Crosby played on broken foot

March 16 injury, however, will sideline him for IHF's Worlds

Sunday, April 22, 2007

By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Penguins center and NHL scoring champion Sidney Crosby admitted yesterday that he perpetuated a lie over the past several weeks, although he figured he had a good reason.

To keep opponents from exploiting a vulnerability, Crosby has been hiding the fact that he sustained a broken bone in his left foot March 16 when he blocked a shot in the first period of a 6-3 win against Montreal at Mellon Arena.

He continued to play despite the pain, but he will skip the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships that begin next weekend in Moscow to give the foot a chance to fully heal. He will not require surgery.

"The first two weeks were pretty sore," said Crosby, who used only light padding in his skate so as not to give away the injury.

"After that, it started to heal, so it got a little bit better. When we got to the playoffs, it was sore, but it wasn't grueling or anything. I got hit there a couple times after [the initial injury]. It didn't help it, but I was fine. It just needs time."

Crosby's spring has not gone as planned. He had hoped to still be active in the playoffs, but the Penguins were ousted in the first round by Ottawa in five games.

Now his second choice, joining Team Canada for the World Championships, is gone. Last year, Crosby became the youngest player to win the scoring title at worlds and was named the tournament's top forward after getting eight goals and 16 points in nine games.

"I wanted to be a part of it, especially in Moscow, a place I've always wanted to play," Crosby said.

There still could be good offseason news for Crosby. He said he and the Penguins might explore a long-term contract. His three-year entry contract expires in 2008. With a new contract before then, he would avoid becoming a restricted free agent next year.

"With the [collective bargaining agreement] rules, it's a possibility," Crosby said. "We'll see what happens with that. We'll give it a month for everyone to think about it."

Crosby wasn't sure how he will spend his summer.

"I didn't make any plans to leave because I was hoping to be playing for a long time," he said.

Crosby would have continued to play despite the broken foot if the Penguins remained alive in the playoffs. He sought assurance he would not risk permanent damage by playing.

"Obviously, I want to play for a long time, and, at the same time I want to help my team," he said. "You have to make sure you understand what's going on. I talked to the doctor and the trainers and made sure that if I was to play through it, it wasn't something that would bother me for a long period of time or always going to be nagging.

"It's definitely going to take a little bit longer [to heal] since I played with it."

While playing with the injury, he had five goals, nine assists for 14 points and averaged more than 20 minutes of ice time the final 11 games of the regular season and had five points in five playoff games.

The foot injury will not keep him from conditioning in the offseason, he said.

A couple of things are settled for Crosby for next season.

He plans to live with the family of team co-owner and retired Hall of Fame player Mario Lemieux for a third season.

"You won't have to ask me next year," Crosby said. "I'll commit now and say I'll be back at Mario's."

Crosby also will have a new Penguins cap, replacing the sweat-stained black one he kept at his locker stall all season out of superstition and that yesterday had this message taped to it:

"Please wash me. I can't stand this anymore. -- Hat"


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

Ron Cook: Playoff experience eventually will lead to success

Friday, April 20, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

OTTAWA -- This goes back to the start of the series, back to when the young Penguins actually believed they were going to be something more than road kill under the wheels of the Ottawa Senators.

"We're here to win and we're going to give everything we have to win," coach Michel Therrien said. "Sixteen teams hope to win the Stanley Cup. We hope, too. But ... "

Yes, there was a but.

A very telling but, as it turned out.

"But we understand it's a process," Therrien said.

If the Penguins didn't realize it then, they surely do now that their season is done, the mercy killing coming in a 3-0 Senators win last night in Game 5 at Scotiabank Place.

Don't underestimate the importance of that when the Penguins do a better job competing in the playoffs next April, when they maybe win a Cup or two in the seasons ahead during the Sidney Crosby era.

"Going through this," winger Mark Recchi said, "will make every player in here better."

There's no doubt the Penguins -- 16 of whom were playing in their first NHL playoff series -- learned a lot during the eight days the Senators spent schooling them. The painful lesson started at the beginning of Game 1 when the Senators stormed them for two goals in the first seven minutes on their way to a ridiculously easy 6-3 win.

Welcome to the playoffs, fellas!

"Everybody put their finger on the experience factor coming in, but we shrugged it off," Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said. "We had so much energy and so much resiliency. We were thinking that would maybe put the experience factor under the carpet, but ... "

There's another of those blasted buts.

"But that's not the way it works in playoff hockey," Orpik said.

Or, as goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury put it:

"I think we learned that it takes a lot to win. It's not going to happen with just one or two guys. Everybody's got to show up every night."

Still, it hurt, hurt very badly. The Penguins didn't just make the playoffs for the first time in six years, they came in flying after a totally unexpected 105-point season. They never imagined the Senators would be so much better. Better five on five. Infinitely better on defense. And, in the only real surprise in the series, better on the power play.

Somehow, it seemed appropriate that the Penguins wasted not one, but two, five-on-three advantages in the first period last night and finished 0 for 6 on the power play. That unit had gone 0 for 9 on home ice in the losses in Games 3 and 4, hadn't it? That's why when Senators defenseman Anton Volchenkov went to the penalty box early in the second period, you couldn't help but think his team had the Penguins right where it wanted them.

The Penguins managed just one measly shot on that power play and probably were feeling a bit sorry for themselves as it ended when defenseman Sergei Gonchar gave away the puck in the neutral zone. That led to a breakaway and goal by Senators winger Antoine Vermette and an overwhelming 2-0 lead. All that was left was the celebration that went long into the morning.

Penguins management knew coming in the team was going to have experience issues even if the players didn't want to face it. It knew the team was woefully short on defense after its top two pairings. And it knew the lack of a big-time scoring winger to play on Crosby's line could be a huge problem. Those final two problems must be addressed by general manager Ray Shero in the offseason.

But neither Shero nor Therrien could have guessed the power play would be so lame. There's just too much top-end talent for it to be so ineffective.

"It really let us down," Recchi said.

If anything good came from the series, it was the play of Fleury. He came in with the reputation of coming up short in big games, thanks to some tough performances in minor-league and international competition. But he was brilliant against the Senators even though his final numbers won't reflect it. He might not have been the best player in the series, but he was the Penguins' best player.

"By far," Orpik said. "Without him, the scores of these games would have been a lot more lopsided."

You want something to feel good about on this rotten morning?

Fleury will be better for this experience.

So will Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal ...

"This team is going to compete for the Stanley Cup for a long time and Sid is going to lead the way," Recchi said.

Crosby will realize that one day. So will Fleury and the others.

But not last night.

The wounds still were too deep, too fresh.

Part of the process, you know?


(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.)

Bucs' Snell gets confidence boost

By Rob Biertempfel
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, April 18, 2007


ST. LOUIS - Manager Jim Tracy crept onto the top step of the Pirates dugout Monday night and warily eyed pitcher Ian Snell.

The St. Louis Cardinals had already cashed in a run in the seventh inning and had the bases loaded with one out. The Pirates had scored three runs but then had gone back into their usual coma at the plate.

"We had to make those runs stand up," Tracy said. "To do that, your pitching has to be equal to the task."

Bases juiced, ballpark buzzing, sellout crowd on its feet. Was it time to take Snell out of the game?

Tracy put his foot on the top step ... and paused there. To that point, Snell had allowed just three hits, all singles. He'd only thrown about 90 pitches, so he had some gas left in his tank.

And the right-hander was throwing some nasty stuff. Snell had struck out six Cardinals, including slugger Albert Pujols.

Tracy stayed put.

It was a risky choice, to be sure, but worthwhile for the self-assurance it would instill in Snell.

"To take the game away from him would've been wrong," Tracy said. "It's his game, at that point."

Snell glanced in the dugout and realized Tracy had made his decision.

"It meant a lot to me," Snell said. "It shows he has confidence in me, to leave me out there in a tough situation to get out of it."

Snell focused on the task at hand and got pinch-hitter Skip Schumaker to foul out on an 0-2 pitch.

Now, Snell's pitch count was up to 95, and he was feeling it. David Eckstein, a pesky, spray hitter and the 2006 World Series MVP, fouled off Snell's first offering.

"That whole time, I was just praying, 'God, give me some energy from somewhere,' " Snell said. "And, sure enough, I got the curveball over and Eckstein grounded out."

Inning over. By limiting the damage in the inning to one run, Snell had given the Pirates enough wiggle room to escape with a 3-2 victory.

"The job he did ... was huge," Tracy said.

A year ago, things might have turned out differently. Early last season, Snell folded at times in tough situations. That changed as he gained experience.

Snell has had some hard luck against the Cardinals, going 1-1 with a 5.25 ERA against them last year. In early September, he surrendered three tape-measure homers to Pujols in a 6-3 loss.

"The tough times were back in the day," Snell said. "It's a matter of a little more tape study, learning their swings and watching how they react to certain pitches. I try to change with every at-bat, throw a different pitch at different times."

From his perch in the dugout, Tracy has noticed the change in Snell's approach. He sees Snell's pitches darting in and out, up and down, playing mind games with batters.

"He passed the test," Tracy said. "That's the next major step in the development of a guy who has a chance to become very special."

Snell's surging fortitude is obvious, too.

"I went out there very confident, thinking that nobody was going to stop me," Snell said. "Nobody was going to beat me.

"I was able to bear down in situations. Yeah, I gave up one run and I walked a couple people, but you're not going to be spectacular every day. I did enough for my team to win the game."

Gorzelanny, LaRoche cut down Cardinals

Sterling start, home run push Pirates to 6-1 victory, series sweep

Wednesday, April 18, 2007



Starter Tom Gorzelanny pitched 8 1/3 innings yesterday, giving up one run and four hits against the Cardinals in St. Louis.

By Dejan Kovacevic

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ST. LOUIS -- Strike one ...

Tom Gorzelanny went straight at the St. Louis Cardinals, recorded 21 first-pitch strikes against the 30 batters he faced, then wound up with 8 1/3 exquisite innings.

Strike two ...



Jack Wilson and Jason Bay congratulate Adam LaRoche on his three-run home run in the third inning.

Adam LaRoche dug himself an 0-2 hole, battled back to a full count, then drilled a three-run home run for his first significant hit of the season.

Strike three ...

Matt Capps was summoned to finish what Gorzelanny started, blew away his only two batters with high heat, then shook hands as the Pirates made off with a satisfying 6-1 punchout of the Cardinals yesterday at Busch Stadium.

Make that richly satisfying.

"That was a good one," catcher Ronny Paulino said. "There was a lot to like out there."

Where to start?

From a team standpoint, the Pirates' two-game sweep all but erased the sting of that 0-4 homestand. To boot, the sweep was their first in St. Louis since a four-game set July 3-6, 1997, and the back-to-back victories the first here since May 30-31, 2003.

More?

That 6-2 road record is the winningest in Major League Baseball, which is not bad for a team that opened the 2006 season 1-13 away from PNC Park.

Still, this one might have been even more encouraging on an individual level.

Start with the starter.

Gorzelanny was drawing calls for his demotion after an erratic spring, but it is safe to say those have died down somewhat since he has gone 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA through three starts. Most impressive: Opponents are batting .208.

And he never was better in his fledgling career than yesterday, when he limited St. Louis to one run and four hits.

"He was tremendous," manager Jim Tracy said. "Again."

The key, as always for Gorzelanny, was working the outside of the plate to right-handed hitters. He painted the corner with first-pitch fastballs, then kept them guessing at the breaking stuff.

"Even when they hit the ball hard, they couldn't pull it," Paulino said. "It went right at our guys on the right side."

That made it stand out all the more that second baseman Jose Castillo, filling in for injured Freddy Sanchez, made three terrific plays. That included a leaping stab of a blistering liner by Albert Pujols that resulted in a first-inning double play.

"I was working on staying ahead of hitters and getting them to swing at good pitches," Gorzelanny said. "From there, the defense was the key. They played well."

Might Gorzelanny be surprising himself to some degree?

"Yeah, maybe a little bit," he said. "Everybody expects to do well, but it's exciting that I've gotten off to this start. I just want to keep building on it."



Xavier Nady steals second under the Cardinals' Aaron Miles in the fifth inning yesterday in St. Louis.


For the second day in a row, the Pirates' offense struck early and leaped to a 5-0 lead against St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright.

Chris Duffy walked on four pitches to open the game, then came all the way around when Jack Wilson's single to right field slipped under the glove of Preston Wilson. Xavier Nady's one-out shot up the middle drove in Wilson.

Wilson and Jason Bay singled after one out in the third. That brought up LaRoche, weighted down by a 1-for-22 drought.

Wainwright threw two quick strikes, and LaRoche stepped out. Refocused and showing some patience, he took the next three pitches to put the pressure back on the pitcher. He then fouled off two full-count fastballs.

That frustrated him further.

"I had a couple in there to hit, and I'm just not squaring 'em up right now," LaRoche said.

The next fastball was elevated, 90 mph and over the inner part of the plate. And LaRoche squared it up well enough to rope it just inside the right foul pole for his second home run and a 5-0 lead.

"He hit 32 home runs for a reason last year," Wainwright said. "I fell into a pattern, and he made me pay."

Even as the ball left his bat, LaRoche had doubts.

"As soon as I hit it, I thought to myself, 'That's foul.' I've had some pretty well-hit balls right at people lately, so that's what I figured."

And when it cleared?

"That was nice. And it was nice to get that for Gorzy."

With that, LaRoche's RBI total for the season went from two to five.

St. Louis finally nicked Gorzelanny for a run in the fifth on Gary Bennett's sacrifice fly, but the Pirates got it back in the seventh on Paulino's RBI double to deep center.

The sole suspense from there would surround Gorzelanny's bid to go the distance for the first time. He entered the ninth with an effective pitch count of 99 and quickly retired David Eckstein on a popup. But So Taguchi doubled, and Pujols walked on five pitches.

That was enough.

"We tried," Tracy said. "But you don't want to be a hitter too late there."

"I was a little upset with myself," Gorzelanny said. "But we still won the game, and that's all that really matters."

Capps recalled, upon emerging from the bullpen, wanting not only to close it out but also to preserve Gorzelanny's line.

"As well as Tom threw, he deserved to go out with one run," he said.

Capps backed the sentiment by getting Scott Rolen and Preston Wilson each to swing under high heat.


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

Bob Smizik: Penguins' best effort just wasn't enough

Evgeni Malkin reacts after being stopped by Senators goalie Ray Emery last night at Mellon Arena.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It was a secret to no one that Game 4 of this Stanley Cup playoff matchup between the Penguins and the Ottawa Senators was of critical importance. The Penguins, down a game, were in desperate need of a victory. They needed to play well, They needed to seize energy from a passionate crowd.

It all started so well. Unlike the first game of this series played at Mellon Arena, the crowd came poised to help. They were passionate and they were smart.

The 17,132 who jammed the old building had the decency and good sense not to boo the Canadian national anthem, something a few jerks in the crowd two days earlier did. Maybe this crowd realized that -- duh! -- most of the Penguins, including Sidney Crosby, Mark Recchi and Marc-Andre Fleury, are Canadians and quite understandably might take exception to such stupid behavior.

This crowd did one other thing differently than the one at the first game: It didn't grow silent when the Penguins fell behind. Instead, the passion remained high even after the Senators scored on a fluke goal before the game was four minutes old. A centering pass off the stick of Jason Spezza, hit the stick of Jordan Staal, who was defending the area in front of the goal, and sailed past Fleury.

But for this game, though, the power of the crowd wasn't enough. Neither was the best performance of the series by the Penguins.

In a fiercely and well-played game, the Senators got a goal midway through the third period from defenseman Anton Volchenkov to win, 2-1, and take a 3-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series which resumes tomorrow night at Ottawa.

Obviously, the Penguins are in a desperate situation. They need to win three in a row against the Senators, with two of the games being played in Ottawa. If they require inspiration, they need only recall the final month of the season when they did beat the Senators three times, with two of those victories coming on the road.

It they are to make such a run, and it will be extremely difficult, at least they showed on the ice last night they are poised to make it. Unlike after their two earlier defeats, the Penguins weren't second-guessing their commitment. They had fretted ever since losing the third game Sunday about their lack of focus. They talked incessantly about the need to focus. For this game they were focused.

"Both teams played well," Sidney Crosby said. "It was a good game. You need a break to win playoff games. We didn't get a break."

Although they started slowly and allowed Ottawa to dominate early, eventually the Penguins took their cue from the pumped-up crowd and gained control of the game. The second period was their best of the playoffs. They scored on a goal by Jordan Staal, who threw a rebound past goalie Ray Emery, and dominated play. They outshot the Senators, 13-4.

That they took seriously their situation was indicated by their physical style of play. With veteran Gary Roberts playing possessed, and being criticized by Ottawa coach Bryan Murray for his aggressiveness, the Penguins outhit the Senators, 30-16.

Roberts was credited with nine hits.

But the unheralded Emery, a large question mark before the series and relatively untested before last night, countered what the Penguins did so well.

"He was the difference tonight," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "He made some crucial saves."

Emery was particularly masterful in the second period as he continually turned aside good scoring chances.

With the score tied after two periods and the Penguins clearly having the momentum, a chance a victory looked good.

But the Senators wouldn't have it.

"We found a way to rally and play the way we're supposed to in the third period," Murray said. "Then we got a goal from a player we don't expect to get one from."

Crosby said, "It was the next goal wins, and they got it."

Murray was critical of his team's play for most of the first two periods but was more than willing to credit to the Penguins.

"Pittsburgh played very, very strong," he said. "Their crowd rallied them. They got a lot of energy from their crowd.

"They played as hard as I've seen them play all year."

The Penguins' power play, their strength for much of the season, failed them. They were scoreless in five chances. On their first two power plays, they failed to put a shot on Emery.

But there was no disgrace in this defeat.

"Both teams played well," Therrien said. "It was a good game."

Just not quite good enough for the Penguins.

Torres finds his finishing pitch

Closer snuffs Cardinals' rally, save Snell's fine start in Pirates' 3-2 victory

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Pirates third baseman Jose Bautista, left, laughs and shakes his hand after he was issued a stinging high-five by Pirates closer Salomon Torres, right, after making the final out of the baseball game against the Cardinals Monday.


ST. LOUIS -- Getting a save after two poor outings?

Good stuff.

Retiring Albert Pujols with the bases loaded?

Riveting stuff.

But achieving that after two awful mishaps had pretty much handed the game to the opponent?

"If I could use one word to describe what transpired in that ninth inning ... priceless," Salomon Torres said, smiling wide after preserving the Pirates' 3-2 edging of the St. Louis Cardinals last night at Busch Stadium. "You know that MasterCard commercial? Well, it doesn't get any better than that."

Nor any tougher.

There is a category some baseball statisticians keep called tough saves.

This one should serve as the bar ...

Ian Snell again gave the Pirates a sterling start -- one run on three hits over seven innings -- and the offense produced three first-inning runs for a rare spurt. Jason Bay drew a bases-loaded walk off erratic Anthony Reyes, and Xavier Nady rapped a two-run single up the middle.

But St. Louis chipped away for the one off Snell in the seventh, another in the eighth off Matt Capps and Damaso Marte, and the 3-2 lead was turned over to Torres for the ninth.

This after Torres blew a save last Tuesday, lost the game the next day, then sat and stewed through a blowout and two rainouts.

"I've been eager to get the ball back," Torres said. "But this ... it was the ultimate situation for any closer, facing the best hitter in the game."

Adam Kennedy led it off with a squibber to first baseman Adam LaRoche, but LaRoche -- perhaps finally lugging his .105 average into the field -- failed to scoop it up, then kicked it for his first error.

Yadier Molina bunted Kennedy to second before more misfortune.

Pinch-hitter Aaron Miles hit another squibber, this toward third baseman Jose Bautista. But the ball struck the bag and bounced, almost comically, over Bautista for a single.



Pirates starter Ian Snell pitched seven innings last night, giving up one run on three hits to the Cardinals in St. Louis.

Runners at the corners.

If not for Jack Wilson backing up Bautista, the score would have been tied.

"Heads-up play by our shortstop," manager Jim Tracy said.

The next batter, David Eckstein, was hit by Torres' first pitch.

Bases loaded.

Torres complained after his previous two outings that he lacked aggressiveness, lacked confidence in his pitches.

Now?

"I had to push my adrenaline," he said. "I had to push myself to another level."

Chris Duncan popped up to shallow left for the second out.

Into the box stepped Pujols, with the sellout crowd of 43,026 rising to its feet and roaring.

If Torres had any nerves, they were not detected by catcher Ronny Paulino.

"I could see in his eyes he was going to give me everything he had," Paulino said. "He was going to go right at him."

Torres did take that approach, but maybe a little too much.

The first pitch was a sinker that did anything but sink, sailing high for ball one.

Next pitch was another sinker, again staying high. But Pujols, not yet himself with a .170 average, could not lay off. He took a full-force swing, but some "late movement to the inside," as Paulino described it, kept the ball off the barrel of the bat.

A high popup landed in Bautista's glove.



Cardinals second baseman Adam Kennedy loses control of the baseball as he tries to complete the double play after forcing Xavier Nady out at second in the first inning last night in St. Louis.

Torres sprinted to Bautista and high-fived him with enough force that "I think I broke our third baseman's hand." And more congratulations were extended across the infield, in no small part because the Pirates had shaken a four-game losing streak.

Tracy praised the entire team for the victory, with an emphasis on Torres.

"You have to tip your cap to our closer," Tracy said. "He never wavered one bit. To me, that's the sign of a guy that wants to be out there with the game on the line. He showed some true mettle."

Snell did, too, in evening his record at 1-1 while lowering his ERA through three starts to 1.80.

He held St. Louis to a single and two walks through six innings, retiring 12 in a row at one point. But he gave up his run in the seventh and had bases loaded with one out.

Would Tracy take him out?

"I thought about it," Tracy said. "But to pitch as well as he had ... to take that game away from him would be wrong. He still had gas in the tank."

True enough. Snell's count was only at 84 pitches.

Still, he acknowledged having to find something extra to get his pinch-hitter Skip Schumaker to pop up and Eckstein to ground out on a sharp curveball.

"I was just praying, 'God, give me some energy from somewhere,'" Snell said.

And what did it mean that Tracy let him stay on the mound?

"It showed me that he had confidence in me to get out of a tough situation."

The Cardinals sounded impressed by Snell's slider that "gave us fits," according to Eckstein, and, above all, Snell's poise.

"He kept the ball down," Pujols said. "And he had a good idea what he was going to do with every hitter."

The Pirates will go for the sweep of the two-game set this afternoon.

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



Freddy Sanchez is tagged out by Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina in the third inning yesterday in St. Louis. Sanchez was trying to score from third when St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen threw home on a fielder's choice.

Ron Cook: Senators exploiting Penguins' weakness

Monday, April 16, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It would have been funny if it weren't so darned sad. First, Sergei Gonchar's skates went out from under him and he went tumbling to the Mellon Arena ice. Then, Mark Eaton went down after Gonchar knocked him over. And they're the Penguins' top defensive pairing! The next thing you knew, the Ottawa Senators' Joe Corvo was skating in alone on Marc-Andre Fleury last night. The Penguins' goaltender bailed out his defense that time by robbing Corvo, but he couldn't cover for all of the Penguins' many defensive liabilities. Ken Dryden probably wasn't that good. Those defensive shortcomings were the biggest reason the Penguins were 4-2 losers in pivotal Game 3 of their Stanley Cup playoff series.



Ottawa's Dean McAmmond and the Penguins' Maxime Talbot fight last night in the second period.

It wasn't just the uncontested shots such as Corvo's or the one the Senators' Daniel Alfredsson scored on in the second period when Gonchar lost track of him. It was the Penguins' inability to get the puck out of their end. Their defensemen couldn't handle the Senators' relentless forecheck. They couldn't handle their speed. It frequently was as if the ice was tilted toward Fleury's end of the rink.

That has been a problem for three games.

Fleury was able to steal Game 2 for the Penguins in Ottawa Saturday afternoon with a terrific performance.

If he isn't able to steal at least a couple more, it's hard to like the Penguins' chances of climbing out of that 2-1 hole.

We probably shouldn't be surprised for multiple reasons.

Everyone has made a big deal about how the Penguins' young offensive stars -- Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal -- are breaking their NHL playoff maiden in this series. But it's also the first NHL postseason experience for most of the team's defensemen. This is all new to Ryan Whitney, Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi and Josef Melichar.

"That's the biggest thing," Penguins veteran winger Mark Recchi said. "It's a whole new pressure they're facing. That's a very fast team and they're on our defense quick. There's always that constant pressure."

But this goes beyond just experience.

Talent is a factor.

The Penguins' defense isn't as bad as it was last season when coach Michel Therrien, in his infamous rant not long after he took over the team, publicly suggested it was trying to be the worst defense in the league.

But it's not Stanley Cup-worthy, either.

Whitney and Orpik get passing grades. Each is a young player who will continue to get better. Gonchar has fabulous offensive ability, but he tends to be nonchalant at times on defense, as he was when Alfredsson got away from him. Eaton is a solid NHL defenseman, but he's not what he was early in the season because of serious wrist and knee injuries. Scuderi and Melichar are barely marginal, if that.

That's going to be a tough nut for the Penguins to crack before the end of this series.

It's one that general manager Ray Shero must address after the season.

"The transition from the defensemen to the forwards was not there," a clearly distressed Therrien acknowledged. "You can't shoot the puck around the wall all the time. That should be the last option."

The numbers are telling:

The Penguins had totals of 12, 10 and 12 shots after the first two periods of the three games. It's no coincidence that they trailed at that point in each game.

What good is all of that offensive talent if the defensemen can't get them the puck?

It's a shame because Senators goaltender Ray Emery looks eminently beatable. But the only way the Penguins are going to beat him is by testing him. They've done little of that in the three games, at least until the third periods when they have played desperation hockey and the Senators have sat on their leads. They have scored six of their nine goals in the series in the third period.

This is not a new problem. The Penguins were able to overcome it much of the season because of their marvelous top-end talent, their youth, their exuberance, their hard work and the system Therrien coaches.

But it's different in the playoffs. A good opponent is going to find a team's weakness. The Senators certainly have found the Penguins.' They've done a nice job of exposing it.

To steal from Therrien, it's a "recipe" for disaster for the Penguins.


(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.)

Crosby finishes off spree in third period with winner

Sidney Crosby goes down on one knee to deflect the puck past Ottawa's Ray Emery as Sens' defenceman Anton Volchenkov slides into the crease during Eastern Conference playoff action on April 14. Crosby's goal proved to be the gamewinner.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

OTTAWA -- There are a lot of ways to lose a hockey game, and the Penguins experimented with most of them during the second period yesterday.

They took terrible penalties, watched -- and that's the perfect word for it -- Ottawa run up a 19-5 advantage in shots and let goalie Marc-Andre Fleury be subjected to the kind of abuse that usually results in criminal charges.

It was the kind of self-destructive behavior more often associated with a cameo on the "Dr. Phil Show" than a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Coach Michel Therrien called it "a recipe for losing games," and the Penguins had the formula nailed.

At least until they rewrote it completely for the third period, when they ran off three goals to defeat Ottawa, 4-3, and tie their first-round playoff series, 1-1, heading into Game 3 at Mellon Arena today at 6:08 p.m.

Afterward, Senators coach Bryan Murray said that the Penguins "didn't touch the puck for two periods," and while that wasn't quite a literal truth, perhaps Ottawa should be a bit concerned that the Penguins earned a split on the road without playing anything that should be mistaken for their finest game.

"They haven't seen our best effort," Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "We have to bring it [today] because, after two games, the excuses are over about being nervous in the playoffs."

The Penguins would be a lot more angst-ridden today if not for Fleury, who single-handedly kept his teammates in the game until they decided that attempting to win it might not be a bad idea after all.

"Marc-Andre was the difference," Therrien said.

Fleury finished with 34 saves, none bigger than one on Senators center Mike Fisher from directly in front of the net with about 14 seconds left in regulation.

"I just tried to get up there, and the puck just hit me," Fleury said.

That happened a lot during Game 2. No matter where the Senators shot, the puck almost always hit Fleury. What a coincidence. That was particularly true during the second period, when the Senators treated the Penguins the way a stick treats a pinata. The Senators got the only two goals during that period and likely could have scored about a dozen more.

"We did everything wrong," Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton said. "We were undisciplined, we weren't doing the things we need to do to be successful.

"We were trying to make cute plays, and that's not us. We're a forechecking team, a speed team, and we got away from that in the second."

They rediscovered their identity during the second intermission, though.

"We started to play the right way, do the right things," right winger Mark Recchi said. "We started skating, started forechecking better, started doing a lot of things better. And it obviously made for better results."

The turnaround began when Gary Roberts converted a Sergei Gonchar rebound during a power play at 2:04 to tie the game, 2-2. Chris Kelly put Ottawa back in front when he beat Fleury through a screen at 6:18, but the Penguins did not wilt.



Penguins Gary Roberts and Jordan Staal celebrate after Staal ties the score at 3-3 in the third period against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place. Roberts had scored earlier in the period.


Jordan Staal, playing with the composure of a guy who has been in the league longer than Staal has been alive, buried a feed from Michel Ouellet to pull the Penguins even again at 9:34.

Precisely two minutes and 10 seconds later, Crosby -- hounded by the Senators and jeered mercilessly by the Scotiabank Place crowd for two games -- got the first playoff winner of his career after Therrien put him between Evgeni Malkin and Recchi.

Malkin fed the puck from the right point to Recchi, who was near the left dot. Recchi, in turn, threw a pass to Crosby, who was at the right side of the crease and deflected the puck past Senators goalie Ray Emery with the shaft of his stick.

"When I first passed it, I thought it was going to go too high for Sid," Recchi said. "I had to get it over their [defenseman's] stick. But great players make bad passes look good."

And good teams find a way to win, even when they play badly. The Penguins did that, although, with Game 3 set for this evening, there's no time to savor it.

"You have to forget this game right away," Crosby said. "And focus on the next one."


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

Ron Cook: Vintage Roberts huge in Game 2 victory

(Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)
Gary Roberts argues with refree Dave Jackson late in yesterday's game in Ottawa.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


OTTAWA -- Do you realize how easily it could have been goalie Marc-Andre Fleury who was tortured for a critical power-play goal by Gary Roberts yesterday? It could have been defenseman Brooks Orpik who was bumped into next week by Roberts as he set up another pivotal third-period goal. Roberts wanted to play for the Ottawa Senators, didn't he? He wanted to go to Toronto or Ottawa from Florida at the trade deadline in February so he could be closer to his daughter in Toronto. The Penguins weren't even in his wildest imagination, at least not until a couple of old pals -- Mario Lemieux and Mark Recchi -- called to talk up Pittsburgh and the Penguins' organization.

"Things happen for a reason," Roberts said early last night after playing a starring role in what he described as a "huge, huge" 4-3 Penguins' win against the Senators in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoff series.

"Obviously, I waived my no-trade clause to come to Pittsburgh. I'm thrilled that I did. I'm not complaining."

The Canadian media in a suffocating scrum around Roberts in a cramped runway of Scotiabank Place wanted to switch subjects and get him talking about how he added to his legend as a Senators' killer, but he had one more thought to offer before moving on.

"I don't think it could get much better than playing with Crosby, Malkin and Staal. ... Those guys keep me young."

There you go.

There's your explanation why Roberts, 40, plays as if he's 10 or even 15 years younger, especially at playoff time and especially when the Senators are the opponents. In three different seasons earlier in this decade, while playing for Toronto, he was the key figure in eliminating Ottawa. He had 10 goals and seven assists in 17 playoff games against the Senators.

"He knows that team really well," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said, grinning wickedly.

Knows how to break the Senators' hearts, anyway.

Roberts didn't finish 'em off this time, but he prevented the Senators from putting the Penguins in an awfully dangerous 0-2 hole. What do you think was more impressive? The way he pounced on the rebound of a Sergei Gonchar slapper and slammed a shot by goaltender Ray Emery to tie the score, 2-2, early in the third period? Or the way he knocked defenseman Wade Redden off the puck behind the Senators' net, allowing teammate Michel Ouellet to jump on it and feed Jordan Staal for the goal that produced a 3-3 tie? Who can say? How do you pick between your children? Each play was a thing of absolute beauty to the Penguins. Each was vintage Roberts.

"On the power play, obviously, it's my job to be in front of the net and try to get the puck to [Sidney] Crosby and [Evgeni] Malkin," Roberts said. "That's where I'm going to score my goals -- in front, on rebounds, battling away."

As for the Staal goal ...

"I was just trying to create something," Roberts said. "I saw the loose puck at Redden's feet and just tried to finish my check."

It's a funny game, hockey. Roberts played the first two periods on the Penguins' top line with Crosby and Colby Armstrong and didn't get a shot on net or come close to a scoring chance, mostly because that line was matched against the Senators' best defensive pairing of Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov. It wasn't until he was bumped down to the line with Staal and Ouellet that the ice opened for him.

"As we've always showed," Therrien said, "we're not afraid to shake things up."

A rotten second period, in which the Penguins took five penalties, were outshot, 19-5, and outscored, 2-0, forced Therrien to shuffle his lines in search of a spark. Crosby responded to playing with Malkin and Recchi, scoring the winning goal off a sweet centering pass from Recchi with about eight minutes left.

You might say Roberts also responded.

"He's a leader in the dressing room and, most importantly, on the ice," Therrien said. "He finds a way to make the big play ...

"He's been even more than I expected. You heard so many good things about him, but until you're around him and see his personality and how hard he works, you can't really appreciate it. He's like a big brother to those young kids. He's brought so much to them."

That would be Crosby, Malkin and Staal.

You know, the guys who keep Roberts young.

It's a good thing something is working for him because he's an old man -- relatively speaking, of course -- playing a brutally violent game. If he weren't so tough and in such great shape, he might not have gotten up from a blind-side hit from Senators winger Chris Neil after the whistle in the final minute. He clearly didn't appreciate it.

"I know who did it, that's for sure," Roberts said, matching Therrien wicked grin for wicked grin.

"It was a late hit, no doubt about it. That's all right, though. It's a long series."

The message was clear.

Neil and the Senators haven't heard the last from Roberts.

They probably should consider themselves warned.


(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.)

Greatest show on ice

Getty Images
Crosby is the season's scoring leader with 120 points.

By Josh Peter, Yahoo! Sports
April 10, 2007

PITTSBURGH – There was barely time to gasp.

Sidney Crosby took the pass in the neutral zone. The hockey puck and a defenseman arrived almost simultaneously. Crosby had his head down and …

So this is how it would end. This is how it would end for the player so dazzling that he is supposed to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins back to prominence, reinvigorate the National Hockey League and attract spectators who don't know the difference between a forecheck and a bounced check. This is where the young hotshot would get knocked cold, when a crowd of 16,737 inside Mellon Arena for a game against the New York Rangers in November would stand in shock while someone mopped the blood off the ice and someone else gathered Crosby's teeth, the 19-year-old sensation then leaving the rink on a stretcher and …

Just before impact, Crosby lifted his head. And in that split-second, he saw what no one else did: an escape.

He chipped the puck forward, jumped into the air and spun. The Rangers' burly defenseman sailed past Crosby like a bull through a matador's cape. Crosby rotated a full 360 degrees, landed on his skates, gathered the puck and – in the name of Wayne Gretzky, are you kidding me? – glided forward.

Magic.

Then there was the night Crosby skated toward the net and a teammate fired a pass beyond his reach – or so it seemed. Crosby dove headfirst, stretched out his stick and, sliding across the ice on his belly, not only caught up with the puck but flipped it into the air and past the goalie.

Magic.

Then there was the night Crosby split two defenders, circled around two more opponents as if they were stationary pylons and lifted a backhanded shot past a goalie who looked as stunned as the crowd.

Magic.

"He is human," said Phil Bourque, but the former Penguins defenseman-turned-broadcaster offered no proof. In fact, while watching Crosby during practice earlier this week, Bourque recalled another Crosby highlight and declared, "It's not humanly possible."

It is safe to say that Sidney Crosby, at 19, has altered the notion of what is humanly possible in the NHL.

Last week, he became the youngest player in league history to win the regular-season scoring title. This week, he makes his NHL playoff debut as the baby-faced leader of the most exciting and promising hockey team since, well, since a baby-faced Gretzky laced up his skates with the Edmonton Oilers nearly 30 years ago.

"When it comes to playoff time, that's when the best teams and the best players have to rise to the occasion," Crosby said earlier this week.

Playoff time. Does this mean more magic to go along with the mayhem?

On road trips, especially before games in Canada, the Penguins call ahead for security and check the hotel stairwells for groupies lovestruck by the NHL's pinup boy with the hazel eyes and tussled black hair. When the crowd swells to throngs, they escort Crosby through an alternate exit.

At home games, when the fans gather outside the player's parking lot in front of Gate 2 and plead for autographs, Crosby drives his silver Range Rover to the opposite side of the building, waves to the gaggle of fans that have discovered his secret and heads down a ramp into a parking spot once reserved for the great Mario Lemieux. An arena employee stands sentry outside the Gate 5 ramp and leaves only after Crosby has safely exited, which apparently didn't stop one woman from jumping on the hood of Crosby's car after a game.

Men show up wearing his jersey No. 87. Women show up with homemade signs and banners like the one unfurled Saturday during the Penguins' regular-season finale that read, "I (heart) Sidney. Don't Tell My Hubby."

You deserve to hear more about Sid the Kid and all of the fuss, but first you should know a little more about Bourque, the retired NHL player who swears Crosby is human until he starts recounting the kid's unfathomable plays.

In his prime, Bourque was a hard-drinking and hard-hitting brute. He played with Lemieux, the Hall of Famer, when the Penguins won two Stanley Cups. At 44, with his spiked hair and leather jacket, Bourque still looks like he'd be dangerous with a beer mug or a hockey stick, but he sounded more like a worshipful 12-year-old while watching Crosby at a recent practice.

He wouldn't dare miss a practice, either, because as he drives to the rink he slips into reverie that belies his tough-guy image and finds himself wondering, "What is Sid going to do today?"

"There are times in my day when I think about how the kid goes about his life," Bourque said. "He doesn't cut corners. He does everything the right way.

"I aspire to live like that. I know it sounds corny, but it's true."

This is what happens to most of the skeptics, and Bourque was once among them.




Crosby with the Rimouski Oceanic team in 2005 (AP).

Believing the hype

He'd heard all about the wunderkind from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia who had amassed goals and assists at a pace unseen since Gretzky and Lemieux were tearing through the junior ranks. Heard all about the blossoming young star who the "Great One," Gretzky, essentially declared would be the "Next One." Heard all about a prospect so hot that his agent secured $2.5 million in endorsement deals before he even reported to training camp after the Penguins took him with the No. 1 pick of the 2005 draft.

Bourque had even seen some of Crosby's highlights, but he remained unconvinced, knowing a few snippets of video reveal only so much about a player. So Bourque, along with 12 media outlets from Canada and a gaggle of reporters in Pittsburgh, showed up for that first day of training camp in the fall of 2005 to assess things for himself.

This is what he saw:

The kid played defense as if it were Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. He dug pucks out of the corner as if he were a muscled defenseman trapped in a sturdy but unimposing 5-foot-11, 190-pound frame. He showed speed, balance and vision. Remarkable vision. Crosby saw not only how plays would unfold before they did but also saw the big picture. He was a singular talent in a sport that required teamwork.

Within an hour, Bourque said, he knew Sid the Kid was the real thing. But no one could have seen what was coming next.

Nine games into the season, the Penguins were winless. Crosby was under attack.

In a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, defenseman Derian Hatcher hit Crosby with a high stick that bloodied his mouth and chipped two of his teeth. He left the ice to get stitched up, returned to the game and proceeded to score the winning goal in overtime in what figured to be characterized as a heroic performance. The next day he woke up to discover the Flyers and Philadelphia media had accused him of "diving," branding him as soft.

The Penguins continued to lose. Their head coach got fired. The new coach immediately designated Crosby an assistant captain. Once again Crosby came under attack, this time for being awarded the coveted "A" on the crest of his jersey before he'd even completed two months in the NHL.

After one horrific loss, all of the Penguins cleared out of the locker room – except for Crosby, who was left behind to face the media alone.

"I don't know what to say anymore," he told reporters with his head buried in his hands. "I don't care what happens, but I am not going to give up."

And he didn't, even after Lemieux, who took Crosby into his home and came out of retirement to help nurture the young star, was found to have an irregular heartbeat and retired for good. Even after Lemieux announced "time is running out" on a way to keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh when his demands for a new arena went unmet. Even as the Penguins were headed for a last-place finish for the fourth straight year despite surrounding their star rookie with veterans that were supposed to turn them into a playoff team.

No, Crosby never quit. Instead, he became the youngest player to score 100 points and finished runner-up as Rookie of the Year.



Getty Images
Mark Messier presents Crosby with the Mark Messier Leadership Award.

Selfless superstar

Fast forward six months.

The Penguins were in contention for a playoff spot and Crosby was in Dallas for the 2007 All-Star game. He was eating lunch when a handful of fans came over between bites and asked for his autograph. Crosby, who says no as readily as he passes up a shot at an empty net, obliged.

Frank Buonomo, the Penguins team official sitting at the table, apologized for the intrusions.

"It's OK," Crosby said. "I could be pumping gas in Cole Harbour."

Yeah, and Gretzky could have spent his life delivering mail in Brantford, Ontario.

The night before the All-Star game, Crosby accepted a leadership award from Mark Messier, the Hall of Famer and former teammate of Gretzky's who played on six Stanley Cup champions.

"I think it's clear to everyone that Sidney is becoming everything that he was billed as before he came into the league," Messier said with Crosby at his side. "He's really separated himself from the rest of the pack in the last month and a half."

The separation widened. Following the All-Star break, the Penguins won 11 of 12 games, and Crosby helped set up 19 goals during that stretch. He and the team maintained their momentum. Also, government officials agreed to fund a $290 million arena for Lemieux and co-owner Ron Burkle.

By the regular-season finale, Crosby had clinched the Art Ross Trophy that goes to the league's scoring leader and the Penguins had clinched a playoff berth against the Ottawa Senators. That night, Ray Shero, the Penguins' general manager, watched Crosby pass by in the locker room and shook his head.

"I remember being 19 back in college and I could barely get to two classes in a row," he said. "… He's got a lot on his shoulders. The league looks to him, the organization looks to him."

Crosby may well win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's Most Valuable Player, but he's no contender to win any awards for NHL's Most Riveting Interview. Crosby likes to say that actions speak louder than words, and in his case it's just as well. In interviews, he comes across as courteous but as enthralling as a Zamboni cleaning the ice. But once he's inside the rink, his personality shines.

Checking players into the boards. Digging pucks out of the corners. Trading trash talk with players who try to get under his skin. Playing each shift as if it was his last.

"Sidney is about intensity, about passion, about detail, about conditioning," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. "You couldn't ask for a better ambassador for the game."

On Fan Appreciation Night, Crosby showed his own. He helped set up both of Pittsburgh's goals in a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers that further separated him from the NHL's pack of young stars with a regular-season total of 120 points that included 36 goals and 84 assists. It probably should have been 85 assists.

On a power play, Crosby faked out not only the opposition but also teammate Gary Roberts, who was stationed near the net and should have been in position to score. It was hockey's equivalent of a beautiful, no-look pass that bounced off a teammate's nose.

After the game, Roberts, 40, flashed a grin that indicated he should know better.

"There's no doubt you've always got to be alert, you've got to be on your toes and be ready for the quick little play," he said. "He's a step ahead. He already knows what he wants to do but you're thinking he's doing something else.

"You need to always realize that when you play with him you always have to have your stick on the ice. … He can find you where a lot of guys can't."

A step ahead, Crosby graciously accepted congratulations for winning the scoring title but already was thinking about the Penguins' best-of-seven series with the Ottawa Senators that starts Wednesday in Ottawa.

"I'm not going to lie and say I know exactly what to expect," he said.

Crosby acknowledged the unknown with curiosity that bordered on excitement. Phil Bourque could see as much at that practice earlier this week as Crosby went through drills as if he were playing in Game 7 of the Cup finals.

So Bourque will head to the rink in Ottawa on Wednesday and, along with thousands of fans destined for the same arena and hockey fans parked in front of their TV sets, he will ask himself with childlike wonderment, "What is Sid going to do today?"


Josh Peter is a writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Josh a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Wednesday, Apr 11, 2007 12:57 am EDT

Pirate Notes: Waner's family embraces number retirement

Saturday, April 14, 2007



Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
Pirates' Freddy Sanchez stands along side former players Bill Madlock, Dave Parker adn Dick Groat as they unveil Paul Warner's uniform before last night's game. The Pirates will retire the number on July 21.

By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jim Knight and his daughter visited PNC Park two years ago and asked a stadium worker, "Where can we find the Paul Waner stuff? We're relatives, and we'd like to get some pictures."

No Waner stuff, came the reply.

They went to the souvenir shop, looked around for banners, plaques, a statue, anything.

Nothing.



Paul Waner

"One lady told us, 'Well, he was part of the old Pirates," Knight recalled by phone from Tulsa, Okla. "That's when we realized that, because Paul wasn't part of the TV generation, his legacy was getting lost. We had to do something."

Knight, Waner's grand-nephew, and other descendants contacted the Pirates' front office soon afterward, and the reward came yesterday when chief executive officer Kevin McClatchy announced that Waner's No. 11 will join nine others on the franchise's retired list.

The team had a pregame ceremony last night -- on the 81st anniversary of Waner's debut -- that included four other Pirates batting champions: Dick Groat, Dave Parker, Bill Madlock and Freddy Sanchez. The formal retirement ceremony will come before the game July 21, the date upon which Waner was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1952.

"It's wonderful," Knight said. "And it's long overdue."

McClatchy agreed.

"Yeah, it was," he said. "You look at Paul Waner's numbers and where they rank, not just with the Pirates but also with Major League Baseball, and it's clear he's deserving. And you could say he's one of the top three or four players to play for the Pirates."

Few would dispute it.

Waner starred in Pittsburgh in 1926-40 as a sweet-swinging, left-handed outfielder whose .340 average in that span remains highest for any career in franchise history. Over 20 total seasons, he batted .333 with 3,152 hits and was National League MVP in 1927, a three-time batting champion and four-time All-Star.

Known as "Big Poison," he and younger brother Lloyd -- "Little Poison" -- remain the only brothers in the Hall selected because of their playing careers.

What took so long for the Pirates to observe Paul Waner?

The Galbreath family owned the team for half a century, during which most of the retired numbers were awarded, but left him out. McClatchy, whose group bought the team in 1996, said he considered the matter early in his tenure, then let it "fall to the back burner."

But the contact with Waner's family, as well as numerous e-mails, letters and discussions with baseball people convinced him before last season.

"We just didn't want to do it last year because we didn't want it to get lost in the All-Star Game," McClatchy said.

He stressed the importance of being cautious in retiring numbers.

"With 121 years, you obviously have a lot of great history, so you have to be selective. But in this case ... Paul Waner's numbers were mind-boggling. That .340 lifetime average with the Pirates ... I mean, that's doing what Freddy did last year for an entire career."

The Pirates' previously retired numbers: Billy Meyer (1), Ralph Kiner (4), Willie Stargell (8), Bill Mazeroski (9), Pie Traynor (20), Roberto Clemente (21), Honus Wagner (33) and Danny Murtaugh (40). Also, Jackie Robinson's No. 42 was retired by all major-league teams.

Catcher Humberto Cota, currently wearing No. 11, will have to switch.

Waner died at age 62 in 1965.


Armas seeks redemption


Tony Armas, making just his second start tonight, sounded confident he could improve upon his first. He was chased after four innings last Saturday in Cincinnati, giving up six runs, eight hits and five walks.

"I got away from some things I was doing well in the spring," Armas said. "But the Reds laid off what I thought were some really good pitches."


Buried treasure


* Utilityman Don Kelly, a Mt. Lebanon High School graduate, got his first major-league hit with a liner up the middle pinch-hitting in the second.

* Reliever John Grabow is scheduled to pitch today, Monday and Wednesday for Class AAA Indianapolis for his rehabilitation stint.

* Utilityman Jose Hernandez joined Indianapolis after signing a minor-league contract.

* Outfielder Nate McLouth switched his uniform number from 59 to 3.

Bonds breaks out on familiar ground

Two home runs quash slump, lift Giants past Pirates, 8-5

Saturday, April 14, 2007


Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
Barry Bonds hit two home runs against the Pirates last night at PNC Park. He now has 737 career homers.

By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It was in Pittsburgh where Barry Bonds got his start toward the most celebrated record in professional sports.

And it was in Pittsburgh where, in grand fashion, he got his jump-start toward finishing it off.

Shrugging off a .192 average, just one long ball in his first 26 at-bats and incessant booing from the 22,117 at PNC Park, Bonds smashed his 736th and 737th home runs - not to mention his RBI single and four RBIs -- in the San Francisco Giants' 8-5 thumping of the Pirates last night.


Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
The Giants' Barry Bonds hits a two-run home run against Pirates starter Zach Duke in the second inning last night.

Hello, 2007.

And, before long: Hello, Hank Aaron.

Bonds is 19 away from claiming the record, the pursuit of which began June 4, 1986, as a member of the Pirates with a shot to center off Atlanta's Craig McMurtry.

And the breakout certainly came as no surprise to the current Pirates.

"Nah, I've seen that before," said manager Jim Tracy, who faced Bonds often while in Los Angeles. "That's what he does. And what's interesting about this is that he hit two completely different pitches to two completely different places."

True enough.

The first came off a Zach Duke sinker that sunk little in the second inning. Bonds pulled it inside the right foul pole, three rows above the Clemente Wall.

The next came off a fastball that was not Shawn Chacon's best, 88 mph, up and over the heart of the plate. Bonds stroked it beyond the seating section in right-center.

That marked the 70th time Bonds homered more than once in a game, a category in which he trails only Babe Ruth's 72.

It was not known what Bonds thought of all that, as he left the ballpark immediately after the game ended without speaking to reporters. But his manager, Bruce Bochy, summed it up succinctly.

"It was a great day for Barry," Bochy said. "We're trying to get this offense going, and he really made that happen."

The Giants had scored only 20 runs in opening their season 2-7.

And that was only half of what made the evening somewhat strange. The other half was that pitching had been the Pirates' strength, particularly the work of Duke and Ian Snell in leading the rotation.

But Duke would last only two innings and get slammed for seven runs.

He did not exactly sugarcoat his assessment afterward.

"I stunk tonight," he said. "I was bad. There was not a whole lot that was positive, so, basically, I'm going to put this one out of my mind and move on to the next one."



Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
Pirates starter Zach Duke gave up five runs to the Giants in the first inning last night at PNC Park.

It started with what, without question, was the worst inning of Duke's young career.

He raised an immediate red flag with a five-pitch walk to leadoff man Omar Vizquel, then a single by Todd Linden off an 0-2 pitch. After an out, Bonds' liner to right brought the first San Francisco run.

It would get uglier. Ray Durham doubled. After a forceout at the plate, Pedro Feliz doubled. Randy Winn was intentionally walked to load the bases for pitcher Russ Ortiz, a career .207 hitter. Duke fell behind 3-0, and Ortiz lashed a meaty fastball for a double to left that put the Giants up, 5-0.

Duke's pitch count in that inning was 42, with 20 of those missing the strike zone.

"Zach never got untracked," Tracy said. "You could see it with the first two batters, then falling behind the pitcher like that. It's the only time, including spring training, he didn't have command. That happens."

The Pirates answered with two in the bottom half, on a sacrifice fly by Freddy Sanchez and an RBI double by Jason Bay, but Duke gave those right back in the second on Bonds' two-run shot that made it 7-2.

"It was hung," Duke said of his sinker. "It was supposed to be down and away, and it was right down the middle."

What went wrong in general?

"It was pretty much everything," Duke said. "The fastball command wasn't there. Neither was the offspeed."

He paused.

"Like I said, it never happened."



Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
Ronny Paulino tags out Barry Bonds at home plate in the first inning last night.

Chacon relieved Duke, and his only blemish in four innings was Bonds' other bash.

After that, Bonds was given the rest of the night off by Bochy, "just to rest his legs," Bochy said.

Bonds probably will have one of the other two games in this series off, too, Bochy added.

The Pirates' only offense after that first-inning spurt came with an irrelevant three-run home run by Chris Duffy with two outs in the ninth. It came on the 121st and final pitch thrown by Ortiz, whom Bochy was trying to get a complete game. As it was, Vinnie Chulk had to come on for the final out.

The Pirates have lost four in a row, a span in which they have just six extra-base hits, and are 1-6 since that three-game sweep in Houston.

By the later innings, with Bonds gone, the crowd turned on one of its own: For the first time this season, Adam LaRoche was booed loudly after striking out in the eighth to go hitless in three at-bats. His 0-for-17 slide has dropped his average to .088, and his 15 strikeouts are seven more than anyone else on the roster.



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

Ron Cook: Amazing Crosby, 19, handles ceaseless pressure

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

OTTAWA: The Pirates' clubhouse might seem like a strange place to go for a little good hockey talk, but, hey, there are Penguins fans in there, too.

"How old is Sid? 19?" Jason Bay was asking the other day. "I can't believe that. I think I was a sophomore in junior college when I was 19 and here he is, the best hockey player in the world. That's just amazing."

Ridiculous, actually.

"He's only 19 ... I don't think I even had hair on my face yet," Bay said, shaking his head.

I'm guessing that makes it pretty much official.

Everybody is talking about Sid the Kid these days.

Bay is a Canadian, born and bred, and understands the hockey craze here better than most, but even he would be shocked at the scrutiny Sidney Crosby is getting as the Penguins prepare for Game 2 today of their Stanley Cup playoff series against the Ottawa Senators. Penguins winger Mark Recchi expected it to be intense, not just because Crosby is the face of the new NHL, but also because there is no Toronto or Montreal team in the playoffs to divert media attention. But he didn't expect this.

"I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to be in his shoes," Recchi said. "I played with Mario"-- that would be Mr. Lemieux -- "and he didn't have to go through anything like it. Not even Wayne" -- that would be Mr. Gretzky -- "had to deal with this. No one ever has and no one probably ever will again."

It starts for Crosby in the morning, after the Penguins' practice or game-day skate, when he's summoned to the media interview room, a place normally reserved for the two coaches. No other player is invited. Not goalie Marc-Andre Fleury or soon-to-be NHL Rookie of the Year Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins. Not captain Daniel Alfredsson or 50-goal-scorer Dany Heatley of the Senators. Only Crosby, who is interrogated first in English, then in French, for anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour.

This happens every day.

Suddenly, the five minutes a week Big Ben Roethlisberger gives the Pittsburgh media during the NFL season doesn't seem like such an imposition on him.

Crosby will be the only player hauled back to the interview room after the game this afternoon, just as he was after Game 1 Wednesday night. That wasn't much fun for him; his NHL playoff debut couldn't have gone more badly. He was banged around pretty good by Ottawa's top defensive pairing of Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov, didn't get his first shot off until midway through the game and picked up his only point when he scored a meaningless power-play goal in the final minute. Even worse, the Penguins were humiliated, 6-3. Try explaining that in two languages.

"We're not angry. There's no reason to be angry," Crosby said. "We just expect more of ourselves. We all realize we have a lot better in us."

That's the same message Crosby delivered to his teammates. That made-for-TV moment the other night when he, Recchi and veteran winger Gary Roberts were huddled on the Penguins' bench together late in the game? "He was lecturing us," Roberts said, only half-kidding. Added Recchi, "Sid is our leader. He knows he has to lead the way. He knows everyone in the room is watching to see how he reacts, how he practices, how he works. He accepts that responsibility. The kid is unbelievable."

Recchi and Roberts know the extraordinary pressure on Crosby. They know much of Canada -- not to mention all of Pittsburgh -- is expecting Sid the Kid to carry the Penguins past the Senators. It's not fair, they say -- "Even the best player in the world needs good people around him," Roberts said -- but since when did life become fair?

"It's not me vs. the Senators, it's our team vs. their team," Crosby said. "Maybe some people don't realize that, but that's the way it is. If we're going to do this, we're going to do it together as a group."

Good luck to Crosby with that.

Good luck to him trying to convince the masses looking at this series and seeing only No. 87 in the Penguins' uniform.

"My god, he's 19," Recchi said, sounding a lot like Bay now. "I think people forget that. I know they talk about it, but do they really realize what it means? They have to ask themselves: What were they doing when they were 19?"

Well?

Go ahead and ask yourself.

And try to remember if you had hair on your face.



(Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.)

Joe Starkey: Did Sens rub Pens wrong way?

The Penguins' Sergei Gonchar is checked into the boards by the Senators' Christoph Schubert during first-round action at Scotiabank Place, April 11, 2007.

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, April 13, 2007

OTTAWA -- Workers must have arrived Thursday morning at Scotiabank Place wondering if they would have to pry Sergei Gonchar from the end boards.

Fortunately, Gonchar wasn't still embedded there -- but would you have blamed anyone for checking?

If you closed your eyes and listened, you could practically hear echoes of all the spine-rattling hits the Ottawa Senators dispensed a night earlier. Their 6-3 victory over the Penguins has folks ready to compare them to the Soviet Red Army.

Can they possibly be as good as they looked?

That question was one of several to emerge from the wreckage. A few others were addressed yesterday, after both teams practiced:

1. Did the Senators go out of their way to humiliate the Penguins in the third period by taking reckless runs at everyone in sight?

2. Where on earth was Georges Laraque?

Penguins coach Michel Therrien answered no to the first question, but defenseman Brooks Orpik absolutely believes it was the case. He says the Senators were taking cheap shots.

"A couple of their guys got carried away towards the end," Orpik said. "I mean, a couple of those guys ... they know no one's going to jump them because of the instigator penalty. A couple of them, like (Christoph) Schubert, he just runs around, leaves his feet.

"If they want to run guys like me and (Rob Scuderi) and Georges, guys who play physical, fine. But they're taking shots at (Evgeni) Malkin and Gonchar. If they're doing it in a clean way, hey, that's part of the game. But when guys are leaving their feet going after guys' heads, I think that's when guys have problems with it."

As well guys should. You wonder if this was a case of Senators coach Bryan Murray - who never met a playoff situation he couldn't mangle - not leaving well enough alone. His team was leading, 6-2, as the clock wound down. Maybe it was time to tame the dogs.

Or maybe that's crazy thinking.

I asked Gonchar if he thought the Senators were aiming for abject humiliation (well, not exactly in those words):

"Yes, but at the same time, it's normal for the playoffs," he said. "They didn't surprise me with that. Obviously, we don't appreciate it, but the best thing to do against that is put yourself in a position where you're winning."

As for Laraque, the impression here is that he was acquired to make his presence felt in situations where, say, the Penguins are losing big and a team is taking liberties with their best players.

If he's not going to fulfill that role, he shouldn't be on the ice. Add a little speed to the lineup with Ronald Petrovicky. Or get real crazy and insert Nils Ekman next to Sidney Crosby for a possible spark.

At the very least, Laraque should have thrown his weight around more, even if he did play only five minutes. Therrien obviously thought so, as became clear in the following exchange:

Reporter: "As physical as it was, would you have liked to see Laraque be more of a physical presence - or a presence - in that game?"

Therrien: "No doubt."

Reporter: "Why wasn't he?"

Therrien: "Ask him."

Remember what the Flyers did late in Game 2 of the 2000 playoffs, when it became clear the Penguins were going to take a two-games-to-none lead? They fought back. They created a scene - and won the next four games.

Laraque explained why he didn't initiate some sort of disturbance.

"It's not like the regular season, where you can afford to take a penalty, or guys will (fight) with you," he said. "That's why there's no fighting. The only way to respond is by being physical against their players, too. But for that to happen, we have to be playing more 5-on-5."

Actually, he could have taken a penalty - even an instigator - at that point. The big guy apparently needs a refresher course in how to protect and serve, rather than neglect and swerve.

In any case, the Senators sure left the Penguins with something to chew on.

"It's something we can definitely carry over to the next game," Orpik said.

It'll be mighty interesting to see how they respond.


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

Who could have foreseen Bonds' chase?

Not those who knew him from his time with Pirates

Friday, April 13, 2007



Barry Bonds leaves Three Rivers Stadium in October 1987. Bonds has transformed from a line-drive .300 hitter to one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history.

By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Some day. Or some night. Somewhere. Somebody. "There's a famous pitcher lurking out there," former Pirates coach Rich Donnelly said. "We just don't know who."

That pitcher probably is in the major leagues now. Or maybe he's in Class AAA at the moment.

But he's out there. "And he has a date with immortality," Donnelly said. At some point this season, that pitcher will throw a pitch that Barry Bonds will drive over some outfield wall to pass Hank Aaron's career total of 755 and become the all-time home run leader.

Who would have thought that when Bonds arrived in the major leagues with the Pirates May 30, 1986? Who would have thought that during Bonds' seven seasons with the Pirates?



Not Jim Leyland, Bonds' first major-league manager.

"But I don't think you think that of any player," Leyland said. "We knew he was going to be a star, no question. But to say he was going to break Hank Aaron's record? I don't think anybody thought that."

Count Bob Walk among that group.

"I didn't think he was ever going to have the home run power to do what he's doing now," Walk said. "Maybe 400, 500 career home runs, yes. But to be up in the 700s? Nobody could have seen that. If they said they did, I think they're pulling your leg."

Andy Van Slyke, who played alongside Bonds in the Pirates' outfield for six seasons, certainly did not think Bonds would be in this position.

"I thought he'd be a 300-plus home run guy," Van Slyke said. "I thought he'd hit 40 doubles [a year], 25 home runs [a year].

"But he went from caterpillar to butterfly. He changed that much [physically]. I think somewhere along the line he decided he did not want to be left behind in the home run derby. He worked hard for this."



Steve Blass, who pitched to Aaron and watched Bonds develop, didn't think Bonds would challenge Aaron's record.

"Barry was this skinny-looking rookie, but you knew after a couple of years he had a chance to be exceptional," Blass said. "But it's like with a lot of young players who start out well: Will he be able to sustain it for 15 or 20 years? That's always the question."

Bonds answered that question emphatically.

Still, who would have thought?

"Back then, Barry was a line-drive, .300 hitter who happened to hit home runs," former teammate Lloyd McClendon said. "If he played long enough, he was going to hit 500 home runs."

"I envisioned him being maybe the best baseball player in the game, but never the home run king," said John Wehner, another former teammate. "I didn't think he'd ever hit that many home runs. I thought he was capable of hitting 40 a year for many years because he had power to all fields and he was disciplined and he hit good pitches.

"But to throw up 73 in a season [2001]? No, I didn't see that happening. But there was no reason to think he couldn't have been in the top 10 of all time."

Former Pirates player, coach and manager Bill Virdon, who played in Aaron's era, also is in the group that couldn't envision Bonds doing what he's doing.

"Not really," Virdon said. "Oh, he had excellent talent. I thought he'd hit 20 to 25 home runs a season, and that would be it. Back then, you thought of him as more of a speedster than as a slugger."

Back then, Bonds was more of a base-stealer than a home run hitter.



He did not hit more than 25 home runs in a season until 1990 (33). That season, he stole more than 30 bases for the fourth time in five seasons.

He had only one more 30-plus home run season for the Pirates, hitting 34 in 1992. That season, he stole 30-plus bases for the sixth time in seven seasons.

He left the Pirates after '92 with 176 career home runs. He was 28 years old.

Who would have thought?

And yet, Bonds arrives at PNC Park tonight only 20 home runs shy of Aaron's 755.

"He was special when he first came up, and he's special now," Donnelly said. "I have five grandchildren and I'll be talking to them about him. People are going to be talking about Barry like Babe Ruth. That's hard to fathom."

But kind of cool.

"I played next to Barry for six years," Van Slyke said. "I guess I could tell people he wasn't good enough to play center field with me there. That's the only thing I can brag about."

Van Slyke laughed. Then he turned serious.

"I think he was as good a left fielder as ever played," he said. "No question he's going to be a Hall of Famer. I think he's one of the top five athletes of all time."

And he began his career in Pittsburgh.

"I was talking to Walkie about it the other day," said Wehner, the kid from Carrick who joined the Pirates in July 1991. "It's pretty neat to think that we'll have played with the home run king. I think it's already pretty neat that I played with him."

"It would be awfully nice years from now to think that for six years I played with the home run king," Walk said.

Or managed him.

"I don't really like to gloat about anything I had nothing to do with," Leyland said. "Barry was going to be a superstar no matter who managed him. I was fortunate enough to be his first manager, but I'm not going to run around saying, 'Hey, you know, I was his first manager.' Big deal."

All of those above are rooting for Bonds to break Aaron's record. Blass, though, isn't among that group.

"In my heart, no," Blass said after a lengthy pause when asked if he is rooting for Bonds. "I don't know. I have this sense of purity about Aaron. I've always put him on kind of a pedestal. I would like to see his record stand. There never have been any real negatives in how he played and how he handled his life. He's among the elites in both those areas.



"There was always this squeaky clean aspect of his whole career. There were never any issues with Henry Aaron."

But there are with Barry Bonds.

There is the threat of a perjury indictment hanging over his head. There is the strong suspicion that at some point he used steroids in his pursuit of Aaron's record.

"That's something he's going to have to live with," Virdon said. "If he did do it, it was prior to [steroids] being illegal or banned. I don't see how you can condemn a guy if it wasn't illegal. If he did it since then, he was wrong."

"Everybody can speculate all they want," Walk said. "I'm sure most people are convinced some of that [power] was artificial, but looking back on it now with the hindsight we have, obviously steroids was a much bigger problem in the game than I ever thought it was. So it wasn't like he was the Lone Ranger out there.

"If he did it, he was just one of -- it looks like now -- maybe hundreds of guys who were doing it. I'm really not going to be part of the set of people that thinks there should be an asterisk or anything like that [next to Bonds' home run total]. Every era of ballplayer has tried to get some kind of an edge over the opposition, and there a lot of people who have crossed the line.

"At least some of the people in the Hall of Fame right now that I know of didn't exactly play by the rules the way they are in the book. I really don't care how he got the power. I just know that he was -- and is -- a great hitter and he was an extremely hard worker. Back in his days with us, he was in the weight room all winter -- every day -- constantly working out."

"All the speculation -- about whether he did it or didn't -- is kind of unfortunate because if he did, he didn't have to," Wehner said. "He was that good. Why risk tarnishing a career that's better than anybody in his time? It won't lessen it to me as far as his greatness. For me, he's the best player of our generation bar none. It's not even close.



"As far as, did he legitimately break Hank Aaron's home run record, yeah, there are some question marks there. Who knows what the final chapter's going to be -- if there's anything proven or not -- but there's always going to be that speculation."

"It still hasn't been proven," said Dave Clark, another former Bonds teammate with the Pirates.

Clark would love to be at the ballpark when Bonds passes Aaron.

"I remember watching on television in 1995 when [Cal] Ripken broke the [consecutive games played] record. It's just special to see stuff like that. And it's even more special when the guy was a teammate and a guy you respect. It was an honor to play with him. He deserves this. And he's earned this."

"I would love to be there," McClendon said. "That would be special. In my mind, he's a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Without a doubt, he's one of the greatest players of all time. I'm a fan of Barry Bonds and I'm a friend of Barry Bonds. I'll back him to the end.

"I think things [over time] have worn on him and left a bitter taste. He's probably one of the most-hated superstars ever. If people knew how generous he was ... but Barry never talked about that. He goes back to Pittsburgh -- where he won two MVPs -- and gets booed. It's really pathetic."

Leyland, too, would love to be at the game when Bonds breaks Aaron's record, but he knows that's very unlikely because he manages the Detroit Tigers.

However, Leyland does have a congratulatory plan in mind.

"I'm sure I'll call him," he said. "And maybe I'll send him 756 silver dollars."


(Paul Meyer can be reached at 412-263-1144.)