Coaching, Eddie Olczyk acknowledged yesterday, "is definitely still in my blood."

It just isn't in his plans. Not for the immediate future, anyway.

Olczyk has accepted an offer to provide color commentary on TV games for the Chicago Blackhawks, his hometown team and the club with which he began his 16-year playing career.

Olczyk, who went 31-64-10, with eight ties, in one-plus seasons as coach of the Penguins before being replaced by Michel Therrien in mid-December, also is trying to finalize a new deal with OLN -- he said something could be worked out "in the next 48 hours" -- and is waiting to see if NBC exercises its option on the second year of his agreement with that network.

Olyczk was the color man on Penguins' TV broadcasts for three seasons before being named coach on June 11, 2003.

His team finished with a league-worst 23-47-8-4 record in 2003-04, but Olczyk was praised for the way he kept the team together under difficult circumstances and guided it to a 12-5-3 record in the final 20 games.

The momentum of that strong finish disappeared when the 2004-05 season was wiped out by a labor dispute, and expectations were ratcheted up considerably after the Penguins signed high-profile free agents such as Sergei Gonchar and Ziggy Palffy last summer.

They stumbled out of the gate, however, and never were a factor in the playoff race. Olczyk was fired when the team was 8-17-6 after 31 games; his winning percentage was virtually identical to that of Therrien, under whom the Penguins went 14-29-8.

Although the Blackhawks almost never televise home games, Olczyk said he and his family are relocating to Chicago.

"It's time to turn the page and move back," he said. "But there's a piece of me that will always be here."

Olczyk joins the the Blackhawks at a time when they are overhauling their approach to broadcasts. They are abandoning simulcasts, and recently cut their ties to play-by-play man Pat Foley, who spent a quarter-century with the team.