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Tuesday, March 06, 2001

by By Dave Molinari, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Perhaps this is what it would have been like if Elvis had had a nasty wrist shot. If he could have passed pucks through openings not visible to the naked eye. And if, of course, he'd made an unwavering commitment to conditioning as middle age closed in.

But while nobody is calling Mario Lemieux "The King" -- a title bestowed on his pal, Pierre Larouche, a quarter-century ago -- he has established himself as a gate attraction without peer in the NHL since coming out of retirement Dec. 27.

The Penguins have played 29 games in the interim and, if the teams involved are to believed, there hasn't been a single seat go unsold for any of them.

And it's not because the Penguins have had an inordinate number of games at home, or because a quirk of scheduling has sent them strictly into traditionally strong markets.

Lemieux lured a capacity crowd of 16,297 -- roughly 16,000 above the usual turnout -- to Nassau Coliseum. Attracted a record 19,008 fans to Philips Arena in Atlanta. On a Tuesday. Drew 19,040 to the Meadowlands, where the Penguins had played before 16,035 before his comeback.

What's more, if there's an empty seat at a Penguins game these days, it likely means the occupant has gotten up to buy a hot dog or visit the restroom. There aren't many no-shows when Lemieux's in town.

Naturally, the Penguins have benefited most from his return, on the ice at the box office, but he's put a few extra dollars into the pockets of his fellow owners, too. Maybe a few million.

So far, though, there's no indication anyone has sent him a thank-you note, let alone a thank-you check passing alone some of the cash he generated.

The NHL, you see, does not share gate revenues, and isn't likely to in the next century or so.

"We know that's never going to happen," Lemieux said. "To each his own, I guess. That's the way it's been for years."

Lemieux, who has developed a keen appreciation of income and expenses since taking over as owner of the Penguins a year and a half ago, said that, "really, I have no opinion" on whether teams should receive a percentage of ticket revenues when they play on the road, but didn't dismiss the idea entirely.

"It might help some of the teams and hurt some others," he said. "But that's something the league has to look at and make a decision on."

Trivia question

What is the Penguins' record for most games-played without being shut out? Answer at end.

What pressure?

Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who is coming off three consecutive strong starts, has made no secret of his disdain for the suggestion that the Penguins must upgrade their goaltending before the playoffs.

He also doesn't understand why his lack of NHL playoff experience -- the next shot he faces during the postseason will be the first -- is an issue, or why there are questions about how he would hold up under the pressure of the playoffs.

The way Aubin sees it, he's dealt with pressure for years. And that some of it -- like when he felt, a few years ago, that he was playing for his future in the game -- has been more intense than anything he would face during a game.

"I had [pressure] last year," he said. "I had it the year before. I had it before that, because I didn't know if my career was done or not. ... 'What am I going to do if I quit hockey?' It's much more [pressure]."

Aubin was caroming between the American Hockey League -- the Penguins shared a team in Syracuse with Vancouver -- and Dayton in the East Coast Hockey League in 1997-98, and was beginning to fear that he had slipped off the Penguins' depth chart.

"I played with Syracuse a month or two," he said. "I didn't play a lot. That didn't help, and we were a last-place team. That didn't help, either, in my first [pro] year.

"I went down to the East Coast the first time and said, 'Well, this is good for me. I'll play.' Then I came back [to Syracuse], played one game and played well, then they sent me down again. And I said, 'I think I'm out of here. I'm not going to play hockey any more, I guess.'

"Then I said, 'Well, just go there and enjoy it. If it's three years, after the three years are done, you're done. At least, you tried.' And I tried, did my best, and [by] the second year, I was in the NHL. So things happen. You can't take anything for granted. Stuff happens for a reason."

Relying on Brooks

If the braintrust of the 2002 U.S. Olympics team -- a group topped by Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick and scout Herb Brooks, who will serve as coach -- has decided which eight players it will name to the squad by the March 25 deadline, no one is letting on.

And while Patrick presumably will be a bit more concerned with his NHL duties for the next few days -- the trading deadline is next Tuesday at 3 p.m. -- it's safe to assume he has put in a lot of time assessing candidates for Team USA.

Patrick will get input on the roster from St. Louis GM Larry Pleau, assistant GM of Team USA, and longtime USA Hockey officials such as Art Berglund, but he's made it clear that Brooks' opinions will be particularly significant.

"His say is probably going to be weighted a little heavier than the rest of ours," Patrick said.

Brooks has said that he expects to have "normal coach's input," and that the makeup of Team USA's management influenced his decision to accept the coaching position.

"When you work for Craig Patrick ... he's always listened to his coaches," Brooks said. "I don't know if I'd be involved if it weren't for Craig Patrick and Larry Pleau."

Brooks, of course, was coach of the "Miracle On Ice" team at the Lake Placid Games in 1980. Patrick was his assistant then, but aside from those two being reunited, the Salt Lake City Olympics won't have much in common with the Games 22 years earlier.

The biggest change is that teams now are allowed to use professionals; what made the U.S. victory in 1980 so stunning in 1980 was that virtually all the players had been in college before being selected for the squad.

That team had months to prepare for the Olympics; the U.S. squad in 2002 will be lucky to have a few hours to get ready, a source of considerable distress to Brooks.

"Then, it was a year-round teaching thing," Brooks said. "Now, it's an NHL all-star team. You have a few team-building sessions and a few practices, then you go play."

Then again, deciding which players will be on the team shouldn't take nearly as long as it did before Lake Placid.

"We all know the players better," Patrick said. "We're not going to have the benefit of working together for seven months, but most of those players have played together somewhere along the line in U.S. programs, so they're all pretty familiar with one another. I think it should be easier, picking this time."

That doesn't mean it will be easy to reach a consensus on who should be on the team.

"There are always conflicts," Patrick said. "But they always get ironed out."

Downside of comeback

Lemieux has gotten a lot of praise and applause for his comeback -- he can count on receiving an ovation in virtually every arena -- but it might ultimately cost him one of his most striking statistical achievements.

When Lemieux retired in 1997, he was the only player in NHL history to average more than two points per game. Lemieux didn't exactly obliterate that barrier -- he finished with 2.005 -- but it still was a level only he had reached.

Lemieux, however, isn't there anymore. He has 24 goals and 23 assists in 28 appearances this season, a healthy average of 1.68 points per game.

Nonetheless, his career output of 1,541 points (637 goals, 904 assists) in 773 games works out to 1.993 per game. That's better than anyone else has managed -- Wayne Gretzky ranks second at 1.921 -- but still has put Lemieux back on the mortal side of the two-points-per-game milestone.

Trivia answer

The Penguins went 211 games without being shut out between Jan. 7, 1989 and Oct. 28, 1991.