Home >  Sports >  Notebooks

Tuesday, March 05, 2002

By Dave Molinari, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- There hasn't been a formal announcement yet. Perhaps there never will be.But it has become increasingly evident that -- after 874 regular-season games, 329 goals, two Stanley Cup victories, three All-Star Game appearances and more fond memories than any dozen people should be able to create -- the NHL career of left winger Kevin Stevens has run its course.

Stevens played his first game in the league with the Penguins March 1, 1988, and his last for them Jan. 8. In the interim, he also labored in Boston, Los Angeles, Manhattan and Philadelphia, but it was with the Penguins that he played his finest hockey. And left his most indelible impressions.

Attempts to contact Stevens in recent days have been unsuccessful; friends say he and his family returned to their off-season home in Massachusetts last weekend, and that they've been planning a vacation in the West.

Stevens has kept a decidedly low profile since leaving the Penguins a few hours before a game in Buffalo Jan. 10. He acknowledged being frustrated by the reduced role he was filling and, a few days later, checked into an out-of-state facility because of behavioral issues.

Whether Stevens, who has been through the NHL's substance-abuse program, did that because he had a relapse isn't clear, although some acquaintances believe he did it as a precaution.

While off-ice issues added a dark footnote to his final years in the league, Stevens' real legacy will be as one of the finest power forwards in recent NHL history. In his prime, he was a Brahma bull of a winger whose game was an intimidating blend of speed, size and skill.

"He was a great power forward," longtime teammate Mario Lemieux said. "He had a great shot, a quick shot from the slot, and would take the body every chance he got."

And while Stevens played a great game, he could talk an even better one. He was always a high-decibel presence in the locker room, and rarely balked at saying what he really felt.

Like when, after the Penguins lost the first two games of the Wales Conference final with Boston in 1991, Stevens loudly -- and repeatedly -- told anyone who would listen in the cramped visitors' locker room at Boston Garden that the Penguins would win the series.

Never mind that the Bruins had been to the Stanley Cup final the previous spring, or that the Penguins' greatest playoff memories to that point revolved around glorious defeats.

"Your first reaction is, 'Shut your mouth. Don't be jinxing us, and don't be fueling them to play better,'" said assistant coach Joe Mullen, a right winger on that team. "Usually, you tell the guys to keep their mouths shut, play the game and say the right thing. Then he comes out and says that.

"But I think we believed it, too, and that was the good part about it. That's why nobody said to Kevin, 'Shut your mouth.' Because I think we truly believed that we can beat them."

Stevens was deadly serious when he guaranteed the Penguins would rally against Boston -- drop-dead accurate, too -- but that's not the way most teammates remember him.

"During a losing streak, he could come in and brighten a room," said Philadelphia right winger Rick Tocchet, who joined the Penguins for their second Stanley Cup run in 1992. "He was just one of those guys whose personalities would brighten a gloomy day.

"One of the things I'll miss when I retire is the camaraderie of the dressing room, and he's one of the guy's I've missed. I always had a lot of fun in the dressing room with Kevin. You don't get many guys like that in your career."

Just how great of a career Stevens could have had if he hadn't slammed off the ice, face-first, after a collision with Rich Pilon during Game 7 of the Penguins' second-round playoff series with the New York Islanders is impossible to say.

The consensus, though, is that he never really got over the impact of that injury, which compelled him to have several hours of reconstructive surgery the next day.

"When you go through an injury like that, it has to be in the back of your mind, every time you step on the ice," Lemieux said. "It might have slowed him down a little bit."

Assistant general manager Ed Johnston, who acquired Stevens' rights from Los Angeles for Anders Hakansson in 1983, had taken a job in Hartford several years before Stevens was hurt, but shares Lemeiux's perspective.

"There's no question that had a bearing," Johnston said. "He still went on and had some good years, but I think he could have stayed in that echelon of being a 40-, 50-goal guy every year."

Johnston likened Stevens, in his prime, to Cam Neely of the Bruins. Mullen figures he was more like Dave Taylor, a perennial all-star right winger from Los Angeles.

Neely and Taylor hung up their skates years ago, and now it seems that Stevens' time has come, too.

And while the roster of players from the Penguins' championship teams continues to shrink -- "Not too many left," Lemieux said, smiling slightly -- memories of guys like Ulf Samuelsson and Mullen and Bryan Trottier will endure for decades.

And Stevens always will hold a prominent place on that list. Just like he did on the team when it was dominating the NHL a decade ago.

"He was the best power forward in the league, by far," Lemieux said. "He was also a great leader, a great guy in the dressing room. Just a great, great guy."

Trivia question

How many penalty shots have been awarded in Penguins playoff games, and how many resulted in a goal? Answer at end.

Coaching 101

Rick Kehoe, in his first season as coach, is finding out why guys in his line of work tend to have a lot of trouble sleeping. Making decisions can be excruciatingly difficult; second-guessing them is ridiculously easy, even when they work out.

Kehoe, for example, pointed to the dilemma of trying to decide whether to seek favorable personnel matchups at home, where a coach gets the final move, even though the game is unfolding in a fairly positive manner without them.

"You don't want to change things, but you know you should," he said. "But [also] that [if you do], it might backfire on you. So you leave it the same and hope that it turns out. That where you lose a little bit of sleep."

Of course, things don't always play out as hoped, at which point a coach begins to dissect everything he did -- and didn't do -- trying to figure out precisely what went wrong, and how he can get an edge in subsequent games.

"That's part of coaching, that maybe next time, you'll see something coming a little earlier," Kehoe said. "Maybe next time you'll see it coming, so you won't let it happen."

Staying the course

Most teams sitting outside the top eight in their conference have reason to be disappointed in how the past five months played out. But nearly all still have a chance to salvage their season.

Not long ago, Sabres defenseman Jason Woolley, who spent most of the 1996-97 season with the Penguins, said both clubs would be well-served by having the most upbeat outlook possible on the challenges before them.

"Negative is no real way to go," Woolley said. "You have to stay positive, no matter how far you're down. I'm sure that if you ask the last-place teams, they have to stay positive. This is your life, man. Every day, you come to the rink and you're trying to bring your best game, and you have to deal with it.

"When you're losing, it's not a fun place to be. Stay positive, try to get some wins -- get the atmosphere a little better around you -- and then you never know what can happen."

Boughner shares 'C'

Last month, Calgary Coach Greg Gilbert stripped winger Dave Lowry of his captaincy and announced plans to split it between center Craig Conroy and former Penguins defenseman Bob Boughner.

That is the latest, and most compelling, evidence that Boughner has given the Flames the rugged play and leadership they were seeking when they signed him to a three-year, $6.3 million contract as free agent last summer.

To be sure, Calgary didn't have to stitch a letter on Boughner's sweater to understand what he had to offer.

"I knew Bobby from playing against him and watching him," Gilbert told the Calgary Sun, "and I knew exactly what he brought to this club. He definitely has not disappointed.

"He's a warrior. He goes into every game wanting to win the game and doing what he has to do to help win the game. It's not surprising to me at all what he's done and how big a part of this team he's become."

Which is precisely how it had worked out after the Penguins acquired him from Nashville two years ago. And why it was so surprising that they didn't make more of an effort to keep him after last season.

Trivia answer

There have been six penalty shots in Penguins playoff history -- four by the Penguins, two by opponents -- but only one produced a goal. Jaromir Jagr scored that on May 11, 1992, when he beat John Vanbiesbrouck of the New York Rangers.