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Wednesday, September 11, 2002

By Dave Molinari, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Steve McKenna had to figure it would be a memorable day.

The first day of training camp usually is, especially when you're with a new team, and McKenna was entering his first season with the New York Rangers.

But as he climbed out of a taxi in front of Madison Square Garden on a breathtakingly beautiful morning one year ago, he had no way of knowing just how unforgettable the day would be.

Even when the cab driver, waiting for McKenna to pay his fare, blurted, 'A plane just hit the World Trade Center,' McKenna shrugged it off as a tragic accident.

Hours would pass before he truly understood how tragic the day would be, but it would be just minutes before he realized none of it was an accident.

Had he glanced at his watch, McKenna would have noticed that it was a few minutes before 9 a.m.

He already was aware the date was Sept. 11, 2001.

What McKenna couldn't have known was that he, like countless millions of others, was about to live through a day that would be etched in his memory forever.

Rangers officials had decided to conduct part of camp at the Garden for the first time in years -- there actually had been plans to put up players and staff members at a hotel in the World Trade Center complex -- but that itinerary was rewritten in the hours after the terrorist attacks.

First, Rangers management barred players from leaving the arena -- "They locked us in," McKenna said. "It was pretty dramatic" -- then decided to have them return to the team's hotel and threw together plans to shift camp to the club's practice facility in Rye, N.Y.

Before McKenna left midtown, he walked down Seventh Avenue -- where he had watched crowds surge toward lower Manhattan in the minutes after the first plane struck the World Trade Center -- to get a personal perspective on the devastation.

Roughly 14 hours had passed since the initial attack, and while he was able to get to within a few blocks of Ground Zero, it was what McKenna didn't see -- and didn't hear -- that made the most indelible impression.

"The streets were dead quiet," he said. "I was walking down Seventh, and there was not a person. Not a car. Not a sound. It was the most eerie feeling."

McKenna, who re-signed with the Penguins as a free agent after the 2001-02 season, is the only member of the team to experience the events of Sept. 11 firsthand, but the images of that day were seared into the minds of virtually every player, coach and staff member.

One year ago today, players had convened at the team's practice rink at Southpointe for physicals and photos -- the first formal practice of camp was set for the next day -- but precamp preparations became secondary when the reality that the United States was under attack set in.

"It was almost like everybody was in awe, couldn't believe what had happened," defenseman Ian Moran said.

"After the first one hit [word] spread through the locker room. It was not loud, but everybody was talking about it. Then, when the second one hit, it seemed like everyone was in shock. It was quiet in the locker room, almost like you were in a hushed conversation with whoever you were around."

As players and coaches clustered around TV sets in the lounge area, weight room and trainers' office, trying to absorb the surreal scenes coming in from New York and Washington and Somerset County, the business that had brought them together was all but forgotten.

"Everybody was more involved in what was going on [with the attacks] than thinking that much about hockey," Coach Rick Kehoe said. "It was something you'll never forget."

Certainly, it was something that dominated the Penguins' thoughts throughout the preseason.

"Hockey didn't really mean anything for a while there," goalie Johan Hedberg said.

The memories have endured and will continue to for years. Many things changed Sept. 11, not the least of which is the way the Penguins, like so many others, view -- and live -- their lives.

"I definitely think you appreciate what you have more," Moran said. "Flight 93, you have a pride in those guys, the people on that flight, that they weren't going to let it happen again. From there, you just try not to forget."

Dave Molinari can be reached at 412-263-1144.