Minus: Another season without Mario Lemieux.

Plus: Having the Penguins' most productive, most dynamic forward turn out to be the first NHL player from Pittsburgh: Ryan Malone.

Minus: 0-17-0-1.

Plus: 11-5-3, the greatest rebound in the league's 87-year history from a winless streak of 15 or more.

Minus: Konstantin Koltsov breaking his stick and whipping it into corner of the Mellon Arena rink after a failed chance, summarizing the frustration of the Penguins' forwards in early 2004

Plus: A month later, Aleksey Morozov was thumping the crest on his sweater with pride to the home crowd after beating the Hurricanes in overtime.

Minus: A defense that, for three-quarters of the season, was the most porous and passive in the NHL.

Plus: A confident, aggressive Brooks Orpik leveling Bobby Holik with a clean hip check that led directly to a goal two weeks ago in New York.

Minus: Dick Tarnstrom's minus-36 rating, second-worst among NHL defensemen.

Plus: The Penguins MVP award he likely will receive today for being the first defenseman in franchise history to lead the team in scoring.

Minus: NHL owners and players held no talks after Oct. 1, with the clock ticking toward the Sept. 15 expiration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Plus: A serious effort by both sides to produce a more equitable system, even if it cancels part or all of next season, can only benefit Pittsburgh.

Minus: There will be no 50-goal scorer for the first time since the 1998-99 season.

Plus: Two of the players vying for the Maurice Richard Trophy, Ilya Kovalchuk and Rick Nash, are under 21. The future is in soft hands.

Minus: Scoring as a whole plummeted from an average of 5.29 goals per game last season to its current 5.13, a 48-year low.

Plus: After years of ignoring the scoring issue, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman finally took action, resulting in a radical set of proposed rule changes for next season. Even if none of the others is passed, the one that is a lock to be enacted -- shrinking the width of goaltender pads from 12 inches to 10 -- is sure to have a significant impact.

Minus: NHL officials still call obstruction but with a bizarre emphasis on play away from the puck. As Joe Thornton has complained, why is it that the player with possession remains fair game?

Plus: All of the recommended rule changes do not involve the referees' discretion.

Minus: The ballyhooed plan of Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne to bring another Cup to Colorado turned into subpar production from those two and voluminous doubts about the Avalanche as a whole.

Plus: Martin St. Louis, all 5 feet 8 inches of him, emerged as a scoring champion and likely Hart Trophy winner for Tampa Bay, which surprised more people than it should have by establishing itself as the NHL's most complete team.

Minus: Roberto Luongo's brilliance in goal for Florida doubtless will be ignored by voters of the Hart, even though the mandate is that it be awarded to "the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team." No one has been more valuable than Luongo, who broke the league's saves record, but voters continue to display a bias against players whose teams fail to make the playoffs.

Plus: Luongo's high profile helped to spark the cry to shrink goaltending pads. His are colossal.

Minus: The Blackhawks, Capitals and even the Rangers engaged in massive sell-offs of stars.

Plus: The league was able to see that Pittsburgh was not an aberration.

Minus: An audit financed by the NHL showed the league's teams lost $273 million in 2002-03 and that only 11 of the 30 made a profit.

Plus: The Penguins' deficit of $3.1 million was the lowest among teams that lost money, quashing the misconception that they are distressed.

Minus: Todd Bertuzzi's vicious, premeditated attack on Steve Moore resulted in a broken neck for the victim and further damage to the perception of the sport, especially among those outside the hockey mainstream.

Plus: The NHL's swift, harsh punishment was received with almost universal praise and sent a surprisingly powerful signal to players that tolerance for such violence is zero.

Minus: Alexei Kovalev flopped in New York and was booed with each touch of the puck in Montreal.

Plus: More incentive to choose a return to Pittsburgh when he becomes a free agent in July.

Minus: Jeremy Roenick's view of hockey economics.

Plus: Landon Wilson's view of life. His addition and the Penguins' surge are not coincidence.

Minus: Seeing the Penguins and Capitals -- by the light of day -- make brazen maneuvers to their rosters down the stretch to enhance the chance of losing in the name of Alexander Ovechkin.

Plus: Watching a pair of Matts make them pay. Matt Hussey, a healthy scratch in Wilkes-Barre, scored two goals in two games for the Penguins before being sent back. Matt Yeats, an ECHL-level goaltender playing ahead of Olaf Kolzig, beat the Penguins for his first NHL victory.

Minus: Worst quote from the visitors' locker room at Mellon Arena came from Rangers coach Tom Renney, laughing off Mark Messier's spear of Martin Strbak: "That's an old, wily veteran taking a young guy to task. That's the way it is."

Plus: Best quote from anyone on that side came from Alexander Frolov of the Kings, on a save by Marc-Andre Fleury in the opener: "There was no leg there. Then, there was a leg there."

Minus: Worst quote from the Penguins' side goes to Lemieux for having kept them all to himself since early November. His public silence has mystified even those close to him.

Plus: Best quote from the Penguins came, naturally, from Steve McKenna. Informed that his coach and general manager were happy with his work on defense, he slapped his palm to his forehead and replied: "So, they're the two."

Minus: The average of 5,170 empty seats at Mellon Arena, making for a league low in attendance.

Plus: The spirited celebrations in the past two months of the 11,770 who toughed it out.