NHL Preview
Return of the Penguins
By Bob Grove

In Craig Patrick’s version of Extreme Makeover, it took him 19 months to tear down the house. And 35 days to rebuild it.

The Penguins’ general manager began taking apart a team that came within three victories of reaching the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals in July of that year, sending Jaromir Jagr to the Washington Capitals. Darius Kasparaitis was next, followed by Robert Lang and, in February 2003, Alexei Kovalev. When the dust settled, the Penguins were on the ground floor, finishing 29th in 2003 and dead last in 2004.

Patrick’s plan was part fiscal survival and part gamble, because his rebuilding blueprint also called for the achievement of a collective bargaining agreement that brought meaningful change to the NHL’s absurd economic landscape. When commissioner Gary Bettman delivered that this summer, Patrick packed his lucky four-leaf clover, won the Sidney Crosby sweepstakes and, with a financial boost from ownership, retooled his roster in five weeks.

Four days after Crosby was drafted first overall, defenseman Sergei Gonchar signed a five-year contract. Five days later, right wing Ziggy Palffy joined him. It took two more days to trade for goaltender Jocelyn Thibault, and John LeClair and Lyle Odelein soon followed.

“I knew it was going to happen,” said right wing Mark Recchi, whose free agent signing in July 2004 suddenly seemed almost surreptitious given the late summer events of 2005. “I just didn’t know it was going to happen this quick.”

This month the new Penguins – new in almost every sense of the word – begin the 2005-06 season trying to do nothing less than make NHL history. Owner and captain Mario Lemieux spent the late summer and preseason reminding everyone that “respectable” and “competitive” would not be the buzzwords for this team.

“When I got traded here, I talked to Mario that day and he mentioned to me that we were going to try and win the Cup this year,” recalled Thibault. “That feels great that they went out and got players they think they can win with. It’s awesome with all the signings they made. It’s very exciting, and very motivating.

“That’s the best word to describe how I’m feeling – very motivated to come to the rink in the morning and work hard, be part of a winning team. It should be an interesting year.”

Oh yeah. No NHL team has ever won the Cup after finishing last overall the previous season. In fact, only seven teams – three in the modern era – have won the Cup after missing the playoffs, including the 1991 Penguins.

There are several reasons Lemieux has set the bar so high. He feels good one year after his most recent competition in the World Cup of Hockey, and he’s anxious to join the celebrated Crosby on the ice.

“I’m looking forward to playing with him, maybe teaching him a few things,” Lemieux said. “Obviously, what he’s done on the ice is impressive. He probably could have played (in the NHL) last year if he was allowed.”

Moreover, Lemieux knows that the Pittsburgh roster is built to take advantage of every nook and cranny of the rule changes now in effect to emphasize skill and speed – and the new NHL standard that outlaws all defensive use of the stick and all clutching and grabbing.

“In my opinion, it seems like we’re going to have a lot of fun,” says Gonchar, the former Capital and Bruin who has more goals (74) and points (241) than any NHL defenseman over the last four seasons. “We’re going to have a lot of high-scoring games, and as a hockey player, it’s what you live for.”

In his nine years as a full-time NHL player with the New York Islanders and Los Angeles Kings, Palffy has scored 308 goals, more than all but five players. The speedy sniper who grew up idolizing countryman Jagr may get the chance to fill Jagr’s old spot on Lemieux’s wing. Interestingly enough, LeClair also has scored 308 goals over the past nine seasons with the Flyers and Canadiens and will benefit from a rules standard that no longer permits defensemen to cross-check his surgically-repaired back. It’s unclear just how opponents will try to move LeClair from the front of the net on the Pittsburgh power play, which should score bushels of goals.

At 35, Recchi finished 12th in the league in scoring. Factor in the presence of defenseman Dick Tarnstrom, who led the Penguins in scoring last season, and left wing/center Ryan Malone, who finished fourth in rookie scoring in 2003-04, and it’s clear the goals, alas, will take care of themselves.

What will ultimately decide the Penguins’ fate this season will be their ability to prevent goals. Second-year coach Eddie Olczyk knows it, too.

“You can ask Mario – we’re going to have to be better defensively if we’re going to have success,” Olczyk says. “We really feel if we can play that pressure game, play with the puck 180 feet from our goal. . . that’s the best defense there is. We’re going to give up chances like everybody else. But whatever success we have is going to be based on how well we play defensively.

“What’s an important part of that is we need goaltending. We need goaltenders to stop pucks. We have an opportunity to do some good things, but at the end of the day it will be coming down to how well we play in our own zone and the goaltending that we get.”

That’s where Thibault comes in. At 30 he’s played 536 NHL games, thus adding badly-needed experience to a depth chart that includes 2003 No. 1 overall pick Marc-Andre Fleury and Sebastien Caron. But Thibault won’t happily subscribe to the theory that he just needs to make the big save at the right time.

“Obviously, it’s a lot more fun to play with a team that scores a lot of goals,” he said. “It takes a little pressure off, but my job doesn’t change. If I give up four goals and we win, 6-4, it’s great because it’s a win, but I hate giving up four goals. If we score six, I’ll try to give up one or none. I won’t be happy with four or five goals against a game.”

Odelein’s presence helps because he’s a badly-needed right-handed shot and he joins Brooks Orpik and Josef Melichar in adding some toughness to a defensive corps that’s longer on skill with Gonchar, Tarnstrom, Ric Jackman and perhaps Ryan Whitney.

But clearly the forwards must help – even the skilled players on the top two lines – given the fact the makeup of the checking line looked like the team’s biggest preseason mystery. But even the scorers should recognize that, especially with the red line taken out of the two-line pass equation, the transition game that comes from playing well without the puck will be perhaps more of a weapon than ever before.

“What’s going to benefit us is we’re going to be a very fast team,” said Recchi. “We’re going to be able to skate ourselves into position. You can use your body to get in front of people but you can’t use your stick, so it’s going to be a skating game.

“And myself, Mario, LeClair, Ziggy. . . you’re going to see (defensive) commitment from us that is going to make younger players follow. That’s where it all starts, with us, and we have to make sure that responsibility follows from us. Because we all know that’s what wins.”