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 Bleak times in Pitt Down 3-2, Pens face Jagr-less playoff elimination
Posted: Tuesday May 04, 1999 12:37 PM
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Jaromir Jagr thinks he'll be ready to play soon. Probably not soon enough for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins rallied from 3-2 playoff deficits against New Jersey in 1991 and Washington in 1995. The odds of overcoming such a deficit against the Devils in this Eastern Conference series without Jagr are staggering, and they know it. Jagr sat out his fourth consecutive game with a strained groin Friday as the Devils regained the series lead with a 4-3 victory, and he says his chances of playing in Game 6 Sunday at the Civic Arena are remote. "The way I feel right now, I'd probably have to say no," Jagr said. "But everything can change. It's day to day. But when I have to do stops and starts, it is impossible to do, and everybody knows that's the whole game, stops and starts, trying to beat guys one-on-one." Jagr said it might be unwise to even test the groin under game conditions because, "There's a 60 to 70 percent chance I would hurt it again, so even if I help the team win, I would miss the second round." Even if Jagr ignores his own advice and tries to play, it's questionable how effective he would be, especially with the Devils very aware of his injury. "I look at it two ways. If Jagr comes back, it could be disturbing because he's a great player and has obviously won a lot of games for them," Devils defenseman Scott Stevens said. "But he does take a lot of ice time and takes responsibility from other players." The Jagr situation is one of several intriguing subplots for a Game 6 that threatens to be the Penguins' final home game in the Civic Arena -- not just this season, but forever. The NHL has set a May 31 deadline for the Penguins' finances to be sorted out in bankruptcy court and new ownership to step forward. But U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Bernard Markovitz indicated Friday that it likely will be at least two weeks beyond that for creditors to vote on a reorganization plan submitted by former Penguins star Mario Lemieux's group. With the arena's management company, Spectacor, refusing so far to renegotiate the steepest rent in the NHL, the possibility exists that the franchise could fold or be moved before next season. The Penguins players say they can't be worried about that now, not with the Devils needing only one more victory to partially ease the pain of last year's staggering first-round upset loss to Ottawa. Alexei Kovalev played on the 1994 Rangers team that overcome a 3-2 deficit to oust the Devils and went on to win the Stanley Cup, and he said this team can do it, too. "In the playoffs you have to win four games," he said. "We went through the same thing in '94 and they had a chance to beat us in six games. We can still do it." But the Penguins need much more offense than they've gotten the last two games, when Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur faced only 35 shots. Almost all of their offense Friday came in a 13-second flurry that yielded goals by Kevin Hatcher and Kovalev. The Devils dominated otherwise, just as they did in winning Game 4 by 4-2 in Pittsburgh. Several Devils suggested the Penguins, especially without the playmaking Jagr, are a soft team filled with skaters and scorers but few fighters. "The last couple of games, obviously, we seem to have figured out what we need to do," the Devils' Ken Daneyko said. The Penguins remind Daneyko of the Senators, who were second-seeded in the conference playoffs, only to be eliminated in four games by Buffalo. "Same type of team," Daneyko said. "I guess that's because they just feel that physical play is not that big a factor in the playoffs. In my mind, you've got to have both, a little bit of balance."
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