Unable to join his teammates while he dealt with a high ankle sprain for much of the second half of the season, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby would find himself on dry land with a tennis ball on the blade of his stick, perfecting tricks that helped keep him sharp.

"I would have to hit the ceiling once, then both walls, then tap it five times and put it in the garbage can, all without touching the ball with your hands and the ball not touching the ground," Crosby recalled about one such exercise.

He has been back on the ice the past four games and said yesterday those routines directed by strength and conditioning coach Mike Kadar might have helped his coordination on a razzle-dazzle goal Wednesday against Philadelphia where he reached across his body to redirect a Sergei Gonchar pass back between his legs for a goal -- even though Crosby routinely works on that play in practice.

Kadar, in his first season with the Penguins after four with the Los Angeles Kings, tries to offer individualized programs as much as possible for the players, whether they're rehabilitating from injury or just maintaining top shape.

Thursday, while just about everyone else in the organization was enjoying a day off, Kadar was in his Mellon Arena office -- he sits at his desk on an exercise ball, not a chair -- plotting conditioning programs for the draining days of the playoffs, which start next week.

"Obviously, the intensity of the games goes up," Kadar said.

That means, for example, playing time will greatly alter some players' postgame workouts.

Another playoff priority: "I think you need to look more at the nutrition aspect, the rest and recovery, making sure your body is prepared each and every day," Kadar said.

It's just the next adjustment in a never-ending series of them for Kadar, who incorporates everything from the standard -- lunges, reps on weight machines, stationary-bike programs -- to the new wave.

The latter includes using a Suunto heart-rate monitoring system. After base testing on the players in training camp, Kadar uses the monitors -- which are strapped around players' chests -- to adjust workouts for those coming back from injury.

Information from the monitors goes through a pod outside Kadar's office and loads onto his computer. He can transfer it to the TVs in his office and the training room so players can watch their heart rates as they work.

"I was probably one of the first guys to jump on board with this [system] in hockey," said Kadar, who started using it with the Kings.

He has been busy with several players with long-term injuries this season, overseeing skating or off-ice workouts as demanding as the training and medical staff allow.

"My whole thought process there is try to get their physical abilities higher than the physical requirements of the game, so when they come back to practice, everything's easy for them," he said.

Overall, Kadar emphasizes injury prevention.

"The high-impact stuff you can't control," he said, and that would include high ankle sprains and broken bones, which have been the bulk of the Penguins' problems this season.

"But any sort of soft-tissue stuff, like back issues, groin issues, things like that, I think you have a hand in that. I look at that through movement patterns."

He started in training camp by doing movement screens, watching and taping players doing basic movements to see if he spotted areas that lacked flexibility, then developing corrective programs specific to each player.

Kadar helps with spot corrections, too, such as a few minutes in the gym during intermissions with a player who, say, has heavy legs.

The Penguins' training room isn't ideal, being in a lame-duck building more than 40 years old. Kadar has a wish list for the new arena slated to open for the 2010-11 season.

The first priority would be space. Kadar's ideal is about 100 square feet per athlete for 30 players counting those on injured reserve. That would be about 3,000 square feet. He has maybe 1,200 now.

He would like a running track with a sprint lane, maybe room for two or three slide boards rather than having to store the one the Penguins have when it's not in use.

"And all the latest, greatest stuff," Kadar said, smiling.

In the meantime, he's more than happy with one aspect of his training room -- the guys who use it.

The players take his directives so well that there might be times Kadar needs to take care they don't go a little overboard, even if that's just a product of competitiveness.

Crosby, for instance, would not quit on any of the tennis ball-control exercises until he had mastered them.

"I told him not make it too hard or I'd be there for hours," Crosby said.