Penguins 2006-07 Outlook
By Bob Grove

In the new National Hockey League, where creativity is in, scoring is up and speed is essential, one basic tenet of success hasn't changed. Even in this fertile offensive landscape, where a checker can land in the penalty box just for sneering with one hand off his stick, there's no escaping poor defensive hockey.

Three of last season's four Stanley Cup semifinalists had been among the top 12 regular-season teams in goals allowed, and three of the four top-scoring teams in the post-season failed to reach the Cup semifinals. Keeping the puck out of your net, though more difficult these days, remains a relatively crucial skill.

As the Penguins set out this month to end a skid of four consecutive seasons without a playoff game, they are buoyed by the return of sensational center Sidney Crosby, the acquisition of speedy and skilled left wing Nils Ekman, the return of Mark Recchi, staring down his 500th career goal, and the prospect of a quick recovery from a dislocated shoulder by wondrous prospect Evgeni Malkin.

Despite finishing in the bottom half of the league in goals last season, Pittsburgh boasted the NHL's sixth-best power play and should, if Ryan Malone and John LeClair equal or build on their second-half performances, score quite a few more goals this winter.

"I hope so," says Crosby.

But none of that will matter a whole lot if coach Michel Therrien, given a chance to institute his system, his conditioning and his attitudes from start to finish in his first full season with the team, doesn't get the Penguins to stop fishing it out of their own net 3.78 times a game.

"They have to play in our system. That's their responsibility. Guys who don't want to play in our system, they're not going to play. It's pretty simple," says Therrien, who will not be above a verbal meltdown - public or private - to remind his team of that reality.

"You have to take pride about our goals-against. We're not going to make the playoffs if we allow a ton of goals like we did last year. And to play well when you don't have the puck. . . that doesn't mean you're going to take away any offense."

The old cliché about good defense leading to scoring chances will be echoing off the worn walls of Mellon Arena a lot this season, but it remains to be seen if the Penguins will really be listening. If they are, that attention and the addition of defensive center and penalty killer Dominic Moore, annoying winger Jarkko Ruutu, checker Ronald Petrovicky (when he recovers from September hip surgery) and stay-at-home defenseman Mark Eaton might collide with the two-way instincts of Ekman to do the job.

"We're going to be a tougher team to play against, with the Moores, the Ruutus," says Recchi, who loves general manager Ray Shero's off-season acquisitions. "You get players like that, you get that identity of being a tough team to play against. You add a guy like Ekman and now you're getting a team that is going to play in this new game and also be hard to play against.

"I think you see with all good teams, their so-called lower lines, they are hard to play against. They make it miserable for teams, they chip in here and there. That's exactly what he's gone out and gotten - players that can skate but play physical and also have some touch."

Whatever offensive contributions the third and fourth lines make will be welcomed but never demanded in lieu of playing a solid game without the puck. The defensive improvement Pittsburgh makes will have to be a team accomplishment, but those guys might play a large role in fostering the proper mindset.

"We've brought some guys in who've done a good job on other teams at playing a defensive role," says Crosby, who spent the preseason on a line with Ekman and the indefatigable Colby Armstrong. "It takes a unit to do that, but when you bring in guys who specialize in that, it helps a lot."

Shero steered clear of the big-name free agent pool from which his predecessor Craig Patrick pulled so extensively the previous summer, but in doing so he hopes to create more clearly defined roles. The days of leftover offensive talents populating the entire third line are over.

"When we're playing the system well as a group of five on the ice, I think we can play with anybody," says Malone. "If everyone's on the same page. . . it's more of a team game than we may have thought early on last year. We didn't really have an identity. We had a lot of big-name guys. This year we have some big-name players as well, but I think we're more of a team. Everyone kind of knows their role better."

As always, however, goaltending and penalty killing - Pittsburgh finished 29th last season - will largely dictate the success or failure of the Penguins' defensive initiative. That means the play of 21-year-old Marc-Andre Fleury and veteran Jocelyn Thibault might hold the key to the entire season.

Fleury, at least, doesn't have to worry now about being given the opportunity to reach contract bonuses or being given an assignment to the AHL. It's just time to win games and take longer strides toward the high level of play to which he seemed destined when drafted first overall in 2003.

"He went through a lot of things. But we know down the road he's going to benefit from that," says Therrien. "He's young. To his development and his progress, I think he's following that. We're convinced he's going to have a good year, better than last year."

Fleury believes his game might benefit from reducing the number of rebounds that are available to be deposited behind him. He understands the best goaltenders not only stop most shots but put the rebounds out of reach, and that was something he and goaltending coach Gilles Meloche worked on in camp.

"Yeah, getting rebounds in the corners, not moving too much in the net," Fleury said. "That's something I really want to improve, my rebound control, so I don't give as many rebounds in the slot and keep it to myself. Sometimes you just want to make the save, that's the first thing you want to do. But if you save it with your pads, the rebound comes right back in the slot. But that's a habit. I've got to get my stick on the puck, deflect them in the corner.

"If we can make key saves at key parts of the game every night, just give us a chance to win. . . that would be our job."

Hip injuries have basically cost Thibault the last two NHL seasons, and factoring in the lockout season he has played only 30 games in the past 40 months. But he's approaching this season as a trip back to familiar ground.

"I feel like everything is behind me now," he says. "I feel good on the ice. I don't have any soreness or anything that bothers me. I just want to get my game in a rhythm now, just want to get back to where I was."

Just like the Penguins.