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Sunday, December 31, 2000

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Penguins vs. Washington Capitals, 7:38 p.m. Wednesday, Mellon Arena. TV, radio: Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh; WWSW-FM (94.5), WBGG-AM (970). Fewer than 200 tickets remain.

The Penguins scratched G Jean-Sebastien Aubin (knee), D Bob Boughner (wrist), C Roman Simicek and LW Kip Miller. RW Aleksey Morozov and RW Matthew Barnaby dressed but did not take a shift. The Senators played without LW Magnus Arvedson (foot), D Ricard Persson (foot), D Sami Salo (shoulder), C Vaclav Prospal and LW Colin Forbes. Aubin and Boughner are aiming to return to the lineup for the Friday home game against the Canadiens.

RW Jaromir Jagr, who drew a three-minute standing ovation last night for notching his 1,000th career point, has been in good spirits since learning that C Mario Lemieux would return to the ice. And that hasn't diminished a bit now that they're skating together in games. "Everything has changed. I've got a lot more room. All of a sudden, there isn't one guy on me all the time. I feel like I'm playing a different game now," he said. "Now, there's always somebody open, and they have to respect everybody on the rink." Jagr trails the league's leading scorer, Rangers RW Theoren Fleury, by 9 points, and that is ground he believes he can make up easily if he and Lemieux play as well as they can. But that doesn't mean Jagr believes he is a shoo-in for his fourth consecutive scoring championship. "Mario's going to win it," Jagr said. "You watch."

The Penguins will have to shuffle the goaltending in their organization within the next week. When Aubin returns, G Rich Parent will be demoted to the team's AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre, and that will create a glut of three goaltenders there. During the month that Parent has spent in Pittsburgh, G Joel Laing has starred in Wilkes-Barre since being called up from Wheeling of the ECHL. Laing, 25, was 4-1 in his first five AHL starts, and Coach Glenn Patrick raved to the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader that he has delivered "the best goaltending performance I've seen in my two years as coach here." Patrick, the brother of the Penguins' GM, added, "I can call Craig Patrick and tell him Laing is a goaltender who can play in the NHL." Since Laing seems likely to stick in Wilkes-Barre, and the Penguins want young G Sebastien Caron to get as much playing time as possible, expect one of the two older players to be loaned to another AHL or IHL team. "We will move somebody," Craig Patrick said last night.

Senators Coach Jacques Martin gave a rare start to G Jani Hurme, basing his decision on a 3-2 victory Oct. 25 at Mellon Arena in which Hurme made 31 saves. G Patrick Lalime had started 14 of Ottawa's previous 15 games. Hurme became quite the controversial figure, failing repeatedly to hold onto the puck. Early on, that helped him, of course, because he received some quick whistles from referee Don Van Massenhoven, including one that nullified an apparent goal by Lemieux. But it didn't take long for the officials to become impatient with him. Late in the first period, the other referee, Don Koharski, was spotted instructing Hurme to do a better job of covering the puck.

The media craze is winding down, the list of comeback firsts is dwindling, and Lemieux finally is settling in as one of the boys. "I think it's showed in the past week that the players are maybe getting used to my being in the dressing room," he said. "I think the adjustment is going very, very well, mostly because I've been around for the past two years. I've been with the team a lot. The players don't really treat me as an owner, just somebody who played the game before and somebody who's coming back to help the team win some games and achieve our goal." D Darius Kasparaitis concurred: "You can't treat him as an owner. He's a player now all the time."

Lemieux has shown plenty of razzle-dazzle in his first two games back, including a few nifty moves behind the Ottawa net last night. He expects to continue trying to make the fancy play. "I always say we have to entertain people, bring more people into the buildings, to our sport. Part of that is entertaining people. I think it's up to us, the players with a lot of talent, to go on the ice and put on a good show for them."

Asked if the Penguins were considering a renovation of Mellon Arena rather than building a new facility, Lemieux reiterated his stance which he first shared with the Post-Gazette Sept. 5: "There's been a lot of research on that, and it would probably cost more to renovate Mellon Arena than to build a new one, so it doesn't really make sense."

WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON (19-9-5) tied, 2-2, at Rochester to improve its unbeaten streak to 4-0-1. LW Greg Crozier scored his team-high 16th goal, and C Billy Tibbetts scored his 14th and first since Dec. 7. G Sebastien Caron stopped 28 of 30 shots.

WHEELING (10-18-4) lost, 4-2, at Richmond. C Buddy Smith scored his fifth goal, D Jason Hamilton his first. G Craig Hillier stopped 34 of 38 shots.