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Sunday, September 08, 2002

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Less than a week remains before NHL training camps open, and Billy Tibbetts, perhaps the league's most notorious participant in the past decade, still has no invitations.

Has he been blackballed?

That's not clear yet, but it appears that might be the case.

Tibbetts, 27, is an unrestricted free agent who has yet to receive a contract offer or even a chance to try out in a training camp. And, because of his criminal record -- a rape charge and a 3 1/2-year prison sentence for parole violations -- and his failed attempts to stick in the league with the Penguins and Flyers, even the handful of NHL teams that have contacted his agent, Paul Krepelka, have done so in tip-toe fashion.

"He hasn't been blackballed, but I'd say Billy understands that this is it. This is his last shot. There are only so many chances you get to play in the NHL," Krepelka said. "Teams are interested because they know he can help them, but they've got questions, too."

Tibbetts is unable to participate in a camp, anyway, because of surgery he had three weeks ago on a long-troublesome hamstring injury. But Krepelka is optimistic he will be available for the start of the coming season and that someone will take a chance on him. He declined to identify the teams that have inquired, saying only that the Penguins and Flyers were not among them.

"No," he added. "No way that would happen."

Not with the way Tibbetts torched bridges at both ends of the commonwealth.

In Pittsburgh, he had several heated exchanges with teammates and others in the nearly two years he spent with the Penguins. He also showed a lack of discipline on the ice, despite being given a shot to play, at various times, with Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. Even after he was traded to the Flyers March 17, he made news here by leaving threatening voice mails on former teammate Eric Meloche's cell phone.

In Philadelphia, it didn't go much better. He never was a good fit for the Flyers' veteran-laden clan, as underscored by an unprovoked series of locker-roomoutbursts at a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter after a March 23 game at Mellon Arena. Flyers General Manager Bob Clarke didn't bother waiting until the end of the season to get rid of Tibbetts, waiving him April 8.

"The Flyers gave him a chance, a real chance, and he couldn't make it work," Krepelka said. "Pittsburgh, too."

To try to avoid recurrences of such episodes, Tibbetts had anger-management treatment in May.

"I think it helped," Krepelka said. "Billy's not a bad kid. I know when you say something like that, people look at you like you have 10 heads, but he really isn't. At the same time, he has to be responsible for his actions, and he knows it."

Tibbetts also will have to answer for those actions wherever he might land in the NHL, if he lands anywhere. So will the team that signs him. Just as his signings in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia caused public stirs, so will it be in any city in North America. And, given that he has just two goals to show for 78 NHL games, he might not be deemed worth the turmoil.

Yet another reason to wonder if Tibbetts will get a chance at strike three.

Icy chips

The Penguins continue to profit from owning their AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre. For the second consecutive season, every seat is sure to be sold. Team officials there cut off sales of season tickets Thursday because all 8,143 seats at First Union Arena had been committed for 2002-03. Individual tickets will be sold after partial-plan holders choose their seats, but those several hundred for each game are sure to be purchased quickly. This is no small achievement in light of the Baby Penguins' 20-44-13-3 record last season, second-worst in the league.

Perhaps the fans there have been paying attention to the way the parent organization has been stockpiling NHL-tested players, assuring them of getting the bulk of the best prospects, including as many as four of the past five first-round draft picks. Greg Malone, the Penguins' head scout, is intrigued by the idea of the young talent blossoming as a unit: "When you get kids like that working for a common goal, the chemistry is already there when they come up to the big club. They stick up for one another. They grow together."

Randy Robitaille was wowed by Lemieux's strength and stamina when he joined the group at Neville Island for workouts Thursday morning. But he found another trait more striking: "You don't get to his level without having that desire, and you can really see it right now. Look at the drive he's showing on every drill, the extra push. He wants it. He really wants it. It's amazing, a guy with all that talent and all that drive, too. It's pretty scary, really."

Another eyebrow-raiser at those sessions has been Alexandre Daigle, who doesn't appear to have lost a step of his blazing speed.

The Penguins' "Hockey is life" advertising campaign, which began this week, was produced solely with in-house ideas. That much should be evident by the TV ad in which a fan shown screaming in an empty Mellon Arena is wearing a set of those foam moose antlers given out for a playoff game two years ago.

Johan Hedberg's summer visits to the hypnotist aren't the organization's only example of a goaltender looking to strengthen his mental game. Robbie Tallas, re-signed this week to play in Wilkes-Barre, is engaging in intense yoga training. Each four-hour session involves stretches and exercises in a 110-degree room. Tallas said a monitor showed his heart beating at the rate of 169 per minute. "The physical part of our game is very simple," he said. "Mentally, you need an edge."

The Penguins expect to test the protective netting for Mellon Arena within the next two weeks, but they will not be certain if it will be ready for the start of the regular season until they see how it works. Mike Lee, the team's point man on the matter, is optimistic it will.

While the Penguins' payroll figures to check in near $34 million by season's start, the NHL is sure to gain two more members to the $50 million club. The Maple Leafs and Avalanche have boosted their payroll to the point they will join the Rangers, Red Wings, Blues, Stars, Flyers and Capitals.

So much for the theory that Washington signed Robert Lang to be Jagr's linemate. General Manager George McPhee said the plan for the start of camp is to keep Dainius Zubrus as Jagr's center and have Lang work the middle of the second line -- a familiar role -- with Peter Bondra to his right.

The Penguins' annual golf outing, Summersticks, begins at noon tomorrow at Southpointe Golf Club.

Only 32 days until the puck drops between Lemieux and Mats Sundin.