Pittsburgh Penguins
By Bob Grove

Can two older players turn around the fortunes of the worst team in the NHL?

Penguins' general manager Craig Patrick and coach Eddie Olczyk both say yes - when the players are Mario Lemieux and Mark Recchi.

Lemieux played only 10 games before hip problems knocked him out for the season last November and the Penguins went on to finish 23-47-8-4. But the 39-year-old captain took his now annual off-season rebirth program to another level with fitness guru T.R. Goodman and looked spectacular during Canada's run to the World Cup of Hockey championship last month.

Recchi, 36, signed a three-year, $9 million contract with Pittsburgh in July after amassing a team-leading 75 points with Philadelphia last season.

'It's potentially a very big impact, especially with how we finished the season and how the power play was going,' says Patrick, who believes the playoffs will be reachable for the first time in four seasons - if the league's labor problems are solved. 'Without them, we had perhaps the best power play in the league in the second half, and to add those two to the power play can certainly make a big difference in the win-loss column. It's a strong lineup, in my opinion.'

Says Olczyk, 'Recchs means instant credibility, not only from the guys in the room but around the league. He brings another dimension to the team because he's a difference-maker. He's going to make the guys around him better and our skill level's going up dramatically, and we haven't even talked about Mario yet.'

Pittsburgh finished in the bottom third of the league in scoring last season, but figures to benefit from an entire season with Dick Tarnstrom and Ric Jackman manning the points on the power play and the continued maturation of Ryan Malone.

If Lemieux and Recchi do their part offensively, that still leaves the problem of defense. The Penguins allowed 303 goals last season, far and away the worst in the league, while also finishing last in penalty killing.

'If your goaltenders don't give you an opportunity to win, you're going to have a tough time,' says Olczyk, whose young goaltenders Marc-Andre Fleury and Sebastien Caron were inconsistent before the surprising Andy Chiodo earned playing time late in the season.

'At the end of the season we made really good strides defensivelyÉGuys really caught on and started reacting instead of thinking too much. I always feel that when you have the puck, that's the best defense in the world.'

The future of the defensive corps is promising. In addition to Tarnstrom and Jackman, Josef Melichar rebounded from serious shoulder problems to play in all 82 games, and Brooks Orpik had a good rookie season. Rob Scuderi impressed coaches in just 13 NHL games, No. 1 2003 pick Ryan Whitney was sound during the AHL playoffs and there's always hope that Michal Rozsival stays healthy.

Just to add a nasty presence to the lineup, the Penguins signed enforcer Ryan VandenBussche.

'We needed a guy who will know his role and be able to handle himself in any situation,' says Olczyk. 'He has a lot of energy, can skate, can bang. If somebody takes a run at Dick Tarnstrom or Ryan Malone, he knows how to handle the situation.'