Behind The Net
Additional Duties as Assigned
By Bob Grove

During the Penguins' march to a Stanley Cup championship last spring, Pascal Dupuis was a fourth-liner who played about eight minutes a night - when he could get into the lineup. Dupuis, you may recall, was a healthy scratch for eight consecutive games, missing the entire Eastern Conference Final.

But as the Penguins approached the midway point of the season, not a single Pittsburgh winger had more goals than the nine Dupuis had scored, putting the quick-skating Quebec native on pace to surpass his career high of 20.

Last spring, Mike Rupp didn't manage a single goal in New Jersey's abbreviated playoff appearance, a first-round loss to Carolina that followed a season in which the big, physical forward scored only three times. But almost halfway through the season, the fourth-liner from Cleveland had already matched Dupuis' nine goals-a career high-while remaining focused on playing a physical, gritty game.

Nowhere else in the NHL do fourth-liners find themselves so close to the top of a team's scoring chart. That is partly a reflection of a poor first half from second-line right wing Ruslan Fedotenko and injuries to top line left wing Chris Kunitz and third-line right wing Tyler Kennedy, but it also underscores the depth that helped the Penguins survive some early-season injuries to close the first half as one of the league's top teams.

"He's a guy that's very versatile and helps a team," Rupp says of Dupuis. "We've had injuries all year, and he's been able to fill in, step into those spots and do well. He's come through with some big goals."

The same words apply to Rupp, whose first career hat trick in New York against the Rangers Nov. 30 underscored the fact the former first-round pick has some pretty good hands. That the Penguins didn't sign him in the off-season to score goals only adds to the story.

"He certainly has scored, and that's been a surprise, I guess, in how much he's added on the scoresheet," says coach Dan Bylsma. "But what isn't a surprise is how he's been able to skate and his physical presence on the forecheck. He can play on all lines, play against other team's good players and be an abrasive player and a guy who can wear other teams' defenses down - not just go up against other teams' fourth line. That's really been a huge contribution on his part this year."

Rupp, who's spent most of his career in the restrictive confines of the Devils' system, believes he and Dupuis benefit from the coach staff's willingness to mix forward lines and give players freedom-first line to fourth-as long as they're playing the up-tempo, aggressive game that Bylsma wants.

"Some teams have their guys in place and have their fingers crossed that things go smoothly. Here, we're in a pretty good situation where the coaching staff has shown they can use guys in all different ways," says Rupp. "It helps, as a fourth line guy, when you get shifts with different linemates and all of us are playing with everybody. It keeps everybody fresh, gives versatility to everyone's game.

"I've been used in a different way that is playing to my strength. I used to be a guy who can put the puck in the net, and I've not really been called upon for that in the course of my (NHL) career to this point. Now, with the way our team plays and the way I'm being used… Dan does a great job of squeezing every bit out of every player. He doesn't put limitations on guys. It's benefiting me, I know."

And the Penguins.