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Sunday, September 03, 2000

Ivan Hlinka, the Penguins' new head coach, arrived from the Czech Republic early this week and has been working to prepare drills for the opening of training camp Thursday.

He was loose and light-hearted as he answered questions at his Southpointe office three days ago:

Q: You said early this summer you would take some English lessons. How did that go?

A: You know, it's not easy in our country to do that, because you can find a teacher, but they'll teach you real English, not American English. So I was just trying to learn some things myself.

Q: How much did you learn?

A: We will see after a couple of months. I hope my English will be better, and we can talk about more things than just hockey.

Q: How important was your time as an associate coach under Herb Brooks last year?

A: I don't like to say I learned things just from Herbie. I learned things because I was here.

What Herbie did for me that was important was give me a chance to be around the locker room all the time. I got to talk about hockey, talk to the players. I got to see how everything works, on the road trips and everywhere. A lot of small things. It made me more comfortable to know all that, more confident. If I didn't get that experience in those 3 1/2 months, it would be more difficult for me right now.

Q: How would you describe the style you want to play?

A: I wouldn't want to say to the fans, 'This is my style.' That wouldn't be right. You have to show to the people your style. Or the players have to show it by playing good hockey.

You know, my philosophy is that the coach is never the winner. Never. The coach is only the loser. The players, they are the winners. They have to show to the fans what you try to teach them between games, in practices.

Q: What is your most important goal for training camp?

A: I've never had a training camp like this, where you have 60 players. My experience is with teams preparing for the World Championships, but that's just 24 players and you are working only to be ready for that tournament.

The most important thing for me here will be to see the young guys, the prospects. It's good for the coach to know all players who are under contract to the team. Maybe I will find some player I don't know, a guy I never saw, that I like. It will be interesting for me to see if I can find some players who can help our team.

Q: What is the strongest area of your team?

A: I think we have a good skating team, and I think we have many players who have good hockey sense.

Q: And the area that needs the most work?

A: I just think we need to be more physical.

Q: Do you feel the players here are capable of that?

A: I believe so. We have a lot of big guys. They just have to use their bodies more. I know we have a lot of European players, and they like to play nice hockey. But I think the best hockey is the simplest hockey. And you know what simple is? It's nice, too, I'm sure you will agree.

Q: Expectations are very high for Milan Kraft even though he hasn't played an NHL game yet. Have you seen much of him?

A: Yes, I saw him play twice this summer in exhibition games in the Czech Republic. I think he's in good shape, and he's got a good future, probably. But this is still a young guy, and it's up to him how he does. He has to work hard.

He has a good start, for sure. He has size and he's a talented player, but there's a long way to go for him to get to the top. We have to be very careful about getting too excited about him.

Q: Who would you like to put on a line with Jaromir Jagr?

A: My answer will be ... good hockey players.

Q: You have many good prospects on defense, like Sven Butenschon, Andrew Ference and Josef Melichar. But you also have six established guys there. Do you think any of the younger players has a chance to make the team?

A: If they play well, they've got a chance. I think it will be very hard to make a decision after just the exhibition games. But the season is long, and all of them will have a chance. Everything is possible.

Q: In June, you asked the Penguins to draft Roman Simicek, and they got him in the ninth round. He's 29 and has never played in North America. What do you like about him?

A: He's a big guy, a big center, and I think he can be one of our players. He can play a physical game, and he can play hockey. Maybe he doesn't look so nice out there, like some players can look really nice, but he can help.

We will see. It's very soon for me to say, especially before camp, 'OK, Simicek will be there, Melichar will be there,' you know? It's hard to say.

Q: How do you plan to use assistant coaches Rick Kehoe, Joe Mullen and Randy Hillier?

A: I know Rick because we worked together last season. But with Joe and Randy, we have to work together. After that, I will make the decision. For sure, it will be before the season.

For right now, my idea is that because we have 60 players in camp, we will have three teams. Each one of those teams will be coached by one of the assistants. I will be working with all three of them on the ice. That's how we will start. We will see after that.

Q: You've already achieved so much as a player and coach at the international level. Is this an exciting challenge?

A: You know, the NHL is the biggest league in the world. In my country, when you start to play hockey, you play peewee. After peewee, you want to play in juniors. After juniors, you want to play in the Extraleague. After the Extraleague, you want to play for the national team. And after you make it to the national team, you want to play in the NHL. Now I am here. Step by step, better and better.

But maybe after this season, I will be back in peewee.

Icy chips

Mario Lemieux will be the host of a fund-raiser for Rick Santorum at his home Saturday. Santorum, a Republican, is facing Democratic Ron Klink in a race to keep his seat in the U.S. Senate. Suggested donation for dinner: $5,000. ... Left winger Matthew Barnaby is delighted that Hlinka will demand more physical play from his forwards: "It's exactly what we need. I can't see us being a dangling kind of team and having success. We need to bang, go to the net, get it done. I mean, how many guys are out there who score from the perimeter? Not everyone is Jaromir Jagr. That's what makes him so special. The rest of us need to do a better job of crashing the net, doing the little things to help us win. I'm all for it." ... Word out of Philadelphia is that the Flyers are looking to buy out the contract of former Penguins defenseman Ulf Samuelsson. He spent much of last season out of the lineup because of a knee injury and is scheduled to make $2.75 million in the coming year. If the Flyers buy him out, he becomes an unrestricted free agent. ... Jiri Crha, agent for left winger Robert Dome, doesn't believe his client's development will be stunted if he plays in Europe rather than signing with the Penguins: "Do you think the farm team in Wilkes-Barre can beat the top teams in Europe? I don't think so." ... Minnesota Wild General Manager Doug Risebrough might be giving thought to signing Rob Brown, cut loose by the Penguins last week. ... The Wild hired Jock Callander, a longtime staple in the Penguins' minor-league system and a member of their 1992 championship team, to be an assistant coach for their IHL affiliate in Cleveland. Callander retired this summer, finishing as that league's all-time leading scorer with 1,042 points. ... Only four days until Southpointe.

Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@ post-gazette.com.