Scouting Reports main page | Division Rankings
Pittsburgh Penguins
Overall: 20
Atlantic Division: 4
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| A heavier burden will fall on Jagr this season. (Lou Capozzola) |
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You're an
NHL coach and you take over a franchise that just lost alltime
great Mario Lemieux to retirement, and you guide that team
to an unexpected division title anyway. Then, in the
offseason, you see the club's captain and best center, Ron
Francis, bolt as a
free agent while the squad's co-owners, Roger Marino and
Howard Baldwin, call each other stupid and wrestle for
control of the team.
Penguins second-year coach Kevin Constantine could lament
all that, as well as the club's move to the much tougher
Atlantic Division and the continuing holdout of restricted
free-agent center Petr Nedved. But Constantine doesn't
mention a word about the
franchise's difficulties. He's either fully focusing on the
task at hand or he's suffering from a colossal case of
self-delusion. Says Constantine, "We're thinking we
want to do even better than last
year."
Not likely. The Penguins lack the size to bang with new
division rivals New Jersey and Philadelphia, and they'll
start the year without hard-hitting defenseman Darius
Kasparaitis, who injured a knee in the preseason. Fragile
goalie Tom Barrasso had a
career year in '97-98, and he will have to remain healthy for
Pittsburgh to stay competitive.
The Penguins were already short on scorers before losing
Francis, a locker-room sage and the NHL's seventh-leading
point-getter last season. Star right wing Jaromir Jagr, who
signed a four-year,
$40 million extension last January, is the obvious choice to
assume the team's captaincy, but he's a cutup, not a guy
who kicks garbage cans between periods or
gets in the face of a dawdling
teammate. Even Jagr acknowledges his shortcomings. "I'd like
to try to be captain," he says. "But a lot of
people don't think I
can."
A lot of people don't think the Penguins will make the
playoffs, either. But don't expect Constantine to admit it.
—By Johnette Howard
Fast Fact
Goalie Tom
Barrasso, a finalist for the 1998 Vezina Trophy, had career-best
numbers in several categories, including goals-against
average (2.07), save percentage (.922) and shutouts
(seven).
Keys To Success
- General manager Craig Patrick must continue to make outstanding
trades—he stole Stu Barnes from the Panthers in 1997—for a club
that counts every penny.
- The Penguins need to stick to coach Kevin Constantine's
disciplined system, or it could be a long season.
Scouting Reports main page | Division Rankings
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