2003 Training Camp Preview
Back To Basics This Month At Southpointe
By Bob Grove

The Penguins' X Generation had better be ready for some Xs and Os when training camp opens this month at Southpointe. So should the veterans, for that matter.

"We want to install a defensive system right away in practices, working on it through training camp and in the exhibition games," says new coach Ed Olczyk, who inherits a team with a large pool of young players who have yet to prove they're everyday NHLers. "I don't want to say it's just basic instruction, but it's going to be very close to that. You can't make the assumption that even a six or seven year pro knows his defensive responsibilities.

"For example, there never should be a time when the puck is in our zone and there's no defensemen in front of the net. That's the type of stuff we have to understand. It's a little thing, but you have to do it. It's going to be a process."

Improving the Penguins' defensive play is a priority for Olczyk and assistants Joe Mullen, Randy Hillier and new addition Lorne Molleken. Pittsburgh allowed 255 goals last season, more than every team but Atlanta (284) and Columbus (263). The Penguins also scored the fifth-fewest goals (189), so the days are long gone when they could bury some of their defensive shortcomings under a pile of goals.

"The main thing is to play within a system, especially defensively," says captain Mario Lemieux. "Everybody has to be on the same page doing their jobs. When we have the puck, we can use our imagination and talent to make plays, but when you don't have the puck, everybody has to be thinking the same way."

Olczyk envisions playing a system in which the Penguins make sound decisions without the puck, use their speed to force mistakes via forechecking, and then quickly counter-attack when turnovers are created. Just which 20 players will be part of that system on opening night, however, is open to more speculation than in any training camp in recent memory.

"It's going to be a very, very competitive camp," says GM Craig Patrick, who believes he buoyed the bottom rungs of his forward lines by signing center Mike Eastwood and right wing Kelly Buchberger."You could have one guy penciled into a spot one day and someone else the next."

If Patrick keeps center/left wing Martin Straka, who is owed $9 million over the next two seasons, Straka will join Lemieux, Eastwood, Buchberger and right wing Aleksey Morozov in the lineup, with right wing Matt Bradley, left wing Steve McKenna and center Brian Holzinger among the forwards least likely to have their names erased.

That leaves four or five forward spots open for roughly a dozen 20-somethings, including left wings Tomas Surovy, Ramzi Abid, Michal Sivek, Guillaume Lefebvre and Konstantin Koltsov; centers Milan Kraft, Kris Beech and Toby Petersen; and right wings Rico Fata, Eric Meloche and Tom Kostopoulos. Only three of the above have played more than 40 NHL games.

"All the players know it's going to be a tough camp," says Olczyk. "There's going to be a lot of expectations for everybody, from what they need to do in practice to workouts after practice. It doesn't matter what happened last year or in camp last year. Our players know there's no better time than now for an opportunity. And they know actions speak louder than words and to be ready from Day One."

The performances of Kraft and Beech, both of whom could be at a crossroads in their Penguins careers, could have a ripple effect among the rest of the young players. Neither is a particularly strong skater, and both have been inconsistent at the NHL level. But if one of them has an outstanding camp and earns a job, it could keep Fata or Sivek from moving to center.

Patrick vowed to sign a veteran right-handed defensemen and as of August was pursuing former Penguin Drake Berehowsky. The rest of the defensive corps will have a familiar look, including Dick Tarnstrom, Michal Rozsival, Josef Melichar, Marc Bergevin and most likely, Dan Focht and Brooks Orpik. Robert Scuderi and Ross Lupaschuk are also competing for spots.

PSR Senior Writer Bob Grove has been covering the Penguins since 1981 and currently serves as a regular co-host on the Penguins Radio Network.