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Tuesday, April 09, 2002

By Dave Molinari, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

NEW YORK -- Last night, the Penguins played the New York Rangers for the fifth time this season. That's probably about 15 fewer meetings than the Penguins' corporate accountants wish there were, because the Rangers are a virtual lock to sell out Mellon Arena every time they come to town.

Bring 'em in at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday in mid-August, and there's a pretty good chance that a standing-room crowd will show up. That's partly because New York has fans in virtually every city, partly because Penguins devotees have developed a serious dislike for the Rangers over the years.

That translates into ticket sales, which is the main reason some in the NHL would like to see the league adopt a strict intraconference schedule, with Eastern and Western teams not facing each other until the Stanley Cup final.

There appears to be significant sentiment in favor of such a setup at the ownership level -- "It gets discussed a fair amount," Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick said -- although there's no evidence the league's Board of Governors plans to adopt it anytime soon.

Patrick likes the idea and believes its negative aspects, such as denying fans a chance to see star players from the other conference, are offset by the positives.

"I think it is [worth the trade-off]," he said. "One thing that's important in any sport is strong rivalries. That's how you develop them, playing a lot more in your own division.

"We've moved toward it. I don't know if we're going to continue getting closer to it now or not. It's better now than it was, because it does develop some rivalries. ... We play more within our division than we have in the past."

So far, the concept hasn't moved beyond the talking stage, but if and when it does, the Penguins would give it staunch support.

"Obviously, the traveling would be a lot easier, and it would probably bring back some of the rivalries that we had in the past," owner Mario Lemieux said. "I think it would be great for hockey."

Lemieux, the team's ultimate decision-maker, confirmed the Penguins would vote for strict intraconference play if the Board of Governors brings it to a vote.

Not everyone in the organization shares the enthusiasm Patrick and Lemieux have for the idea, however,

While the Penguins' wretched 4-17-0-1 record against Western opponents -- "We were awful against them," Coach Rick Kehoe said -- might seem like ample reason for management to back an arrangement to play 82 games against Eastern clubs, Kehoe believes there are reasons to stick with the current setup.

"I like the way it is now," he said. "Here's a team like Detroit that we'll only play once this year. We're only 4 1/2, 5 hours from Detroit, and we only play them once."

Defenseman Andrew Ference is even more adamant in his opposition, saying flatly, "I don't like it at all." If anything, he said, he would like to see more games between Eastern and Western teams.

"I don't think we play them enough. What's the incentive [to attend games] for someone in Colorado who's a big Pittsburgh fan or a big Mario Lemieux fan? They don't even get the opportunity to see one of the best players in the world."

As for the contention that more intraconference games would develop and intensify rivalries, well, Ference sees things from a slightly different perspective.

"You'd just end up getting sick of each other," he said. "The games aren't going to be any better because of it. Hockey's hockey."

Trivia question

How many Penguins playoff series have ended in sweeps? Answer at end.

Hormone fueled

Defenseman Rick Berry is a farm boy, raised on the prairies of Manitoba.

But his family, unlike so many in the Canadian heartland, does not make its living raising wheat.

The Berrys' cash crop is hormones. Horse hormones, to be precise.

The family has what Berry describes as an "equine ranch" that features about 150 horses and covers roughly 2,000 acres, "most of them pasture."

And while Berry's parents do sell some of the horses they breed, their primary interest is in premarin, an estrogen replacement mares produce when they are in foal.

"It's one of the top-selling drugs in North America," Berry said. "It's used [to combat] osteoporosis, breast cancer, for birth control, you name it. It's in a lot of things. And it's a pretty pricey drug, too. ... It's probably our main source of income."

Moose dejection

Goalie Johan Hedberg lost the edge on his game after the Olympic break -- his play during the stretch drive didn't begin to approach the level it reached a year ago -- but he's way down the list of reasons the Penguins will sit out the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1990.

Few, if any, of his teammates seem to be taking that harder -- or more personally -- than Hedberg, though.

"Every time I sit down and think about how this is the first time Pittsburgh is out of the playoffs in 12 years, I feel ashamed," he said. "That's something you don't want to be part of."

No holiday

While Penguins players will get an early start on the off-season -- their final game will be Saturday night in Boston -- the front office and coaching staff aren't scheduling vacations just yet.

There still is a lot of hockey still being played, at every level from junior to the NHL, and being out of the playoffs means the Penguins will be able to send more than just their usual scouts to evaluate players, be they prospects for the June entry draft, free agents the Penguins might be interested in signing or trade candidates.

"We'll all have more free time to go out scouting," Patrick said. "The whole staff will have a lot more time."

Forward progress

Center Shane Endicott is one of the few players from the Penguins' minor-league team in Wilkes-Barre who figures to make a serious bid for work in the NHL next fall.

And while Endicott hardly is a lock -- he might well be looking up at Mario Lemieux, Robert Lang, Wayne Primeau, Kent Manderville, Jan Hrdina, Milan Kraft and Randy Robitaille on the depth chart -- his size (6 feet 4, 200 pounds) and fairly well-rounded game make him an intriguing prospect.

Endicott projects himself as "a dependable guy who doesn't make any mistakes, an energy sort of player who can create the odd offensive chance and not be a liability in any game situation," and said his style has been shaped by a variety of influences.

"There are a bunch of different guys I like watching in the NHL, but I take bits and pieces from games," he said. "I don't think I play like any one player. John LeClair, I like the way he's strong on the puck and battles in the corners. I try to play like that a little bit.

"Steve Yzerman, he works as hard as he can, every chance he gets. Every game I watch, I try to take one guy and see what he does, and try to put that into my own game."

Trivia answer

The Penguins have swept playoff series from Oakland (1970), St. Louis (1975), the New York Rangers (1989), Boston (1992) and Chicago (1992). They have been swept by Chicago (1970) and Boston (1979).