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Finally, after several seasons notable only for their underachieving performances, nonstop player departures and slumping attendance, the Pittsburgh Penguins have acknowledged they're in a rebuilding mode.
Rather than propping up the near term, they're trying to build something for the long term. The great hope for the future is their No. 1 draft pick, an 18-year-old French-speaking Canadian called the best prospect at his position in a decade.
Twenty seasons after Mario Lemieux's arrival in Pittsburgh, it's almost cruelly ironic how little the Penguins' situation has changed.
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Of course, Lemieux isn't the hope for the future, he's mostly a link to the
franchise's lengthy accomplishments of the past. He's also the owner, the man
who will write those large checks to Marc-Andre Fleury, the just-signed goalie
who is nearly as important a prospect as Lemieux was in 1984. Ticketmaster
Back then, Lemieux didn't know exactly what he was getting himself into, joining a star-less club whose previous successes could be documented on the back of a postcard. Now, Lemieux doesn't know exactly how long it will take to get these star-depleted Penguins out of this mess.
With so little proven talent surrounding him, Lemieux could have settled into a second retirement, content to wait until a new NHL collective bargaining agreement gives the Penguins a better chance to compete financially. Ticketmaster
Instead, he'll log his usual 20-24 minutes per night, sometimes skating with linemates so inferior he'd probably be better off playing by himself. He's not doing it to pad his already impressive portfolio of statistics (682 goals, 1,692 points), but to signal that times aren't necessarily as bad as they look.
They'd better not be, lest the Penguins become the first NHL team to finish 31st in a 30-team league.
Asked why one of hockey's greatest talents is winding down his career with what was the NHL's second-worst team last year, Lemieux said, ``Just to be part of a rebuilding process here, just to have a chance to play -- especially at my age, 38, there's not too many years left. I'm enjoying my time, every year that I can play.''
Still, it must seem like 30 years ago, not three, that Lemieux could choose from among Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Kovalev and Robert Lang to be his linemates; now, the choices include Konstantin Koltsov, Rico Fata, Ryan Malone, Ramzi Abid.
Doesn't exactly have the same ring as Hejduk-Forsberg-Tanguay or Selanne-Sakic-Kariya. Ticketmaster
Even the coach, Eddie Olczyk, doesn't have a single game's worth of coaching experience. But he also has a link to 1984; he was the third player drafted, two spots behind Lemieux.
And who could have possibly thought they'd see the day that Lemieux would willingly buy into playing a neutral zone trap?
Olczyk spent much of training camp installing the Penguins' first true defensive system in years, one that will attempt to use the same assets (youth, speed, diligence) the mostly no-name Minnesota Wild successfully employ to confound top scorers.
``We're going to be a tough, in-your-face team,'' said Olczyk, a former broadcaster who becomes the Penguins' seventh coach since the 1996-97 season. Ticketmaster
A mostly anonymous team, too. Other than Lemieux, the only proven scorers are Martin Straka and Aleksey Morozov, who spent most of the last two seasons fighting through injuries.
Otherwise, the Penguins are a collection of youngsters (nine are 23 or younger, including goalie Sebastien Caron, who has only 24 games of NHL experience) and 35-or-older veterans (Marc Bergevin, Kelly Buchberger and Mike Eastwood) signed essentially to be on-ice coaches.
The Penguins will try to keep scores relatively low, though that might not possible with such unproven goaltenders, and hope the Lemieux line and a Morozov-led second line do enough damage to keep them competitive. Even if the rest of the NHL seems to believe the Penguins already are first in line to get the No. 1 pick again next summer.
``We don't care about the rest of the hockey world,'' Lemieux said. ``Everybody's picking us to finish 30th. That's fine, and that's something we talked about. ... It's very encouraging, where we're going and where we're going to be at the end of the year.''