Saturday, August 02, 2003

This week's big stories on the Pittsburgh sports scene were: Someone steps on Jerome Bettis' foot at Steelers camp; the Pirates and Red Sox traded some players twice and made a horrible deal both times; Mario Lemieux confirms that he will play again.

Hopeless romantic that I am, I actually see some newsworthiness in the greatest athlete in Pittsburgh history continuing his career. In fact, I think it's a pretty nifty idea.

If Lemieux can play 70 or more games, he will compile more than 100 points and the Penguins will make the playoffs. With 16 of 30 teams qualifying, the NHL postseason looks a lot tougher to make than it actually is. You just have to be consistently mediocre, win at home, manage at least one hot streak and stay away from bad streaks.

Ed Olczyk will take care of the rest. He has talked me into believing that, anyway. The Penguins' rookie head coach seems extremely organized. Better an inexperienced coach with a plan than an experienced coach who wings it, and Olczyk strikes me as a man with a plan.

The Penguins likely will pattern their system after that employed by the Minnesota Wild, which plays an extremely aggressive version of the trap that combines puck pursuit with positioning.

It's not necessarily an easy system to play, and Rome certainly wasn't built in a day. But the speedy Penguins can't afford to slow down. They must play to their strengths, and the Wild's system is a happy medium that allows players to skate hard in a patterned, repetitive way.

And, yes, even Lemieux will play the system. Most of his razzle-dazzle is going to come on the power play.

Nothing sells tickets like winning. Mario has always enjoyed winning, and since he does have an interest in the ticket-selling portion of the venture, look for No. 66 to sacrifice style for substance like never before. With that gargantuan wingspan, Lemieux is the ideal trapping center. He has the anticipation and vision to break up plays and counterattack in the wink of an eye.

I hope Mario never chooses to clutch and grab much. But if he does, the leverage his height provides would make him more clingy than a wet T-shirt.

I can just hear the yinzers: "Lemieux won't play a system! He's just going to do what he wants!" Yo, would you know a system if you saw one? Didn't think so.

I do have concerns about the Penguins' power play. Mario needs to get off the left boards and move around more when the Penguins have the man advantage. Lemieux and Dick Tarnstrom often opened up space by playing catch on the left side last season, but once the Penguins traded Alexei Kovalev, their big threat on the right side, the opposition was able to effectively and easily collapse on Lemieux.

Olczyk should take another page from the Wild and use their reverse umbrella power play, in which the puck is frequently played to a man stationed behind the net. That forces the opposition defense and goalie to choose between watching the puck and finding open men to cover. If the guy behind the net is slick with the puck, he can spring teammates for shots by exploiting indecisive foes.

One problem with the reverse umbrella: Lemieux can't pass to himself. But while he is the Penguins' best finisher, it would be interesting to see Mario operate behind the cage.

I really like Mike Eastwood, one of the Penguins' two free-agent signings announced Thursday. He is excellent on faceoffs, full of energy, and doesn't need to play a lot to play well. Olczyk can make Eastwood, 36, his fourth-line center in October and not worry about him until spring.

I'm not as thrilled about the other signing. Winger Kelly Buchberger. He plays a reckless, physical style that comes with an expiration date. At 36, that date could be here. But Buchberger is a proven leader and proven winner.

The easy picks for Mario's linemates are Aleksey Morozov and Martin Straka.

But Ramzi Abid and Tomas Surovy wouldn't be terrible choices, and a dose of Eric Meloche's slam-bang style might do Lemieux some good. Olczyk would be wise to rotate Lemieux's linemates occasionally. That would keep things fresh for Mario, and spreading his skill and experience around might provide players (especially the young ones) with much-needed jump-starts.

Mario goes into the season with one big edge: This will be the first campaign since 1986-87 that he will have no chance of playing in a game refereed by Paul Stewart. The retirement of Stewart, an official who always picked on stars such as Lemieux to make up for his own pitiful lack of talent when he was a player, didn't play a major role in Mario's decision to skate again. But it definitely didn't hurt.

Thank you for your time. We now join Steelers training camp, already in progress.

Mark Madden is the host of a sports talk show from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays on WEAE-AM (1250).

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