He's a five-time All-Star who has played in 967 NHL games, with 406 goals and 413 assists for 819 points. But last night, winger John LeClair was a healthy scratch from the Penguins lineup for the second time in six games.

General manager Ray Shero planned to talk to LeClair either after the game or perhaps today.

"He's been in the league a long time," Shero said. "We need to find him a role or not find him a role.

"From John's standpoint, he's done everything we've asked him to do. He works really hard in practice. We need to find something for him."

LeClair, 37 and an alternate captain, signed with the Penguins as a free agent before the 2005-06 season. He had 22 goals and 51 points in 73 games last season. This season, he has played mostly in a fourth-line role and has two goals, seven points in 21 games.

Shero, who declined to say whether he might consider testing the trade market, talked to LeClair briefly yesterday, but that was before coach Michel Therrien decided to scratch LeClair for the game against the New York Islanders.

"I want to be respectful of John," Shero said. "If he's in the lineup, that's great. If he's not, that's a tough situation. I need to talk to him."

Birthday bobblehead

	Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Marc-Andre Fleury covers a shot by the Islanders' Jason Blake in the second period. Click photo for larger image.

For hockey players, birthdays in late November don't usually allow for much celebrating.

Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury knows.

"It's like another day, I guess," said Fleury, who on his 22nd birthday started against the Islanders last night but found a little time to spend with some friends and family who were visiting.

Fleury was the first overall pick in the 2003 draft, and while it might seem like he has been in the Penguins' plans for a long time, he's still fairly young for a goaltender having what could be his breakout season.

"It's weird," he said. "I started when I was 18. It feels like I've been here a long time, but at the same time I don't want to get older. But the good thing is I've got experience."

Fleury entered the game with a 10-5-3 record with one shutout, a 2.76 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage and exited with a 3-2 win.

"Right now, I feel comfortable," he said. "Things are going pretty good. I hope I just want to keep going like this and, hopefully, have a successful season."

The Penguins gave away Fleury bobblehead dolls at the game.

Icy relationship

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, in town to watch the game, said there is no progress in the area of the Russian Hockey Federation signing a transfer agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation that would ease the movement of prospects to the NHL.

"We're having a variety of different issues with the Russian Federation right now where we're not dealing with anything except responding to lawsuits," he said.

The NHL and the Penguins recently prevailed when Metallurg Magnitogorsk tried to get a preliminary injunction against Penguins rookie Evgeni Malkin, who formerly played for that Russian Super League team.

Coming and going

The Penguins got leading scorer and alternate captain Sidney Crosby back from a groin strain the same game that the Islanders began playing without leading scorer and captain Alexei Yashin, who has a sprained right knee.

"It's just one of those things, and the Penguins have been going through it, too," Islanders coach Ted Nolan said. "You look at almost every team in the league, at some point they're going to suffer some setbacks."

Or, as Penguins coach Michel Therrien put it: "I don't feel sorry [for the Islanders]. We missed Malkin the first four games [with a shoulder injury] and Sid the last three games, so it's like, we've been there."

Slap shots

Crosby leads Eastern Conference players in fan All-Star balloting with 247,854 votes, and Malkin is second among forwards with 154,469. Fleury's 138,151 votes are most among Eastern Conference goaltenders. ... Both teams had optional morning skates. For the Penguins, every healthy player participated. For the Islanders, 14 players skated.