots and Melichar, who hadn't had a multiple-point game all season, two assists in a span of two minutes, 17 seconds.

Jordan Staal put the Penguins up by three at 17:54, thanks to a slick setup. Linemate Michel Ouellet had the puck behind the New Jersey net and slipped it to Staal, who was near the left side of the crease and stuck it inside the far post for his 24th.

The Devils finally broke through at 7:29 of the second, when defenseman Brian Rafalski beat Fleury with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle.

Sidney Crosby ended his eight-game goal drought by tossing a shot past Brodeur from above the right dot at 10:27 -- "I knew it would finally go in, so it was nice to get that one," he said -- and after Patrik Elias made it 4-2 at 12:33, Ruutu scored at 16:52 to lock up his first two-goal game as a Penguin.

But Zach Parise's power-play goal at 2:38 of the third made it 5-3, and New Jersey pulled within one when Fleury let a long shot from Travis Zajac bounce off his glove and tumble into the net at 8:50.

"Someone put Vaseline on my glove, I think, before the third," Fleury said, smiling. "I should have made the save. It just slipped out. I should have had that."

Yeah, he should have. But his mistake was frustrating, not fatal. And the Penguins, incredibly, are in position to contend for a division title during the final 25 games of the regular season.

"I don't think it's something we need to worry about," said Crosby, who finished with a goal and an assist to raise his league-leading points total to 90. "We all realize we play them three more times. We're just worrying about getting as many points as we can and wherever that brings us, so be it."



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

Mike Prisuta: Penguins Stay White-Hot Against Chicago

Penguins' Marc-Andre Fleury makes a save on Blackhawks' Peter Bondra in the first period last night at Mellon Arena.

TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Thursday, February 15, 2007

They're taking nothing for granted, these Penguins contend, but in the odd moment of personal reflection, they've allowed themselves the guilty pleasure of looking ahead.

At least Ryan Malone has.

"I keep telling guys, if we do get in the playoffs, you know last year, they saw the Steelers and how crazy Pittsburgh gets," Malone said. "I keep telling them Pittsburgh is a great sports town, and it'll be the same way for us if we get in there."

He said "if,' not "when," which made his response perfectly acceptable and not the first sign of a pending apocalypse.

Colby Armstrong seemed to speak more to the team's prevailing mindset when he spoke of the commitment that's been made to put the Penguins in the position of contemplating the playoffs in the first place.

"We said after we came back from the all-star break that we have to play consistent and stay focused,' Armstrong said.

Wednesday night's Mellon Arena visit by the Blackhawks provided some evidence that, while those conversations have clearly contained more than just idle chatter, perhaps, the subject nonetheless needs to be revisited.

Their 5-4 shootout triumph had a sellout crowd standing and screaming before Evgeni Malkin ended it.

But the game the Penguins have been playing of late is as potentially dangerous as it has been exciting.

Chicago came in a respectable 15-15-5 in their last 20 games, but it also arrived at 22-27-7 overall and ranked 13th among 15 teams in the Western Conference.

The Penguins came in riding an almost unthinkable 11-0-2 streak that had catapulted them into a tie for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

If there was a game to overlook, if there was a time to go through the motions and get less than maximum effort from everyone, this was it. Such a letdown seemed especially plausible with a stretch of six of the next eight on the road looming, including a game Friday night in New Jersey that has (gasp) first-place implications in the Atlantic Division.

It didn't happen initially.

The Penguins responded at first by being imperfect, yet remaining in control for the better part of two periods against Chicago.

They skated and cycled and fired pucks at Nikolai Khabibulin from all angles.

And the two-goal lead they took to the locker room after 40 minutes was fairly indicative of their superiority.

But in letting a two-goal lead get away for the third consecutive game, the Penguins continued playing with fire, even as they remain on fire.

Another comeback was needed to save the day.

At 12-0-2, there are worse problems to have.


Mike Prisuta is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Ed Bouchette: It's time to decide who stays, who goes

Joey Porter is set to earn a salary of $4 million and an additional $1 million in a roster bonus payable early in March.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Steelers start their final evaluations of free agents today as the new coaches join the scouting staff to make up a wish list of players they might add to their team and those they do not want -- perhaps including some of their own.

The Steelers have no unrestricted free agents who started for them last season, and only one who is restricted -- offensive right tackle Max Starks. It's likely some players under contract won't be asked back, particularly if the Steelers believe they can release a player to make room under their salary cap to sign another.

"We were an 8-8 team," Kevin Colbert, their football operations director, said yesterday. "For us to think we can stand pat and be any better than that, I think would be naive on our part."

Colbert said the Steelers will be tight under the salary cap, expected to be about $109 million per team, and that it is likely they will be as active this year as they have been in recent years in free agency, or very little. Each of the past two years, they've signed one mid-priced free agent who eventually started -- wide receiver Cedrick Wilson in 2005 and safety Ryan Clark in 2006.

Free agency starts March 2.

There are ways to create more room under the cap, through re-signing their players and shifting their salaries into a bonus, by asking players to take cuts or by releasing players. For example, in all likelihood punter Chris Gardocki, 37, will be released because he ranked near the bottom of the league and his salary for 2007 would be slightly more than $1 million.

They also must decide what to do with linebacker Joey Porter. He not only is set to earn a salary of $4 million but an additional $1 million in a roster bonus payable early in March. Last year, Porter admitted that then-coach Bill Cowher talked him out of holding out of training camp because he wanted a contract extension. Will they try to extend his contract? Let him play out his last season, hoping he does not hold out?

Another possibility would be to not pay Porter the $1 million bonus and let him become a free agent. That's considered unlikely, particularly since they are thin at outside linebacker and, while Porter had a subpar 2006 after knee surgery in May, he made three Pro Bowls in the previous four seasons.

"I want to say there are [six] guys with either roster or reporting bonuses, and we're still in the process of making those decisions," Colbert said when asked if the Steelers would pay Porter's roster bonus.

"We haven't made any decision on anybody not being here or even being here. As we go through this thing and we get closer -- like that ... and you look at what's going to be available and compare it to what you have -- is there somewhere we can upgrade either through an exchange of players or a combination of players? Those are the things we're going to be doing, along with the draft and the cap all kind of mixed in together."

The other five players due roster bonuses in March are Alan Faneca ($1 million), Aaron Smith ($1 million), Ike Taylor ($300,000), Marvel Smith ($250,000) and Willie Parker ($250,000).

The March roster bonus has become a more popular tool for agents to force the hand of teams to decide on a player now rather than release him later when teams have spent most of their free-agent budget.

Colbert said a team's priorities sometimes shift as they wade into free agency.

"No one really knows where it goes because once you start talking to a player then maybe you decide you really want that player, and then all of a sudden you decide I need more cap room to afford that player. So how do you get that cap room? That may dictate your decisions."


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

Gene Collier: Third, fourth line keeps Penguins' streak alive

Colby Armstrong congratulates Maxime Talbot after his goal against the Blackhawks in the second period.


Stars aren't out, but Penguins win again

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Max Talbot streaked into the offensive zone, veering right, with Ryan Malone in the penalty box behind him and a puck, the very puck that had just got rung off the post next to Marc-Andre Fleury, dancing on his blade.

Though the third-line Penguins center was very much in control of this particular short-handed situation, the rate at which he flew around Chicago's Martin Havlat toward the goal mouth made it seem otherwise. It seemed too fast for conditions, with Talbot resembled a PAT bus ready to turn hard on Black(hawk) ice, but there went the 25T Uptown, roaring in on Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, beating him soundly to the far side.

That was the night's third essentially outsourced goal, the one that put the Penguins ahead, 2-1, little more than four minutes into the second period, the one that overturned an early Blackhawks lead courtesy of Craig McDonald, another third-line center, and matched by the Penguins' Ronald Petrovicky, the fourth-line right winger.

There was clearly a lesson in here somewhere.

The stars weren't out last night. At least not until very, very late.

They were in the penalty box, where Sidney Crosby and Malone did time, but they weren't on the score sheet until barely five minutes remained in a delicious little winter riot with a rare Western Conference opponent. Neither was the red-hot Jordan Staal terribly conspicuous, nor, for most of this episode, Evgeni Malkin. Even Fleury, the best player on the ice for large chunks of this stunning 12-0-2 march of the Penguins, recovered poorly on a rebound from the rear boards to account for that McDonald goal.

But serious contributions from the margins of this Penguins roster are part of the necessary calcification of a bona fide winner, an accepted wisdom rarely so evident as it was last night.

"A lot goes into winning these games," Talbot was explaining in a glowing Penguins locker room 15 minutes after Malkin's shootout goal iced another victory. "I think if you look at it, right from the time the winning streak started, that was when we started getting some offense from our third and fourth lines. It takes a little pressure of Sid and those guys."

Everyone in the old opera house knows how this team is supposed to win. Everyone in the National Hockey League and over most of hockey's continent knows what to expect from them. They expect the Penguins to generate so much heat from the brilliance and resultant opportunities created by Crosby to carry them well past the spring thaw, to rely for momentum on the near equally gifted young impulses of Malkin and Staal.

That's their story line, but the Penguins are not sticking to it. Not entirely. At least not for the moment.

While Crosby misfired through an eighth consecutive goal-less event, the longest of his two NHL seasons, the usually reliable Pittsburgh power play collapsed into a series of misadventures. On its first opportunity, a centering pass to Mark Recchi high in the slot slipped through the old guy's skates and floated clear across the blue line. Seconds later, Crosby positioned himself on the right dot for a dead-on wrister at Khabibulin, but fired it wide.

Maybe Sid should try shooting from his butt again. Or does that only work in NHL cities where ice does not occur naturally, like Phoenix? Lasse Kukkonen cleared Sid's misfire and, a second later, Radim Vrbata put it on McDonald's stick for a short-handed goal. Ten minutes later in that same first period, with the Blackhawks' Brent Seabrook off for hooking, Crosby won a face-off by raking the puck back toward his defenseman, but the biscuit snaked between Sergei Gonchar and Mark Eaton into the neutral zone.

So went the league's fourth-best power play.

"I didn't much like the special teams tonight," said coach Michel Therrien. "That will be addressed in the next few days. But I thought Talbot's line, and Dominic Moore's line, really brought a lot of momentum for us tonight. You need every line to contribute defensively, but when those third and fourth lines score, that brings a lot of momentum."

Malkin finally appeared from a cloud-covered constellation deep in the third period, taking a pass from Crosby, firing it on Khabibulin, then poking it past the Blackhawks' goalie when Khabibulin looked in the wrong direction for the rebound. Up 1-0 in the eventual shootout, Malkin slid a clinching backhander past Khabibulin. But the young Malkin knew as well as anyone the genesis of this latest Penguins success.

"Sometimes the top lines don't have the greatest nights," he said through his Russian interpreter. "Sometimes things don't go the way they should. When you get third- and fourth-line guys scoring, that's very important."

When you win when things don't go the way they should, you're becoming a very dangerous hockey club.


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(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283. )

NHL, not Crosby, deserves heat

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Hal Gill (25) crushes Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) during second-period NHL action in Toronto, Canada, on Saturday Feb. 10, 2007.

By Joe Starkey
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 14, 2007


Somehow, the NHL's feel-good story of the season has become tinged with negativity.
We're talking about Sidney Crosby, who has established himself, at age 19, as the best hockey player in the world and an even better ambassador for an embattled league.

Yet, the league, through blatant inaction, has endorsed the abuse of its marquee attraction.

"Honestly, it's very difficult to understand, the way Sidney's been treated since the beginning of his career," Crosby's agent, Pat Brisson, said Tuesday. "In my opinion, it hasn't been fair. This is someone who gives 100 percent on every shift, on and off the ice, for his team and his league."

Brisson's biased, of course. He's also right.

Within the past month, we've seen Crosby speared in the abdomen (Jason Blake), butt-ended in the gut on a game-opening faceoff (Maxim Lapierre) and cut in the face with a high stick (Francis Bouillon), without any of the infractions drawing so much as a minor penalty.

Crosby also absorbed a cross-check to the face from Philadelphia's Alexei Zhitnik -- on national television -- and somehow wound up with the extra two-minute penalty.

How is it, exactly, that two officials can consistently miss obvious fouls perpetrated against the most prominent player on the ice?

One logical explanation is that officials have conspired to make things tough on Crosby, perhaps because some believed he whined too much last season.

If that's the case, shame on the officials and their Neanderthal code. Their job is to call the games on a case-by-case, infraction-by-infraction basis. If they're not doing that, the league needs to crack down on them. Hard.

Crosby doesn't necessarily merit special treatment (though one could make a case for it). He simply deserves equal treatment.

Stephen Walkom, the NHL's vice president and director of officiating, insists that already is the case.

"I think you can assure your readers that our guys don't get together and say, 'Let's miss a bunch tonight on this player or that player,' " Walkom said. "Unfortunately, Sidney's in the public eye, and when anything gets missed on him, it gets noticed."

Do officials view him as a whiner?

"I think it's time to stomp that rumor," Walkom said. "I think Sidney was a new player in the league last year. Did he talk more to the referees last year, in a way that maybe some of the fans perceived as whining? He could have. I can assure you this year, he's been a pro on the ice. All I've heard from my guys is how grown up he is for his age, and how much respect they have for him for how he talks to them on the ice."

Unfortunately, that respect has not translated to an even shake. The fact players are allowed to treat Crosby like a piñata creates, in the words of Brisson, a "domino effect." Everyone wants a piece of the action, including fans and media members who label Crosby a "whiner" when he wonders aloud to an official why the guy who just tried to gut him wasn't penalized.

It also creates talk of the Penguins needing to acquire an "enforcer" (i.e., a guy who can fight but can't play) to "protect" Crosby.

All of which turns what should be a positive story into a negative one for the league.

If officials simply called the game properly, none of this would be an issue.

The league office needs to upgrade its game, too. When I asked a league spokesman why Blake wasn't suspended - he was fined $1,000 - the spokesman said, "Usually, (a spear is) a fineable offense as opposed to game offense unless it is of the most severe nature and ends up causing injury."

OK, so if I swing my stick at someone's head and miss, I'll be treated differently than if I connect?

Who's dispensing justice around here, the Geico caveman?

"It has a domino effect," Brisson said. "The spear from Blake, nothing happens, so you have the butt-end from Lapierre - the stick was coming out eight inches into (Crosby's) stomach. These are the things that will occur."

If they keep occurring, Brisson should think twice about making Crosby so readily available for all those NHL-boosting promotions.

"If you want him on the cover of Vanity Fair and all that, well, it goes both ways," Brisson said.

Actually, for the NHL, it goes one way all too often: downhill fast.


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

Pens' Fleury rolling in goal

By Mike Prisuta
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 14, 2007


Although the Penguins haven't lost in regulation in over a month, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury is eager to re-establish himself.

"The last game wasn't as good for me," Fleury said on Tuesday. "I'm looking forward to playing again and changing that up."

He apparently won't have long to wait.

Although Fleury said following yesterday morning's practice at Southpointe that he didn't know whether he would be starting or sitting tonight at Mellon Arena, backup Jocelyn Thibault said he wasn't playing.

So, barring a change of heart on the part of head coach Michel Therrien, it'll be Fleury in goal against Chicago.

The start will be Fleury's 47th of the season and his eighth in a row.

He's been the goaltender of record in all but one game of the Pens' current 11-0-2 burst up the ladder in the Eastern Conference standings.

The most recent of those was a 6-5 overtime triumph Saturday night in Toronto, in which Fleury stopped 23 of 28 shots.

"It was a pretty offensive game," Fleury said. "Maybe it's good hockey to watch, a good show for the fans, but, for me, it's tough to give up five goals. That's something I hate.

"Next game, hopefully, it can be lower than that. There were some goals I'd like to see again, that I know I can stop."

Thibault, who's started nine of the Penguins' 55 games, hasn't recorded a decision since beating the Coyotes, 7-2, on Jan. 27 in Phoenix.

The Penguins haven't been beaten in regulation since Thibault was in net for a 5-2 setback on Jan. 10 at Florida.

Therrien, who didn't speak to the media yesterday, is apparently keen on maintaining the status quo.

He skated winger Ryan Malone with Sidney Crosby and Mark Recchi yesterday after demoting Malone to the third line during the Toronto game.

And defenseman Brooks Orpik said he's anticipating being back in the lineup tonight after missing the game against the Maple Leafs (illness). Orpik had been replaced in Toronto by Josef Melichar, who played for the first time since suffering a knee injury on Jan. 10 in Florida.

With back-to-back games looming Sunday afternoon against the Capitals and Monday at the Islanders, Thibault figures to get a chance to play again soon.

The Penguins will face four more back-to-back situations while playing 17 games in March.

In the meantime, Therrien is riding Fleury like Eddie Arcaro on Whirlaway.

"It's not bad," said Fleury, who opened the season by starting a career-high 11 consecutive games. "I could play many games. As long as I rest when I can and have good practices, I'm ready for the games.

"We had some tough times the last couple of years. It's fun to enjoy the time that we're having right now, all the wins and all these points we're getting."

Night after night after night.

Mike Prisuta can be reached at mprisuta@tribweb.com.

Crosby's goal-scoring touch has gone ice cold

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

By Dave Molinari

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sidney Crosby has met numerous standards of excellence in his first two seasons in professional hockey, and set quite a few others.

They cover everything from productivity as a teenager on the ice, to poise and professionalism off it.

And today, when the Penguins face Chicago at 7:38 p.m. at the Mellon Arena, he'll have an opportunity to establish another. One he would rather keep off his permanent record.

Crosby has not scored a goal in seven games, matching the longest dry spell of his NHL career.

There's a rather large asterisk on that streak, considering he got the deciding goal in the Penguins' 5-4 shootout victory in Philadelphia Thursday, but the NHL does not include shootout statistics with conventional ones.

So, Crosby is considered to be goal-less since he got one in the Penguins' 7-2 victory at Phoenix Jan. 27. That equals the drought he experienced Oct. 15-Nov. 1 in 2005, his first month in the league.

His inability to score lately hasn't eroded Crosby's lead in the NHL points race; he still was 14 ahead of Tampa Bay's Vincent Lecavalier before the Lightning played Phoenix last night.

More important, it hasn't had a significant impact on the Penguins' record. They are 6-0-1 since he last scored.

"That makes it a little bit easier to take, there's no doubt," Crosby said. "When you're having trouble scoring and the team's losing, it's a lot harder to take."

Crosby's contributions to the Penguins aren't limited to his goal-scoring, even though he ranks second on the team with 25. He has accumulated nine assists in the past seven games, running his league-leading total to 62, and is a presence opponents dare not ignore every time he goes over the boards.

"He does so many other things to make our team good," said right winger Mark Recchi, Crosby's linemate.

Crosby got a new left winger in the third period of the Penguins' 6-5 shootout victory in Toronto Saturday, when Erik Christensen replaced Ryan Malone, but Malone was back on the top line at practice yesterday and is expected to be there against the Blackhawks.

Crosby said he does not believe he has been pressing since the shots stopped going in, preferring to characterize his mind-set as "bearing down" to make sure he takes advantage of any opportunities that come along.

If he actually is squeezing the stick a bit tighter than usual, his teammates don't seem to be noticing.

"I know he wants to score, and I know he wants to do good things, but he doesn't give you that impression [that he's pressing] off the ice, or even on the bench," Recchi said.

Even though goal-scoring isn't the cornerstone of his game the way it is for, say, Alexander Ovechkin, Crosby acknowledges that he's cognizant of his drought, even though those around him say it isn't affecting other facets of his play.

"He's like every guy who has scored goals throughout his whole life," Christensen said. "He's noticing it, I'll bet, but it doesn't seem to bother him."

That's probably because Crosby recognizes that slumps -- and how many players would be willing to swap a vital organ for a nine-points-in-seven-games "slump?" -- are an occupational hazard for even the most accomplished players.

"That's what you go through," he said. "You can pretty much say that I've gone through a situation like this every year I've played. You have games where you just can't miss and other [stretches] like this where you have an open net and the puck bounces over your stick, or you just get some unfortunate breaks."

All concerned appear certain his luck will turn soon. Until it does, Crosby's teammates don't seem to mind shouldering some of the offensive burden he usually carries.

"Obviously, he is our best player and we all know that, but there are going to be nights when other guys are going to have to step up in the scoring," Recchi said.

"He's still going to play well, because he always does, but he might get checked a little tighter that night. Maybe get an assist or two, kind of kept in check a little bit. That's when everybody else has to step up."

So far, the Penguins have done that, and getting important goals from other parts of the lineup suggests that, if they get into the playoffs, they could be a more formidable opponent than some might realize.

Then again, Crosby's co-workers are convinced that any discussion of his goal-scoring slump will take place in the past tense before much longer.

"It'll come," Recchi said. "And when it comes with him, it's going to come in bunches."



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

Staal's Scoring a Big Surprise

Pittsburgh Penguins Jordan Staal, left, is greeted by teammate Michel Ouellet after scoring an empty net goal in the third period of the hockey game in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007. The Penguins won 2-0.

Staal's scoring surprises Penguins -- and his big brother

By The Associated Press

Tuesday, February 13, 2007


Eric Staal led the NHL in playoff scoring for Stanley Cup champion Carolina last season and, at age 22, is one of the league's best young players. By the end of the season, he might not be the leading scorer in his family.
Jordan Staal, the 18-year-old who went into the Pittsburgh Penguins' training camp not expecting to make the team, is enjoying a breakout season even as more-publicized teammate Evgeni Malkin gets more attention among NHL rookies.

With three goals Saturday night against Toronto and four in his last two games, Staal is edging closer to Malkin, who leads all NHL rookies with 27 goals but is now only four ahead of his teammate. And the count in the Staal family household is Eric 24 goals, Jordan 23.

"I told him I'm coming for him," Jordan Staal said Monday. "But I didn't expect it to be this close. It's kind of neat we're both doing so well and hopefully I'll catch him."

While NHL scoring leader Sidney Crosby, Malkin and fast-improving goalie Marc-Andre Fleury are being credited for the Penguins' turnaround season, it may be Staal who has been the difference-maker.

When the Penguins drafted Staal No. 2 overall in June, turning down numerous trade offers for the pick, there were no real expectations he would play in the NHL this season. He didn't turn 18 until Sept. 10, and he hadn't played above the junior level.

If Staal hadn't played as well as he did the first two weeks of the season, with four goals in his first eight games, he might well be playing junior hockey right now.

"Coming into the season, I was only kind of hoping to make the team," Staal said. "For it to turn out like this is pretty amazing. I'm just happy to be here and hopefully I can keep it up."

What impresses his mentor and housemate, 500-goal scorer Mark Recchi, is that Staal is doing all of this while playing out of a position. A center throughout his career, he was moved to the wing because the Penguins already had Crosby and Malkin in the middle.

"He's amazing. He's gone beyond all expectations," Recchi said. "He's had to learn how to play a new position, and he's doing it as an 18-year-old in the NHL, yet he's been unbelievable. He's a force out there, a powerful skater, he holds the puck and he's already one of the best penalty-killers in the league."

The 6-foot-4 Staal's long reach has made him a force on the Penguins' penalty-killing unit, and his league-high five short-handed goals are a team record. He is a plus-14, an exceptional figure for a rookie and only one off Crosby's plus-15 for the team lead.

"I just don't like giving up goals," Staal said.

Scoring them is different.

"Once I made the team, I got more confident the longer I was around — and it just went from there," Staal said.

If it weren't for Malkin and his rookie-best 63 points, Staal might be getting consideration for the rookie of the year award.

Just as Crosby has bunked the last two seasons at team owner Mario Lemieux's house, Staal is staying at Recchi's home this season. It's the kind of housing arrangement seldom seen in other sports — no doubt Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger never considered taking a room at star guard Alan Faneca's, for example — but it is more common in hockey.

Staal likes the living arrangements, especially since he was anticipating living this winter at a family's home in Peterborough, his junior team last season.

"Mark has been helping me out the whole year, with the little stuff off the ice, helping me keep my mind off stuff and, when I'm on the ice, more focused," Staal said.

Big brother Eric also helps out, too, though Jordan doesn't expect as many calls in the next few months as the Penguins and Hurricanes compete for playoff position.

With 29 victories, the Penguins have 17 more than at this time last season. They also are 11-0-2 in their last 13 games heading into Wednesday's home game against Chicago.

"He's not giving me a whole lot of feedback," Jordan Staal said, smiling. "He knows I'm coming for him."


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Tomlin unworried about Faneca's comments

Faneca at the 2005 Pro Bowl

Accepts that Faneca preferred Grimm

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The first discouraging words from within since the Steelers hired Mike Tomlin as head coach came from 4,657 miles away, from guard Alan Faneca, a team co-captain playing in his sixth Pro Bowl in Honolulu.

The new coach tackled this initial public difference of in-house opinion yesterday by saying he was not really surprised.

"Yeah, I did see what he said and, no, I'm not concerned about it whatsoever," Tomlin said.

"Transition's never easy, particularly at a place like this that has had great stability. Some organizations get quite used to change; this is not one of them, thankfully. So you don't expect it to be easy or comfortable for everyone, but not concerned about that at all."

Faneca, a nine-year starter, displayed disappointment over the weekend that neither of the two candidates on the staff, Russ Grimm or Ken Whisenhunt, were hired to replace Bill Cowher when he resigned. Faneca has not yet met with Tomlin, who has talked individually with more than half of the players on the roster.

"I wanted Russ to get the job," Faneca said from Honolulu, where the Pro Bowl was played Saturday night. "It's a guy we know, and a guy I'm experienced with. I hoped Russ would get that opportunity, but it didn't work out.

"When Cowher retired, everybody in the league wanted two of our guys, so you'd think we would want at least one of them."

Tomlin said once the players get to know him, those questions will "quickly be laid to bed" and that he does not rule by intimidation.

"Some people motivate through fear. To me, fear is not a good long-term motivator. I think you motivate true professionals through teaching, so that's my approach. Charismatic leadership or motivation, fear motivation, or teaching; I tend to focus on teaching.

"I'm not here to entertain them, or try to win them over immediately with glitz and glamour. That's short-lived. I'm going to be myself. We're going to get started about the business of putting together a great football team. That's just rolling your sleeves up and going to work on a day-to-day basis."

Tomlin answered questions for 30 minutes from nine newspaper reporters who cover the team yesterday, his first group interview since his initial news conference Jan. 22, the day after he was hired.

Among other more notable topics discussed by Tomlin yesterday:

* While he talked to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger more than any other player so far, the topic of his riding a motorcycle with or without a helmet was not broached.

"There'll be very few boundaries with me, not only with him but with any of the men in terms of things like that, because I'd ask him to do the same thing with me one-on-one. I have no problem having those kinds of discussions, not only with Ben but with anybody."

Tomlin said he would expect a starting quarterback, no matter who he is, "to play winning football, to manage the game, to do the detail things that are required to keep the chains moving and to ring up the scoreboard."

* After watching Willie Parker on tape, Tomlin's opinion of the starting halfback changed.

"I think initially coming in, I had a perception of him as a perimeter runner. But it was obvious the more tape I watched that he's capable of hurting you in a variety of ways. I'm developing a great deal of respect for what he's capable of doing as a ballcarrier in all facets of the game."

* Still, he still believes the Steelers need to find a second back to complement Parker, and that back could be on their roster.

"We have potential men identified. ... I think just having the ability to be multiple, having the ability to attack defenses in different ways. If you look at New Orleans, Deuce McAllister is a power man, Reggie Bush is speed. If you look at New England, Corey Dillon is power, the rookie Laurence Maroney is speed.

"You have to have the ability to have a change of pace offense, to attack people in different ways. Central, from a perimeter standpoint, having the ability to play both in the game at the same time and go two-back or one-back. It just gives the defense more things to work on. I think it's just part of today's NFL."

* He has viewed plenty of tape since his arrival and formed opinions, but would not offer any on what went wrong last season for the defending Super Bowl champs.

"I'm not looking back to pass judgment on what happened here, nor do I care what happened here. My focus is the '07 Steelers, not the '06 Steelers."

* The Steelers are unlikely to draft certain styles of players based on whether they continue to run the 3-4 defense or move toward a 4-3.

"The elite players defy scheme," Tomlin said. "Troy Polamalu's going to be an excellent safety, regardless of what defensive scheme he's in. Casey Hampton's going to be a dominant interior defensive lineman, regardless of what scheme he's in. So the elite players defy scheme. We're not going to get enamored with that. What we're going to do is we're going to continue to shape our package to do what our players do and do well. It'll be a constant evolution, just like the players are constantly evolving."

* He's all for using starters on special teams, something Cowher tried to avoid.

"I have an all-hands-on-deck mentality. And you guys will find it's not going to be lip service. It's a legitimate phase of the game."


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

Crosby's points lead impressive to teammates

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Pavel Kubina, right, tries to control Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (87) during first-period NHL action in Toronto, Canada, on Saturday, Feb. 10, 2007.

By Karen Price

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Monday, February 12, 2007


Sidney Crosby's teammates are used to seeing him accomplish mind-boggling feats on the ice, whether it's scoring a highlight goal or making the perfect pass through traffic.
"Yeah, I think everybody's amazed and impressed by him every day," goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. "There are still times when we say 'Holy (expletive), how did he do that?' It's good to have him on my side."

But what the 19-year-old center's doing now -- running away with the NHL scoring race -- has even his teammates in awe. Crosby, who became the youngest player ever to break the 100-point mark in the NHL last year with 102 points in 81 games for sixth in the NHL, has 87 points in 52 games this season.

Going into Sunday's games, he led the Washington Capitals' Alexander Ovechkin, the Atlanta Thrashers' Marian Hossa and the Tampa Bay Lightning's Martin St. Louis by 15 points in the scoring race.

Last season, he had 59 points through the same number of games, and is on pace to top 120 points this season for what could be his first of many Art Ross trophies for the league's top scorer.

"It's incredible," forward Colby Armstrong said. "I think his attitude and the way he approaches every game is key to that. He's ready to play every night and he's focused. He just takes it a game at a time. He never gets caught up in anything, and I think that's the key to his success. I think a lot of people can learn from how he handles himself."

San Jose Sharks center Joe Thornton won the Art Ross last season with 125 points. It was the highest points total since Jaromir Jagr had 127 in 1997-98.

Like last year when the hardware in question was the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year, Crosby will tell anyone who asks that he isn't thinking about trophies except, of course, the Stanley Cup. But his teammates would like to see him win the scoring title, nonetheless.

"He's the ultimate team guy," Armstrong said. "He's always about the team, never about his individual awards. All the success he has, it's great to see because he's such a great guy."

Center Dominic Moore, who played for the New York Rangers last season, believes that Crosby's success is influencing the Penguins' success as a team, and vice versa.

"Last year was his first year and it's clear that he's a lot more comfortable now, a lot more confident now," Moore said. "Last year being on the other side, yeah, I was obviously very intent on stopping him. But to be honest, the team wasn't that effective, so I think that goes hand in hand with it. He feels more confident with his team as well."

When it comes to Crosby, teammate Maxime Talbot said, the sky's the limit.

"I can never imagine what he's going to reach in his career and what he's going to reach the next couple of years," Talbot said. "I guess there's no limit. You can't see where he's going to go. Right now, it's absolutely amazing, though. It's fun to be part of, too, because he's making us win, too."



Karen Price can be reached at kprice@tribweb.com.

Crosby shows he can take care of himself

Superstar more like Howe than Gretzky

Feb 12, 2007 04:30 AM

Garth Woolsey

The Toronto Star

Wherever he skates, Sidney Crosby leaves records in his wake, ripples of hype that eventually will wash up on the shores of hockey history like so many messages in bottles.

Who, for instance, would have imagined that the Air Canada Centre would announce that The Next One's visit to the Centre of the Hockey Universe (patent pending) would result in an attendance record for hockey there – 19,620?

Where did the extra seats come from, anyway? Was there an extra place setting at the old platinum sushi bar? Did they squeeze a folding chair into some distant nook or cranny?

Who's to say for sure that the extra bodies weren't there to see the pride and joy of Lloydminster, Sask., Crosby's teammate Colby Armstrong? Or that the Wade Balk Fan Club was out in extra February force?

That Crosby is extraordinary is undeniable. He's so good that it hurts, sometimes literally, because opponents have to go to extra lengths to prevent him from making them look more foolish than he already will and can.

They foul him, bait him, accuse him of fakery and still he leads the league in scoring, highlights and that brand of boy-next-door, all-Canadian humility that makes him the next Gretzky.

But it is also obvious that he is no Wayne Gretzky when it comes to the physical side of the game. This notion that he needs the constant presence by his side of a modern-day Dave Semenko doesn't take into account the evolution of the game but more importantly it takes away Crosby's own truculent ability to take care of himself.

He's much closer in strength, stature and demeanour to Gordie Howe than Gretzky. (Gretzky idolized Howe but would be the first to admit he couldn't play hockey with the same, when necessary, brutality and nastiness. Gretzky was the master of avoiding contact, not initiating it. Crosby is willing to do just that when required, although rarely recording the famed Howe hat trick of a goal, assist and fight.)

Mario Lemieux was bigger than any of them, but tolerated all sorts of abuse that it would appear Crosby will not.

Sure, Crosby needs back-up, a presence in the lineup of a nuclear threat or two. But he will also remain the oppositions' target for the rest of his career.

When you play the Pens, don't let Crosby beat you. When you play the Colts, get in Peyton Manning's face. When push comes to shove, there's nothing quite so effective as the Hack-a-Shaq approach.

Chris Bosh meet Rasheed Wallace. C'est la superstar vie.

ADRIFT IN DREAMLAND: So you think you can play soccer alongside David Beckham, eh? Prove it. Not that Beckham was actually there, but the Los Angeles Galaxy on the weekend held open tryouts for spots on the roster that he will be joining later on. The MSL team had to cap the candidates at 800 after receiving responses from around the world. Each paid $130 (U.S.), plus their own way to L.A., and included aspirants from a least a dozen countries, including about 50 from England.

Says Alex Lalas, president of the Galaxy, on the American Idol un-reality of it all: "While there are many folks out there who are delusional about their singing skills that we routinely laugh at, there are also plenty of people who are delusional about their ability on the soccer field.''

There's not much separating a delusion from a dream, is there?

DOT, DOT, DOT: Sidney Crosby and the rest of the NHL's young guns have been getting the headlines this season but the old boys have been delivering, too. Ten of the top 21 scorers are over 30, including: Martin St. Louis, Jaromir Jagr, Ray Whitney, Teemu Selanne, Martin Straka, Rod Brind'Amour, Joe Sakic, Michael Nylander, Vyacheslov Kozlov and Paul Kariya. How about a new all-star format: Over 30s, vs. unders? ... Bill Cosby, the comedian, has a Dandi Dinmont terrier named Harry entered in the Westminster Dog Show, the Super Bowl of the competitive canine world. "The dog breeders and owners are like parents who have kids in soccer games," says the Coz, "swim meets, ice skating, etc. Only the breeders are better behaved." Dog-gone true.

Therrien may soon get more recognition for script behind team's success

Monday, February 12, 2007

By Dave Molinari

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Penguins' better play this season can be accredited to coach Michel Therrien's attention to detail. Here's a look at the team's improvements this year:

The Penguins' 11-0-2 surge lifted the team into a tie with Ottawa for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

At 29-17-9, the Penguins have won 17 more games than they did at this point last season (12-32-11).

After 55 games, they have 67 points, up from 35 at the same time last winter.

The Penguins have allowed 171 goals through 55 games, an average of 3.1 per game. At this point last season they were giving up 4.04 goals per contest (222).

Goal scoring is up for the Penguins. They have averaged 3.5 goals per game this season compared to 2.76 scores per contest last year at this point.

It was suggested during an NBC broadcast Jan. 13 that Michel Therrien was on the verge of being fired as coach of the Penguins.

It seemed off-the-wall and more than a bit absurd at the time, for a variety of reasons.

Not anymore.

Now, it sounds like the kind of inside information that would come from the business end of a bong.

A few hours after that dire pronouncement about Therrien's future, the Penguins finished off a 5-3 victory in Philadelphia. They haven't lost in regulation since.

So when NBC dispatches a crew here for the game Sunday against Washington, Therrien's job security -- which, in the real world, never was even remotely in doubt -- doesn't figure to come up in the conversation.

But if the broadcasters still want to talk about him, perhaps they could discuss his credentials as a coach of the year candidate. Which are far more valid than some people in the industry might realize.

Although the 11-0-2 surge that has lifted the Penguins into a tie with Ottawa for fourth place in the Eastern Conference is starting to attract attention across the continent -- it's kind of tough to ignore a team that has taken at least one point out of every game for a month -- not much of it has focused on Therrien.

Instead, the talk is of Sidney Crosby, and how he's a serious threat to win his first NHL scoring title and MVP award. How goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has dramatically elevated his game. How the poise and productivity of rookie forwards Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal belie their age and inexperience.

Which, Therrien said, is precisely how it should be.

"I've always been a believer that players deserve the credit," he said. "We write the script, but the actors have to act."

He has a point. Give Tony Dungy a group of awful football players to work with, and you'd end up with a group of well-coached, awful football players.

But it also is true that casting Al Pacino in the lead role won't help if the script is for Bedtime for Bonzo. That's why it's ridiculous to suggest that Therrien and his assistants, Mike Yeo and Andre Savard, have been little more than casual bystanders to what the Penguins have accomplished this season.

After 55 games, they have 67 points, up from 35 at the same time last winter.

"All of them have prepared us to play every game," defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "We still have to go out and do it, but they've told us the way we have to play to win games. And when we've done what they've said, we've won."

When Therrien replaced Eddie Olczyk as coach 14 months ago, he emphasized adding structure, on and off the ice. Practices were demanding, performance critiques tough.

This year, the days off -- like one yesterday -- are more frequent, the decibel level generally lower.

"He's communicated very well with the guys this year," right winger Mark Recchi said. "And he's been very composed in how he's handled things."

That should not be construed as a sign that Therrien is going soft, however.

"He'll still tear a strip off you if he has to," left winger Erik Christensen said.

The fact is, though, that he doesn't often have to, because the players understand what he wants from them.

"It's not a matter that I've mellowed," Therrien said. "They know what the standard is. They know what the standard of our work ethic is. They know the standard for competing. They know the standard for being disciplined. They know what I'm expecting from them."

And the players know what to expect from Therrien: A well-conceived, thorough game plan built on a framework designed to take full advantage of their speed and skill.

"He's brought a system that works so well when it's done right," Christensen said.

Earlier in his career, Therrien had a reputation for being hardwired to coach defensive hockey, for treating it as his alpha and omega. But while that remains the cornerstone of his philosophy, Therrien doesn't shackle the Penguins' gifted players by turning them into one-way automatons.

"We have a plan when we don't have the puck," he said. "And we have a plan when we have the puck."

And a plan for just about everything else. Therrien has an eye for detail, and little tolerance for those who ignore them.

The Penguins might lose games because other teams are more talented or experienced or sharper, but not because those clubs are better-prepared.

"He's done a real good job of realizing what it takes for us to win," Whitney said, "and showing us how to do it."

If that doesn't change, the members of the NHL Broadcasters Association who vote for the Jack Adams Award might begin to take notice, although Therrien insists that's a non-issue for him.

"Honest to God, I don't think about those things," he said. "I'm thinking about the big picture with our team, where we want to be at the end of the year. Where we want to be in a few years."

It will be up to others to realize how far the Penguins have come. And who has helped to lead them there.

Assuming, of course, that it doesn't all go up in smoke.


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

Staal's first NHL hat trick leads Penguins to 6-5 OT victory

Teammates Evgeni Malkin, top, and Ryan Whitney jump on Jordan Staal after Staal's winning goal in overtime last night in Toronto. The goal completed a hat trick for Staal in the Penguins' 6-5 win.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

TORONTO -- This can be an awfully intimidating stage, and it was Jordan Staal's first time on it.

He grew up watching Hockey Night in Canada games. Last night, he played one in his home province. In front of a record crowd that included friends and fans who watched him play junior hockey up the road in Peterborough.

It's easy to see how an 18-year-old would be a bit overwhelmed by all of that.

And perhaps Staal was. Which might explain why he wasn't able to complete his first NHL hat trick until 3:54 of overtime in the Penguins' 6-5 victory against Toronto at the Air Canada Centre.

"You can't ask for a better night for him," coach Michel Therrien said.

Staal allowed that he was "a little nervous coming into the game" because "it's a dream come true to even play in this rink," although only a handful of his pals were on hand and his parents opted to stay home.

"They've been traveling a lot lately," he said. "So they just decided to boycott this one."

The Staals undoubtedly watched it on Hockey Night in Canada, since that's what a healthy percentage of folks in this country do on Saturday nights. Staal used to be one of them, which is why being invited to appear on the postgame show meant so much to him.

"I've been watching it my whole life," he said. "To get on there is a dream come true."

The victory pushed the Penguins' current run to 11-0-2 and allowed them to hold onto a share of fourth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race with Ottawa.

Sidney Crosby, whose first appearance of the season in this city had generated the kind of media attention generally reserved for a papal visit, had one assist to raise his league-leading point total to 87.

While Staal dominated the spotlight last night, a bit reflected on Penguins right winger Ronald Petrovicky after he dropped Toronto's Kris Newbury with a series of wicked rights during a fight at 13:53 of the third period.

The game was delayed for several minutes while Newbury received medical attention and was removed from the ice on a stretcher with his head immobilized. Toronto coach Paul Maurice said after the game that he was alert and conscious and will undergo tests today to determine the severity of his injuries.

"He fell on his head pretty bad," Petrovicky said. "I'm sorry. But that's part of the game. Hopefully, he'll be OK."

Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik did not play because of illness. His spot as Ryan Whitney's partner was taken by Josef Melichar, who missed the previous 12 games with a sprained left knee.

The game attracted a crowd of 19,620, a regular-season record in Toronto.

Staal opened the scoring off a give-and-go with Michel Ouellet with 37.2 seconds left in the opening period, then picked up his second of the night at 3:32 of the second, as he took a drop pass from Evgeni Malkin and whipped a shot over goalie Andrew Raycroft's glove from the top of the left circle.

Malkin made it 3-0 during a power play at 8:44 when he got a feed from Crosby and wired a wrist shot past Raycroft from the left dot, a goal that seemed to put the Penguins in complete control.

But Maple Leafs defenseman Hal Gill (6 foot 7, 250 pounds) tried to invigorate his teammates by initiating a fight with Colby Armstrong (6 foot 2, 188 pounds) at 10:54, and it worked.

While the Penguins seemed baffled that Gill and Armstrong received offsetting penalties -- "I don't understand the call on Gill and Armstrong," Therrien said. "You don't often see those things" -- there was no mystery about the impact their scuffle had on the game.

Nik Antropov sliced the Penguins' lead to 3-1 by scoring from the front lip of the crease at 8:25, one second after a tripping minor to Whitney expired.

Mats Sundin, whose assist on Antropov's goal was his 700th in the NHL, made it a one-goal game at 16:44 and Bates Battaglia completed Toronto's comeback by scoring from the inner edge of the right circle 54.4 seconds before the period ended.

"We lost our focus," Therrien said.

The Penguins had a chance to regain it during the intermission, but Bryan McCabe beat Marc-Andre Fleury from just inside the blueline 65 seconds into the third to give Toronto a lead.

Rather than unravel, the Penguins rebounded, and 54 seconds later, Ryan Malone scored from in front to tie the game again. And after Boyd Devereaux put Toronto on top again at 11:44, Maxime Talbot countered for the Penguins at 13:49 to put the game into overtime.

"We were resilient again," Therrien said. "I was really impressed with the way we battled back."

And especially with the 18-year-old who eventually won the game.


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

A Two-Man Race for Hart Trophy

Damien Cox
The Toronto Star
February 09, 2007

A Two-Man Race

With two months left in the NHL season, it's official.

The race for the Hart Trophy as league MVP is down to two, and it's going to be one heck of a charge to the finish line.

It's crystal clear that Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur have separated themselves from the crowd, a very deep and talented crowd that includes Vancouver netminder Roberto Luongo, Tampa Bay centre Vincent Lecavalier and Anaheim blueliner Scott Niedermayer.

But Crosby and Brodeur are clearly the two to watch.

Crosby, in case you haven't noticed, is running away with the NHL scoring race, 14 points clear of his closest rival.

On Thursday night, he conquered his personal bugaboo, scoring the shootout winner against Philly after going 0-7 on free shots earlier this season.

The Pens only need to play .500 hockey the rest of the way, probably, to qualify for post-season competition, which makes Crosby's Hart candidacy that much stronger.

And Sid the Kid's in town Saturday night to face a Leaf team that's desperate to prove it can win on home ice.

Brodeur, meanwhile, picked up his 10th shutout Thursday against the Islanders, remarkable given that this is supposed to be a time for heightened offence and he plays in the Eastern Conference against the most prolific scorers in the league most nights.

With 34 wins and 37 Devils game to play, Brodeur looks poised to smash Bernie Parent's 1973-74 record of 47 wins, probably inevitable given the extra opportunities available to modern goalies to pick up wins through OT and shootouts.

That Brodeur, barring injury, will get the chance to break the record seems equally inevitable. His backup, Scott Clemmensen, hasn't played since Dec. 14 and has blocked shots for the Devils for only 149 minutes this season.

Shutout-wise, Brodeur became the third goalie ever to pick up 90 in his career with his perfect outing against the Isles. He's four short of George Hainsworth and just 13 shy of Terry Sawchuk's all-time record.

That Sawchuk mark of 103 was always one that seemed unbreakable, like DiMaggio's 56-game streak.

But Brodeur, still only 34 years old, could break it by next season.

So you have to believe it's Brodeur vs. Crosby for the Hart.

If there's a downside to this story, its that both toil for franchises that are clearly struggling to survive.

The Pens still haven't been able to come up with a new arena deal to stay in Pittsburgh despite all kinds of speculation that an agreement is imminent.

Jersey, meanwhile, drew only 10,110 for the Islander game, and have had as few as 8,269 for a game this year.

A new arena in Newark beckons, but it better come complete with legions of newly committed supporters.

February 09, 2007 at 06:56 AM in NHL | Permalink | Comments (1)