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Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Compiled by Dave Molinari

John Jakopin was born in Canada, and his soul is 100 percent Slovenian.

But there was a little piece of his heart in Pittsburgh long before the Penguins claimed him on waivers from Florida Oct. 2.

Jakopin's family began to sink roots in this region several generations ago, when his great-grandfather came here seeking employment.

"My great-grandfather lived in Pittsburgh, on and off, for 20 years, working in a steel mill," Jakopin said. "He brought his whole side of the family here for opportunity because times were tough and the United States was known as a land of opportunity.

"He still owned a farm in Slovenia and, back in those days, there was a certain pride in owning land. There was a title behind it -- having your own land, working your land, [inheriting] it from your father.

"Unfortunately, my great-great-grandfather was, I think, a bit of a drinker, and he might have drank away the farm, so it was up to the eldest son, which was my mother's grandfather, to buy back that land.

"The only way he saw fit [to do that] was by coming to America, making money in the steel mill, then coming back [to Slovenia] periodically and buying that land back."

Jakopin, who expects to receive Slovenian citizenship next summer, said he still has some distant relatives in this area, and that he has friends from the Slovenian community he met while they were wintering in south Florida when he played for the Panthers.

Jakopin takes his background "very seriously," and pointed out that his name actually is Janez Jakopin (pronounced, YAW-nez YOK-o-peen).

"I'm proud of my heritage," he said. "Very proud."

Jakopin describes himself as fluent in Slovenian and seems to have come by his knowledge of it honestly.

"That was the only language we spoke at home," he said. "I still speak it with my mother as much as I can."

For all the respect -- or, more accurately, reverence -- that Jakopin has for the homeland and traditions of his family, he doesn't take his current surroundings, or the living he's able to earn by playing pro hockey, for granted.

"I'm really proud to be part of America," Jakopin said. "They're paying me money, giving me the lifestyle that I have, and I'm very appreciative of that. It's also good to look back at your heritage."

Trivia question

Who are the only players in Penguins history to have the same surname and wear the same number? Answer at end.

The last time ...

By now, anyone who cares knows that the Penguins have opened a season with four consecutive losses for just the second time in their 35-year history.

What some might not realize, however, is just what it took for the Penguins to break that streak when they went 0-4 to begin the 1983-84 season.

Their first victory came against Washington, 4-0, at the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., on Oct. 14, 1983, a game highlighted by a couple of memorable individual efforts.

The most significant was turned in by goalie Denis Herron, who stopped 29 shots in recording one of only two shutouts by a Penguins goalie that season.

The other came from Dave Hannan, who beat Pat Riggin of Washington on a penalty shot.

That was one of only two goals Hannan scored in 1983-84 -- he appeared in only 24 NHL games -- and ended a run of 10 unsuccessful penalty-shot attempts by the Penguins. They hadn't converted on one in more than a decade, since Syl Apps had beaten Bernie Parent -- yes, that Bernie Parent -- of Toronto Feb. 9, 1972.

Heady as that victory was, though, it didn't exactly turn the Penguins' season around. They went on to lose their next four games and finished with a 16-58-6 record, worst in the NHL.

Learning to relax

Kris Beech plays a pretty fair two-way game for a 20-year-old and has the potential to develop into an all-star in coming years.

All that promise still hasn't translated into a point, however. Beech has played eight games in the NHL -- four with Washington, four with the Penguins -- without recording a goal or assist.

He insists, though, that he doesn't dwell on his failure to score, and doesn't allow it to have an impact on the rest of his game.

"I just play," Beech said. "I know my game, and it will take care of itself."

That's a healthy mindset, and not one he came upon by accident. Beech consulted a sports psychologist while playing junior hockey and credits that with enabling him to keep a positive perspective on his performance.

"I was really hard on myself," he said. "My dad's a general practitioner, and he thought it would be a good idea to go see one, and it helped a lot."

Beech still tries to apply the lessons learned then, and they should come in handy when his team is 0-4 and he doesn't have anything to show for two weeks on the No. 1 line.

"You work on stuff to create positive thinking," he said. "Kind of shut the negative stuff out of your game, and it worked. ... I worked on it a lot the last couple of years, and it helped out with the fun I was having with the games."

Beech, the centerpiece of the package the Penguins got from Washington for Jaromir Jagr, was the Capitals' first-round draft choice in 1999, so he's been a quality prospect for quite a while. That doesn't mean he always enjoyed his work, though.

"When I was younger, I'd lose sleep over games," Beech said. "But now, I just think about the positive stuff, and I'm a lot more relaxed."

Clock on Kasparaitis

All available evidence suggest that sometime before next spring, defenseman Darius Kasparaitis will become a former Penguin. That he'll be shipped off to Tampa Bay or Long Island or Florida or Detroit, to a team that craves the qualities he can add to a defense corps.

That's because Kasparaitis is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after this season, and it's almost unthinkable that the Penguins would allow him to leave next summer without getting something in return.

But even though the Penguins low-balled him in salary arbitration during the off-season -- a move that backfired when, by accepting the pay cut they offered, Kasparaitis set himself up to go on the open market next summer -- he insists he would be willing to try to work out a new deal with them.

"Why not?" Kasparaitis said. "If there's a reasonable offer, there's always a chance [of an agreement]. I was hoping they were going to talk to me before the first game, but nothing happened."

Chances are that nothing will happen in coming days, weeks and months, either. It's fairly evident that someone in upper management is quite willing, if not downright eager, to have Kasparaitis removed from the Penguins' depth chart.

That point was made most emphatically by the way the Penguins approached Kasparaitis' salary arbitration -- offering a player of his stature a nominal raise, let alone a hefty pay cut, is almost unheard-of -- but Kasparaitis insists he doesn't take any of that personally.

"It's a business," he said. "I'm not mad. It's part of the business. ... I have no hard feelings. It was kind of tough in the beginning, but I'm a guy who lets things go easily. I don't keep [things] inside of me."

None of the off-ice issues has affected the way he plays -- all out, every shift -- and there's no reason to believe that will change.

"I try to play hard," Kasparaitis said. "I try to be involved and just play the game."

The real question is who he'll be doing that for when the playoffs roll around next spring.

Banner night for No. 19

Former Penguins center Bryan Trottier, a mainstay on the New York Islanders' Stanley Cup teams in 1980-83, finally will have his number retired on Long Island Saturday.

Trottier and the Islanders tried for years to work out details surrounding the sweater-retirement and, now that it's finally been accomplished, a banner bearing his No. 19 will be hoisted into the Nassau Coliseum rafters.

It will join those honoring Denis Potvin (5), Billy Smith (31), Mike Bossy (22), Bobby Nystrom (23), Clark Gillies (9), former coach Al Arbour and ex-general manager Bill Torrey, the key figures in the Islanders' run of four consecutive championships 1980-83.

Trivia answer

Forward Jiri Hrdina and Jan Hrdina both chose No. 38, while Mark Johnson and Greg Johnson wore No. 9. Neither the Hrdinas nor the Johnsons are related.