The flights. The meals. The housing. The passport and visa snags. For the Penguins, that is all covered by Frank Buonomo, senior director of team services and media relations.

If that's not enough to keep him busy, he's also the point man for star center Sidney Crosby's media demands.

It puts Buonomo in situations like this: In the Eastern Conference locker room in Atlanta after the Jan. 27 All-Star Game, Buonomo was organizing the Penguins' contingent of players while coming up on the losing end of a dance with Evgeni Malkin trying to get the Russian All-Star to offer a few comments in English when his Blackberry rang.

"Oh, it's The Kid," Buonomo said, stepping away to take the call from Crosby, who missed the game because of his high ankle sprain.

Buonomo's tireless efforts don't stop there. When he joined the Penguins before last season, he organized a pickup game at Mellon Arena for the afternoons of weekday home games. Fellow club employees and associates join Buonomo for what is a competitive, if not NHL-level, workout.

The passes, well, they're sometimes hit and miss.

But the dishing, that never ends.

Never let it be said that Buonomo doesn't get recognized for his go-getter style.

"When we're out there, every scrimmage is Game 7 for Frankie. Eeeevery game," said Phil Spano, an off-ice official during Penguins game.

Hey, if you're going to dive for pucks, chatter, weave and hustle all the time, you have to expect a certain amount of flack.

"Frank Buonomo's too competitive. He took out my legs, and I hit my head off the ice," deadpanned John Taglianetti, son of Penguins Stanley Cup-winning defenseman Peter Taglianetti. John and twin Andrew, a Pitt football recruit, are locker-room assistants -- what they used to call stick boys.

Buonomo brought the pickup tradition with him from St. Louis, where some Blues employees were zany enough to take their gear on the road and play when they could.

He isn't the best player in the afternoon games. That would be radio analyst Phil Bourque, who won two Stanley Cups with the Penguins, or big Jason Botterill, the first-year director of hockey administration who is a former first-round draft pick and played 88 games in the NHL.

Close behind them is strength and conditioning coach Mike Kadar, who has to be in phenomenal shape after working out all the injured Penguins this season.

Some days, the talent level rises when general manager Ray Shero, assistant GM Chuck Fletcher and assistant coaches Mike Yeo and Gilles Meloche join in.

Buonomo would be taking even more grief after his stick inadvertently came up a couple weeks ago and gave Kadar a welt under his left eye, except Bourque trumped him that day by accidentally opening a gash in Shero's chin.

"I think Ray's retired now," Buonomo chided.

The games fit nicely into the Igloo's schedule, coming after the Penguins' and visiting teams' morning skates and while the players are off napping.

"It's taken on a life of its own," Buonomo said. "It's a lot of fun. You know how it is -- you spend so many hours that to take an hour for your lunch and play is great."

Some of the other regulars are team trainer Chris Stewart, several employees from the corporate offices and Joe Sager, Web and publications guru, who can be seen after games wheeling his extensive goalie equipment up the street in a grocery cart. So far, no kind souls have attempted to give him money.

"It's awesome," said Sager, who is far from a sieve but is often confounded by Bourque -- who just doesn't look the same without hair flowing out the back of his helmet.

There was this one time, though.

"He had an open net. I dove to my right and made a glove save," Sager said of Bourque. "He just stood and stared at me and he skated away. He couldn't believe it."

Bourque and Kadar make a good matchup. In a recent game, Kadar marked Bourque all the way around the horn, then broke up his pass from the right point.

"Kadar's as good as Bourque," John Taglianetti said. "I'm waiting for them to fight."

In reality, it's good-natured. For the most part.

"Everyone laughs at me," said vice president and controller Kevin Hart. "I grew up in Pittsburgh. I didn't start playing until my son did, so I'm sure they get a chuckle out of me."

Others just find an outlet.

"I spent nine years in the lower minor leagues, and now I finally get to skate in an NHL arena," assistant media relations director Brian Werger said.

Anyone who would happen to sneak into the arena during one of the pickup games is destined to come away with two major cases of disappointment, though.

No Eddie Johnston in net.

No Mario Lemieux. Not even as a power-play specialist.

Slackers.