Penguins' Hedberg Showing He's No One-month Wonder By ALAN ROBINSON AP Sports Writer Wednesday November 28, 2001 7:11 PM PITTSBURGH (AP) - No fluke, that Johan Hedberg. No one-month wonder, either. The Pittsburgh Penguins aren't the team they were last spring when they made the Eastern Conference finals - how could they be without Mario Lemieux most of the season, and Jaromir Jagr, too? - but Hedberg has been everything he was. And more. The surprise star of the playoffs with his Patrick Roy-like play in goal, the only question about Hedberg was whether a player with nine games of regular season experience could sustain such a level for a full season. Now, nearly two months into the season, the question seems to be answered. Hedberg is the main reason why the Penguins (10-9-3-2) have remained competitive despite playing without their top three scorers, Lemieux, Martin Straka and Alexei Kovalev, for long stretches. Hedberg's 6-0 shutout of New Jersey on Tuesday was his third in 17 starts, and his 39 saves raised his save percentage to .933. Just as importantly, he has won the respect of his teammates, who, unlike a year ago when the goaltending situation was unsettled all season, no longer wonder if they must win despite their goalie rather than because of him. "He should have been all three stars," coach Rick Kehoe said Tuesday, pointing to the invisible defensive support Hedberg was given as the Devils outshot the Penguins 39-17. "He's been great. He's making great saves, and that's all you can ask for." Except, of course, for making the routine ones, too. What has pleased the one-time career minor leaguer, who didn't have his debut in the NHL last season until he was 27, is that he has minimized the lapses in concentration that can ruin a game or a week's worth of good play. "Last year in the playoffs, I felt really good and I have for the first part of this season, too," said Hedberg, who helped the Penguins to playoff series wins over the Capitals and Sabres. "It's not going to be every night you can feel like that, and some nights you've got to work with yourself, and that's the thing I've been most happy with. "There have been nights I haven't felt good and I've been able to come through with a strong effort anyway. That tells me something, that I'll be able to play in this league and that gives me confidence." The kind of confidence he thought he had, but wasn't sure, when he was stuck in the San Jose Sharks' farm system a year ago, behind goalies such as Evgeni Nabokov and Miikka Kiprusoff. The kind of confidence he will take onto the ice Thursday night in San Jose, in his first game against the team that dealt him to the Penguins in March for defenseman Jeff Norton. It would be the acceptable thing to say that the game doesn't mean that much to him, now that he plays for the Penguins and not the Sharks, but he wouldn't do that. Instead, he said, "I want to go out and show them a few things." He is playing well enough that another team might soon want him. He likely will be picked for the Swedish Olympic team sometime next month - one of more than a half-dozen Penguins spread among as many as five Olympic teams in Salt Lake City. It is an honor he would welcome, but one he said cannot affect his primary occupation as the Penguins' No. 1 goalie. A year ago, he wouldn't have cared which NHL team he was starting for, and to do so now for a team that has made the playoffs for 11 consecutive seasons is not something he readily dismisses. That's why he tries to take an equal mix of concentration and confidence into each game, whether he is playing the Sharks for the only time all season or the Senators for a fifth time. "My basic game is calm and quiet, so I don't have to move too much, play my position well and read the game," he said. "I think that's the way I should play to stay in this league. Some guys, on any given day, can come up and play in this league, but to do it for a full season or a couple of seasons, it's more doubtful. "You need to have a solid foundation to stand on and I think that's what I've been working on all these years."
