One day last week, Mark Recchi was skating with a local high school team on its home ice.

The next day, he was doing drills on a college rink.

Within two months, he could be headed overseas to play for a professional team.

	By the Numbers: 11/9/04

Hardly.

To Recchi, it feels much more like an endless forechecking cycle along the boards.

"It's just a matter of finding anywhere you can to skate, to stay in shape ... to keep from losing your mind, I guess," he said with a booming laugh from his home in suburban Pittsburgh. "If I had my way, believe me, I'd be getting ready to play a game at Mellon Arena right now."

He is not optimistic, though, that the NHL lockout will end in time to save any part of the 2004-05 season and allow him to don a Penguins sweater for the first time in 12 years.

Because of that, he has signed a conditional contract with Turku of Finland's elite SM-liiga, one which stipulates that he would join the team immediately after the NHL season is canceled. The deal was arranged with the help of Montreal captain Saku Koivu, a Finn and a good friend from their days together with the Canadiens.

"I've played overseas before in representing Canada, so I know the game over there," Recchi said. "But all I'm thinking about right now is that I hope it doesn't get to that."

He has been given little cause in recent days to believe that it will not.

Recchi was one of two players summoned to represent the Penguins at an NHL Players Association meeting last week in Toronto, and he came away with sharply defined feelings about the lockout.

"I don't see this thing ending, and I believe that's because Gary Bettman isn't trying very hard," he said, referring to the NHL's commissioner. "I know our side is willing to work with him, to help out the small markets and to make concessions. We want to get something done. But he's saying he doesn't want to negotiate, that it's got to be his way."

Bettman and the NHL owners are seeking a salary cap similar to those in the NFL and NBA. The union, which staunchly opposes a cap, has proposed a luxury tax that was summarily rejected by Bettman.

A handful of players have spoken up recently against the union, saying they would not mind a salary cap. Almost all of those players were young or relative newcomers to the NHL.

Recchi, 36 and a seven-time NHL All-Star, took issue with the dissenting viewpoints.

"You're talking about four or five guys who are 25 or younger and don't have 250 games played between them. These guys don't know the situation. And the sad part is, they don't take the time to learn. There's information available to us all the time. To read about people saying they're not informed ... that's on them."

He pointed specifically to claims by some of those players that the union only looks out for its highest-paid members.

"Fact is, stars are going to get looked after no matter what. The cap makes the biggest difference on the average salary. I think a lot more guys understand that now after our meeting. Look, I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing it for every player."

Recchi, the Philadelphia Flyers' leading scorer last season before signing with the Penguins out of free agency in July, has a three-year contract in which he would have been guaranteed $3 million for each of the first two years.

While the lockout drags on, he has remained almost idle.

He spent some time participating in the training camp of Shady Side Academy at the school's rink in Fox Chapel. "I even scrimmaged," he said. "Everyone had fun with it."

Most often, he has been skating with longtime workout partner Mario Lemieux and other current or former NHL players at Robert Morris University's Neville Island complex.

"Working with Mario is something I've always enjoyed. I'd much rather be getting ready to play with him for real, though. I'm really looking forward to playing for Pittsburgh again, to being part of this team. I saw how they finished last year, and it's one of the reasons I signed to come back. We just need to get all this other stuff settled."