Patrick: Lemieux likely to play about 70 games for Pens this season
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Penguins owner and star Mario Lemieux has repeatedly said he plans to play the majority of his team’s games this season. His coach and general manager seem to think that magic number is 70. Lemieux, who turns 37 on Oct. 5, is attempting a comeback after missing most of last season because of a hip injury. The Penguins open training camp Thursday.
“Based on the way he feels and the drive in his eye, he’ll give it a good shot to play as many as 82 games,” Penguins general manager Craig Patrick said Monday. “I don’t think he’ll play 82, but 70 is certainly not out of the question.”
“It’s hard to say right now how many he’ll play,” coach Rick Kehoe said.
“You could say, ‘Well, you’d like to have him play 70 games.’ Hopefully, he plays 70 games. If he plays 70, I think everybody would be happy, but it’ll be up to him during the season.”
Kehoe plans to keep Lemieux out of the team’s intra-squad scrimmage tournament, which runs Sept. 15-18.
Lemieux’s preseason schedule hasn’t been determined, although it’s highly doubtful he’ll play in any of the Penguins’ five road games.
He injured his hip Sept. 22, 2001, in a preseason game at Wilkes-Barre and played just 24 games in the regular season.
It figures that much of the pre-camp talk surrounds Lemieux, who enters this season seventh on the NHL’s all-time points list with 1,601 points. Every player, it seems, gets asked about what Lemieux’s presence would mean to the Penguins, who were 10-9-2-3 with Lemieux last season but finished 28-41-8-5 overall. They missed the playoffs for the first time since 1990.
“We’ve been talking about it ever since he came back (out of retirement two seasons ago), how much he means to this team,” winger Alexei Kovalev said. “You can say one thing: If not for him, there wouldn’t (have been) Stanley Cups here a long time ago. … He’ll play as many games as he can. I wouldn’t say we won’t be successful without him, but it would be a lot harder.”
Lemieux has been skating the past three weeks under the supervision of ex-teammate-turned-trainer Jay Caufield and has reported no pain in his workouts. He appears to be trim and fit. Kehoe said that playing in preseason games is not necessary for Lemieux.
“With Mario, it’s a matter of getting himself ready for the start of the season,” Kehoe said. “We’re not worried about him going out in training camp and having to put on a show. It’s a matter of him getting himself to the point where when the season starts, he’s ready to go.”
NOTES: Patrick said he is working on a second contract proposal to Kovalev, who turned down the team’s initial offer. Kovalev has a year left on his current contract, after which he can be a restricted free agent. He will make $4.6 million this season. … Injured forward Martin Straka is in Pittsburgh, undergoing tests on his back to determine if he needs season-ending surgery. He suffered a compressed vertebra and ligament damage in a weight-training accident two months ago in his native Czech Republic. Patrick said the testing would continue for the next few days. … The Penguins agreed to terms with defenseman Michal Rozsival and signed defenseman Josef Melichar and right winger Tom Kostopoulos, who likely will play in the minor leagues this season. Rozsival, 24, was the Penguins’ top-scoring defenseman last season, producing nine goals and 20 assists in 79 games. Melichar, 23, had three assists, 68 penalty minutes and a minus-1 rating last season, his first full year in the NHL.