Home >  Sports >  Columnists

Saturday, September 01, 2001

Well, the time has come to comment on the disastrous off-season the Penguins supposedly had.

For starters, it wasn't a disaster.

Considering everything the Penguins had to do this summer, they came through it OK, as well as can be expected when non-hockey circumstances force you to trade the second-best player in the world. (For the record, Mario Lemieux is better than Jaromir Jagr.) Unrestricted free agent Bob Boughner was lost to an absurdly high offer from Calgary, but the Penguins managed to keep everybody else that matters, and they have a little extra payroll -- about $3 million -- to play around with between now and the trade deadline.

Still, there have been criticisms.

Lemieux, at $4.75 million, is paying himself too much. Time for Logic 101, kids. Lemieux is the best player in the world. His contract doesn't even put him in the NHL's top 30 salaries. Ergo, there's no conceivable way you can say he's paying himself too much. Unless, of course, you're an idiot.

General Manager Craig Patrick didn't get enough for Jagr, especially when you consider what the New York Rangers surrendered for concussion case Eric Lindros. On the surface, that seems a legitimate gripe. The Philadelphia Flyers got more for Lindros than the Penguins got for Jagr. But a few factors Patrick basically couldn't control crept in.

When the Capitals got Jagr, it left the Rangers desperate to get a marquee name. Rangers GM Glen Sather suddenly offered Philadelphia players for Lindros he refused to give for up Jagr. Had Washington acquired Lindros instead of Jagr -- at one point, there was reportedly a modicum of interest -- then Patrick would have been the one to take advantage of Sather's plight. So, the only thing Patrick could have done differently was wait longer to deal Jagr, and even that wouldn't have guaranteed a better result.

Sather always has liked Lindros. Sather probably wanted Lindros more than Jagr because Lindros, like Sather, is Canadian. Don't laugh. That's the NHL old-boy way of doing things. How else to explain making a meager offer for the five-time scoring champion, then giving away the store for a career underachiever who's one big hit away from retiring? If the Flyers got more for Lindros than the Penguins did for Jagr, it's not because Patrick is dumb. It's because Sather is.

The Penguins are becoming an "old folks home" because they're bringing wingers Stephane Richer, 35, and Bob Errey, 36, to training camp. Ridiculous. Richer and Errey will attend camp on a tryout basis. The Penguins take no financial risk by merely looking at them.

I think Errey has more to offer than Richer, incidentally. The Penguins have plenty of skill. They don't need what Richer might add. But the Penguins don't have plenty of forechecking and penalty-killing, two areas Errey once excelled in. Errey is also a good locker-room leader, and he could teach guys like Billy Tibbetts the fine art of grinding. Rick Kehoe and Joe Mullen are good assistant coaches, but they were both snipers. Errey knows a few things that Kehoe and Mullen don't.

As for the "old folks home" stuff, people are going to be amazed by the role that youth plays on the Penguins. Josef Melichar will be given the chance to be a defensive cornerstone, and don't be surprised if Lemieux skates on a line with youngsters Milan Kraft and Dainius Zubrus to start the season. (Yes, the Penguins are still going to trade Jan Hrdina to Washington for Zubrus. Be patient.)

The Penguins' biggest problems might stem from Martin Straka and Darius Kasparaitis going to arbitration. Both feel underpaid as a result of their arbitration awards and both feel as if they were insulted during the process. Kasparaitis recently said that he won't play hurt anymore. Straka, also an emotional sort, might show up at camp wearing a pout.

But Straka and Kasparaitis shouldn't be problems. Each is too intense, prideful and professional to do anything less than his best. I can't imagine either going through the motions. Anyway, Kasparaitis will likely be traded when/if the Penguins feel secure that enough of their young defensemen will do well.

Things are far from perfect. Replacing Jagr's 121 points will be tough. Coach Ivan Hlinka spent the whole off-season in the Czech Republic not learning English, so he'll still be Ivan the Horrible. While youth should eventually serve the Penguins quite well, lack of experience -- especially on defense -- might sabotage them occasionally, too.

But if you want to conjure up gloom and doom regarding a sports franchise in Pittsburgh, the Penguins should be the last one you target. The Penguins are much closer to a championship than any other team in town. They've made the playoffs 11 consecutive seasons. Patrick knows what he's doing.

One final note: I saw Lemieux skate yesterday. Mario was participating in one of his training sessions with former Penguin Jay Caufield. Mario is absolutely flying. I can't believe anyone would underestimate No. 66 at this point, but some people seem to be. Write it down: Mario will get 130-plus points and win the scoring title. And when you have a player like that, a lot of great things are possible.

Mark Madden's talk show is heard from 4 to 8 p.m. weekdays on WEAE-AM (1250).