Penguins swept up by post-Stanley Cup changes
BY ALAN ROBINSON
AP Spoßrs WRYFER
PITTSBURGH (AP) _ Sidney
Crosby understood the Pittsburgh
Penguins wouldn't begin this
season with the same team that
finished two victories away from
winning the Stanley Cup only 17
weeks ago.
Free agency made that an
inevitability. So did the salary
cap, and the need by some players
to go elsewhere to seek out the
roles they felt best suited them.
Change is inevitable in sports,
and the Pittsburgh Penguins were
not spared the inevitability of
change.
But this many changes, brought
on not only by personnel
movement but by injury?
When the Penguins begin the new
season Saturday in Stockholm
against the Ottawa Senators, four
months to the day since they lost
Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals
to Detroit, they will be enveloped
by change.
Changes for the better? There
may be some of those as younger
defensemen Kris Letang and Alex
Goligoski begin playing bigger,
more prominent roles. Changes
for the worse? The Penguins may
be worrying there are far more of
those than anticipated.
"It's going to be motivating for
Emotions connect old OJ acquittal, new conviction
By KEN RITTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LAS VEGAS (AP) _ Jurors had
been told to ignore what they
knew about O.J. Simpson's past,
but for many observers, the line
connecting the former NFL star's
murder acquittal last decade and
his new conviction for robbing
memorabilia peddlers couldn't
have been clearer.
The attorney for the family of
Ronald Goldman who was
killed along with Simpson's ex
wife Nicole Brown Simpson in
Los Angeles in 1994 said he
thought his hounding of Simpson
for years to collect a $33.5
million wrongful death judgment
pushed him to a desperate gambit
to recover personal items he had
lost.
"We drove him into that room
to grab the sports memorabilia
before we could seize the stuff,"
said David Cook, who represents
sure, but it's done," Crosby said
of trying to avenge last season's
finals defeat. "There's not a lot of
thought about it any more. It's a
new season and a clean slate."
So clean is the Penguins' slate
that Crosby is expected to begin
the new season with Miroslav
Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko as
linemates. Neither of the longtime
NHL forwards was with the team
last season.
Marian Hossa, the All-Star
forward who finally gave Crosby
a linemate talented enough to take
full advantage of his playmaking
skill? He turned down nearly $5O
million over seven seasons from
the Penguins to play with Detroit
for slightly more than $7 million
in one season.
Just like that, Hossa turned his
back on the team and the star
with which he thrived, effectively
telling the Penguins he had a
better chance to win the Stanley
Cup with the Red Wings.
"It's over and done with,"
Crosby said. "We're going to
move on."
Sergei Gonchar and Ryan
Whitney won't move on, at least
not immediately. The Penguins'
top two defensemen are injured
and out Gonchar with a
dislocated shoulder until March,
Whitney following foot surgery
until at least January. Gonchar is
Goldman's father, Fred. "Going
to jail for beating Fred Goldman
out of footballs and family
mementos. Is this closure for
Fred Goldman? No. Is this
closure for America? Yes."
Simpson lawyer Yale Galanter
said Saturday, the day after
Simpson and Clarence "C.J."
Stewart were convicted of all 12
charges against them in the hotel
room confrontation, that the Las
Vegas jury was "on an agenda"
to make up for Simpson's murder
acquittal. The two face up to life
in prison.
"This was just payback,"
Galanter said.
"A lynching from the first second
to the end," agreed Thomas
Scotto, a close Simpson friend
who testified and was overcome
by emotion in the courtroom
after the verdicts were read. "It's
a total injustice."
Scotto later told reporters he
would remain in Las Vegas to
to have surgery Thursday.
Coupled with the departures
of enforcer Georges Laraque,
agitator Jarkko Ruutu, tough
guy forward Gary Roberts and
reliable scorer Ryan Malone,
those are numerous changes for
the Penguins to absorb in such
short time.
What hasn't changed: Crosby,
now 21, is arguably the NHL's
best player and Evgeni Malkin,
now 22, is close behind. Crosby
probably would have won a
second consecutive scoring title
last season if he hadn't missed
nearly 40 percent of it with a
high ankle sprain. In his absence,
Malkin nearly did win that title
with 47 goals and 106 points,
finishing second to Washington's
Alex Ovechkin.
"The important thing for us is we
do have a lot of guys who went
through that (playoff) stretch
and who have played together
for a while, so I think the new
guys coming in are going to fit in
nicely," Crosby said.
Jordan Staal, whose offensive
production went down after
returning to his natural position
of center he went from 29
goals as a rookie in 2006-07 to
12 in 2007-08 is expected to
go back to the wing on Malkin's
line. Petr Sykora may be the
other wing on that No. 2 line, one
seek out witnesses and show
they were forced into their
testimony.
"I need these witnesses to come
forward and start telling the
truth," he said.
The case against Simpson
was won the moment the
jury was chosen, according
to the consultant who helped
prosecutors pick the panel.
"That was the best possible
jury prosecutors could ever
have," said Howard Varinsky,
who drafted a questionnaire for
the prosecution that formed the
basis of a survey used to cull 12
jurors and six alternates from a
pool of 500 prospects.
"I was surprised that we got all
the counts," he said Saturday.
"But it wasn't an accident that
the jury wound up looking like
that."
Whatever the jury was thinking,
Fred Goldman praised the
verdict
led by last season's NHL No. 2
scorer.
Matt Cooke, who may be teamed
with Pascal Dupuis on the No. 3
line centered by Max Talbot, will
be the agitator-type forward. The
new enforcer is Eric Godard, who
played last season with Calgary.
"We brought in Cooke and
Godard, and those guys are
tough," Crosby said. "We're a
skilled team for the most part, but
we know that in order to win you
have to have some of that grit."
Still, much of the toughness is
gone from a team that surprise
allowed the third-fewest
goals in the Eastern Conference
but is missing Ruutu, Laraque
and Roberts. To compensate,
the Penguins will need a big
contribution from Brooks Orpik,
who signed a $22.5 million,
six-year contract during the
offseason, and —here's another
surprise Darryl Sydor.
Sydor was banished to the bench
for all but four games during
the playoff run, but becomes
a valuable piece again with
Whitney and Gonchar out.
Marc-Andre Fleury, arguably
the best goalie in the playoffs, is
back with Dany Sabourin behind
him. Sabourin was the No. 3
goalie most of last season. Ty
Conklin did not return.
"We've still got a great core,"
"We're absolutely thrilled to
see the potential that he could
serve the rest of his life in jail
where the scumbag belongs," he
told CNN.
Brown Simpson's relatives said
in a statement that they want
to be left alone as they "work
through many mixed emotions."
They said they are primarily
concerned about the children
from the marriage, Sydney and
Justin.
The jury that convicted
Simpson consisted of three men
and nine women, including one
woman who identified herself as
Hispanic, a court spokesman said.
The jury contained no blacks,
the race of both defendants.
Jurors declined interviews
and avoided the media after the
verdicts were read.
According to jury questionnaires
released Saturday, five of the 12
jurors wrote that they disagreed
with the 1995 verdict that cleared
Crosby said.
There's also this challenge for
a team that went from being last
in the Eastern Conference to
Stanley Cup finalist in two years.
Since the NI-IL expanded in 1967,
only one team Edmonton in
1984 won the Stanley Cup the
season after losing in the finals.
One reason is the extra wear
and tear of a two-month playoff
run that ends in disappointment
rather than a victory parade can
take a toll, especially when the
following season rolls around so
soon.
Fedotenko and Satan, for
example, haven't played a game
that counted in six months; many
of their new teammates have gone
through the last 12-plus months
with only two full months, July
and August, that contained no
hockey.
"But it's a young team, and last
year they made it to the finals, and
I think they still have an upside,"
Satan said.
For the Penguins, who won 94
games the last two seasons after
winning only 100 the previous
four seasons, that's what has
changed the least: They still have
Crosby and Malkin.
"There are not too many players
like that," Satan said. "I've never
had a chance to play with centers
of that quality."
Simpson of murder. Most others
claimed to be uncertain or did
not answer the question.
Redacted versions of the
questionnaires were made public
by Clark County District Judge
Jackie Glass after The Associated
Press and Stephens Media LLC,
owner of the Las Vegas Review-
Journal, petitioned for their
release.
Prosecutors have declined to
comment throughout the trial.
Lawyers and jury analysts
recalled that prosecutors
succeeded in removing two black
jurors from the final panel.
Varinsky insisted that Simpson
and Stewart got fair trials,
saying jurors answered several
questions attesting to their
ability to set aside their feelings
about the Los Angeles case.
But he acknowledged the
questions also reminded jurors
about that case.