Penmanship - 1995 Pittsburgh Penguins; includes related articles on Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr

Things looked bleak for the Penguins. Again.

In the midst of a 1-3-1 slump, on the second stop of a five-game trip that would test their depth and stamina, the Penguins trailed the frisky, young Nordiques, 2-0, early in the second period February 27 at Le Colisee. Stephane Fiset, the defiant young goaltender who was the backbone of Quebec's strong early-season defensive effort, was looking like a fortress at the other end. The crowd of 15,399 was chanting and singing. Things looked bleak, indeed.

"And yet," Penguins Coach Eddie Johnston says, "I had a good feeling."

From the time John Cullen scored the Penguins' first goal at 5:02 of the second period, the mood changed, the style changed, the game changed. And Johnston was right.

Pittsburgh's sudden attack was a symphony of skates and sticks and pucks. Two goals in 25 seconds. Three goals in 2:02. Five goals in 5:30. Seven goals in 13:42.

"This is a different kind of Pittsburgh team," Nordiques left wing Wendel Clark says. "They give up a lot more shots than other Penguins teams did, but they proved they still have the same kind of intimidating firepower against us. What's more, they did it in our building."

"That kind of explosion is rare in this league," Johnston says.

But then, this is a rare team.

The Penguins opened the season without Mario Lemieux and Tom Barrasso, lost Kevin Stevens to a broken ankle, lost Ron Francis for a few games to a sore back, and yet somehow, some way, got off to the fastest start in hockey. They went 12-0-1 in their first 13 games, blowing away everyone in the Eastern Conference except Quebec, and they. beat the upstart Nordiques twice in six days to settle that early debate -- including the dizzying 7-5 comeback on February 27.

Injuries didn't matter.

Deficits didn't matter.

"The thing I noticed light away is the commitment to winning," says Luc Robitaille, a perennial All-Star left wing who was acquired from the Kings in an offseason trade for Rick Tocchet and who scored two goals and four points in the second-period onslaught at Le Colisee. "The goal of the Pittsburgh Penguins is to win the Stanley Cup."

The Penguins claimed back-to-back Cups in 1991 and '92, but they faltered in the playoffs the past two years despite a pair of 100-point regular seasons. An aging roster and the announced one-year absence of Lemieux for medical reasons convinced critics to write them off as serious contenders, but not even a rash of other problems -- Barrasso's wrist surgery, Stevens' cracked ankle, Francis' cranky back -- could deter them.

Jaromir Jagr stepped into Lemieux's role as the game's most spectacular player, leading the NHL in goals and points. Robitaille scored goals in bunches. Recycled centerman Cullen, a former Penguin who came home in the offseason as a free agent, suddenly became a point-a-game scorer again. And Ken Wregget, escaping for the moment from Barrasso's shadow, established himself as one of the truly underrated goalies in the league.

"The key for us is that it's been a different guy every night," says Johnston, who was criticized fiercely for last year's first-round playoff loss to the mediocre Capitals. "It's kind of what's kept us going. Everybody is involved. Everybody."

But some of the best moments of the first two months came on nights when the Penguins stared defeat in the face and refused to lose.

The game at Le Colisee was one.

A nationally televised game February 19 against Buffalo was another.

The Penguins, who had seen their 13-game unbeaten streak end one day earlier with a loss at Hartford, were trailing the Sabres, 3-0, entering the third period on home ice. Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek was dominating the league's best offense, swatting down pucks, snaring them out of the air. Things looked bleak. Again.

But Robitaille scored on a power play to energize the Penguins. Shawn McEachern chipped the deficit to 3-2, then Robitaille was back in the final 20 seconds, using the advantage of an extra attacker to slip a shot past Hasek and snatch an improbable 3-3 tie from a sure defeat.

"Maybe I'm not the guy to talk to about how amazing this is," Robitaille says. "With the team we have here, I always think we can do it. I always think we can win."

Maybe we should take a refresher course on the absence of Mario Lemieux.

From 1984 to '94, when he saved the Penguins from financial ruin and helped turn them into one of the NHL's model franchises, he scored 1,211 points in 599 games, an average of 2.02 a game; won four NHL scoring titles; claimed two league MVP Awards; won two Conn Smythe Trophies as MVP of the playoffs; was named a first- or second-team All-Star six times; was named MVP of the All-Star Game three times; scored the winning goal in the 1987 Canada Cup against the Soviets; won the Masterton Trophy for dedication and perseverance in 1993; and, most important, led the Penguins to their first two Stanley Cups.

"The greatest hockey player in the world," says Johnston, the man who drafted him in 1984.

But, sadly, between 1990 and '93, Lemieux underwent two back operations, contracted a rare bone infection, underwent radiation treatments for Hodgkin's disease and suffered from anemia. The cumulative effect limited him to 22 games of spot duty in 1993-94 and convinced him to take a one-year medical leave this season.

"Mario's done so much for our team and our game ... but his health is the most important thing," Stevens says.

On the ice, however, the impact of Lemieux's loss could have been devastating to the Penguins -- were it not for the talent amassed by General Manager Craig Patrick over the past four seasons.

Jagr, Stevens, Francis, Barrasso, Robitaille, Larry Murphy, Joe Mullen and Ulf Samuelsson still gave the Penguins a strong nucleus.

But no one could have imagined the injury problems to follow. Barrasso, bothered by a sore wrist in last year's playoffs, encountered more pain during the team's one-week minicamp in January and underwent surgery that will sideline him until late March. Stevens, a two-time 50-goal scorer, was hit on the ankle by a shot by Murphy in a February 4 victory against Tampa Bay and was projected to be out until mid-March. Francis' back began to flare up following the February 18 loss at Hartford, and he missed the big comeback against Buffalo and the first meeting on home ice against Quebec.

Fortunately for the Penguins, Patrick's diligent and largely unnoticed work in the offseason paid some immediate dividends. His two free-agent signees, Cullen and Len Barrie, bolstered the center position -- Cullen as the pivot on the high-scoring second line, Barrie as a utility man on the third or fourth units. Patrick also made some unexpected improvements during the waiver draft, adding checking forward Mike Hudson and two former first-round draft picks on defense, Chris Joseph and Francois Leroux.

The newcomers made an impact, and veterans such as winger Tomas Sandstrom improved their performances with increased ice time. The result: The Penguins went unbeaten in 13 games -- tying the NHL's third-longest streak from the start of a season.

"People are taking advantage of their opportunities," Francis says. "Some of these guys feel the have something to prove. Some are playing different roles."

There was some insane speculation that the Penguins actually were better without Lemieux, but Bruins General Manager Harry Sinden quickly put an end to that, saying, "When you talk Lemieux, you're talking about the very, very best. Lemieux was the most intimidating player at least since Gordie Howe. How can a team ever be as good without a guy like that?"

Still, Sinden praises the current, restructured Penguins for their resiliency, their talent and their work ethic.

"Looks to me like our guys are intimidated," he says. "I'm not talking physically. It just looks like we're waiting for the Penguins to do something great, maybe pass the puck behind their back and through their legs and out their nose for a goal. They've done that to us for a long time now. They're the only team to dominate us like this in 25 years.

"I can understand that with Mario. He's probably the most intimidating player I've ever seen. But I can't understand that with this team. They're one of the best teams in the league this season but certainly not nearly the team they were with Mario Lemieux. They'll never ever be as good as they were with him."

Clearly, the Penguins are no longer feeling dependent on Lemieux -- no longer looking over their shoulders, waiting for Le Magnifique to ride in and save the day.

"I never believed that stuff that we were always waiting for him to come back and make things right last year," Ulf Samuelsson says, "but maybe we were."

Jagr, in particular, has taken advantage of the increased responsibility and extended ice time to elevate the level of his game. In addition to playing fight wing on a high-octane line with Francis and Robitaille, he is an anchor of the first power-play unit and also kills penalties for the first time of his career. Among his personal highlights in the first six weeks: three short-handed goals.

"I'm sure guys are shaking their heads at some of the things he's done," Francis says.

It all added up to the best start in the NHL this season. But the scary and disturbing part for the Penguins was that the injuries continue to mount.

Joseph, who quickly became a force on the power play, hurt his knee March 2 against Buffalo and is expected to miss four to six weeks. Grant Jennings is nagged by a groin injury; Greg Hawgood separated his shoulder; Kjell Samuelsson came down with a bad case of the flu. The depth continued to be tested, and a few more losses followed.

Pittsburgh watchers still expect Patrick to make some moves to improve his defense and add another checking forward before the April 7 trading deadline. But the Penguins' fast start exceeded expectations and proved that there is life after Lemieux.

"We want to win a Stanley Cup," Robitaille says, "and what impresses me most about these guys is that they feel you've got to win the Cup or it's not going to be enough."

COPYRIGHT 1995 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group