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Wednesday, December 04, 2002

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

They booed Jaromir Jagr.

Last night's Mario Lemieux-Jaromir Jagr match-up drew the smallest Mellon Arena crowd in three years. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

Robert Lang, too.

But by the end of the Washington Capitals' 4-1 silencing of the Penguins last night, neither seemed terribly jilted by the jeering of the crowd of 11,640 at Mellon Arena, the smallest for a game in Pittsburgh in three years. Perhaps because they couldn't hear it.

"Maybe if there were more people, it would have been louder," Jagr said, grinning. "This was a good thing."

"Hey, what can you do about being booed? People can do whatever they want," Lang said. "It didn't matter, anyway, because there were so few people here. I was surprised. As good as they've played, there's nobody in the building. I mean, I know the Steelers are playing, but ... it was kind of disappointing."

Disappointing?

That wasn't a term that crossed the mind of Bruce Cassidy, the Capitals' beleaguered rookie coach.

His team was 2-7-1 in its previous 10, the lone victories coming against the lowly Atlanta Thrashers and Calgary Flames. The offense had been averaging a paltry 2.5 goals per game. The defense was so inept that Cassidy actually praised his team's work in its own end after a 5-4 loss Sunday to the Thrashers.

Even so, Washington's most significant problem has been that its best players haven't been its best players, which is why a meeting with the Penguins might have precisely what Cassidy needed. A highly motivated Jagr and Lang had a goal each and controlled play in the attacking zone to deflate their former teammates and the audience that once cheered them.

"Let's face it: You have to have your better guys going," Cassidy said. "Jagr was ready to go from the drop of the puck. He was up on the bench, pulling for his teammates. He wanted to win this thing. For Langer, too, this was one of his better games in a while."

Jagr, who had not beaten his former team in five previous tries nor scored a goal in three games at Mellon Arena, produced the winner at 13:10 of the first period. He dashed wide to beat defenseman Andrew Ference to backhand a full-speed wraparound that caromed in off the skate of Ference's partner, Marc Bergevin.

"I had a lot of room to go one-on-one, and I took it wide," Jagr said. "It happens. Andy beat me 1,000 times, it seems, when I've gone against him. The goal was a little lucky."

Lang was next, at 1:48 of the second. He fought his way through the checks of defensemen Janne Laukkanen and Ian Moran before taking a shot that bounced in off the stick of Moran.

Nothing like a little help from old friends.

"It's nice to get a goal against your former team, definitely," Lang said. "I just wanted to go to the net and make a play."

Lang had gone eight games without a goal and boosted his season total to seven, well below the Capitals' expectations when they signed him away from the Penguins this past summer to a five-year deal worth $25 million.

Jagr, too, had been performing below par. His 13 goals and 13 assists lead the Capitals, but that's only one more point than right winger Aleksey Morozov has for the Penguins.

He expressed hope that the game last night will represent the start of something positive for the Capitals, who are 11-13-2.

"Of course, one game is not going to make the difference," Jagr said. "We've had good games against other teams this season, then we were still losing after that. Hopefully, we can play the same way we did here. The way we look at it is this: We were struggling a lot the past two weeks. We went into games afraid to win. We needed a break."

He shook his head at the fact that his team's break came against the Penguins. The Capitals hadn't beaten their nemesis in five tries since March 2001.

"That's unbelievable," Jagr said. "This team never beats Pittsburgh."

Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1938.