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Tuesday, November 07, 2000

By Dave Molinari, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

He was, by almost any measure, a fringe goaltender in the pros. Made just 30 appearances in the NHL, with stops in Atlanta, Boston and Minnesota that produced a 11-10-7 record and 3.78 goals-against average.

Fact is, if not for 10 or so days early in 1980, he'd be too obscure to qualify as a good trivia question answer.

(Then again, asking who the Flames selected with the two draft choices they got from the Bruins for him -- Answer: Steve Konroyd and Mike Vernon -- isn't a bad one.)

As it is, Jim Craig is a genuine folk hero, for it was his exceptional work at the Lake Placid Olympics that made the "Miracle on Ice" -- arguably the most fabled victory in United States sports history -- possible.

And no one appreciates what Craig did more than Herb Brooks, who coached that team and who will take a brief respite from his job as a Penguins scout to run the bench for the 2002 U.S. squad at the Salt Lake City Olympics.

"Goalkeeping is always a really a big thing in these tournaments," Brooks said.

That might be bad news for Brooks and Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick, who will be general manager of the U.S. team, because there is no clear-cut choice as their No. 1 goalie for the Olympics. And it's not because there's a glut of quality candidates.

With 15 or so months to go before the Games, Mike Richter of the New York Rangers might be the front-runner, but he's 34 years old and still feeling the effects of reconstructive knee surgery.

And while Nashville's Mike Dunham is fairly reliable and second-year man Brian Boucher of Philadelphia was brilliant at times during his rookie season, there's no guarantee either would perform at the elite level needed to win a gold medal.

"The American goaltenders have to come along," Brooks said. "They have to distinguish themselves, step up."

There are some youngsters who could do that eventually -- Brent Johnson, 23, of St. Louis and 19-year-old Rick DiPietro, whom the New York Islanders chose with the first pick in the 2000 entry draft top that list -- but it's unrealistic to expect either to consistently perform at a world-class level in little more than a year.

And make no mistake, most of the seven teams Brooks envisions as serious medal contenders -- the United States, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia -- will have proven, high-quality goaltending.

Canada, for example, will be able to choose from the likes of Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Curtis Joseph and Ed Belfour, among others. The Czechs, who won gold in 1998, can turn to the likes of Dominik Hasek, Tomas Vokoun and Roman Turek. Sweden has Tommy Salo.

Whether a goaltender will dominate the Games the way Hasek did in 1998 is impossible to predict. So is accurately projecting the order in which the world's top teams will finish.

Before the Soviet Union crumbled, its hockey teams dominated virtually every international event; that's what made the U.S. victory in 1980 so compelling.

Now, with every medal challenger having its lineup bolstered by -- it not comprised entirely of -- NHL talent, the Games could play out in any number of ways.

"It's a hell of a tournament," Brooks said. "It's not like the Olympic Games in basketball. The other teams are good, too. You have to get by them."

And doing that without outstanding goaltending likely would require more than a miracle.

Trivia question

Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr have accounted for the nine most productive seasons in Penguins history? Who produced the 10th-best? Answer at end.

Down on the farm

Although Jagr showed up on the cover -- and several inside pages -- of a recent issue of a national magazine wearing a pair of bib overalls, that's not his standard attire during the off-season.

Not anymore, at least.

But Jagr, who was photographed with his girlfriend, Andrea Verasova, at his uncle's farm in the Czech Republic, said there was a time when he not only worked on his family's farm but also dressed the part.

"Four years ago, I did [work there in the summer]," he said. "But not lately. They wanted to show what I was doing before I came to the NHL."

And before he met Verasova, who just happens to be the reigning Miss Slovakia.

Waiting for Snow

Goalie Garth Snow has started the Penguins' past two games, performing well during a 4-2 victory Friday in Vancouver and a 1-1 tie in Calgary 24 hours later.

Still, he has appeared in just five games since joining the Penguins, which means his NHL workload barely has been more than he handled during a week he spent with their minor-league team in Wilkes-Barre early last month.

Snow started three games in as many days with the Baby Penguins, winning two and demonstrating that he was ready to return to the NHL.

And while there's no question that Snow has to contend with more skilled playmakers and shooters now than he did working in the American Hockey League, he noted that the minors pose some unique challenges for a guy in his line of work.

"The American League, for a goalie, isn't as easy as people think, because sometimes it's so scrambly that plays develop pretty quickly," Snow said. "There's a lot more structure in the NHL."

Devil of a time

The Penguins don't have the luxury of focusing on their visit Friday to New Jersey just yet -- there is the minor matter of a game against Philadelphia tomorrow at Mellon Arena to think about for now -- but that might be just as well.

For while they figure to be highly motivated to avenge the humiliating 9-0 defeat the Devils inflicted on them Oct. 28, the Penguins probably don't want to devote too much time to pondering New Jersey's strengths and assets.

That could be pretty intimidating, because the Devils have no obvious flaws. Never mind that they're playing without first-line center Jason Arnott and skilled offensive defenseman Scott Niedermayer, both of whom are mired in contact disputes.

Certainly, the Devils didn't seem to miss those two the last time they played the Penguins.

"They have great players," Jagr said. "They have everything. They work hard, plus they have a great system. When they forecheck, they check hard.

"When they wait for us, they wait, everybody together. It looked like we didn't have a chance to do anything [in the previous meeting]. We got frustrated, then we made more mistakes."

So many that they added up to the worst home-ice defeat in franchise history.

Mullen it over

That New Jersey game was the lowest point of the Penguins' season so far, and it's difficult to imagine them absorbing a more lopsided loss anytime soon. Hey, even wretched teams don't often come close to losing by double-figures.

Still, the Penguins didn't seem to dwell on the particulars of that game for long, and some members of the organization even tried to find something productive in those 60 minutes of misery.

"You're not going to take a lot of positives out of [humbling defeats], but hopefully, you can learn from it, and that will be a positive," assistant coach Joe Mullen said.

It's Mullen's nature to be upbeat, but even if it weren't, he probably would have turned out that way after being exposed to Bob Johnson, who coached him here and in Calgary.

Johnson, who died of brain cancer nine years ago this month, was an incurable optimist, a man who could put a positive spin on the most discouraging development. Like when, during his time in Calgary, the Flames lost 11 consecutive games between Dec. 14, 1985 and Jan. 7, 1986.

Mullen wasn't traded from St. Louis to Calgary until Feb. 1, 1986, but when he arrived, his new teammates still were talking about how Johnson had handled himself during that skid.

"When those guys were in that streak, they said Badger found something positive in each and every game they played and never dwelled on the negative," Mullen said. "That was Badger Bob."

The same Badger Bob who led the Flames to the Stanley Cup final just a few months later. And who would guide the Penguins to their first Stanley Cup five years later.

Trivia answer

Left winger Kevin Stevens piled up 123 points during the 1991-92 season, the most in franchise history by anyone other than Lemieux or Jagr.