Now, the Penguins Will Try It Their Way With Kehoe By ALAN ROBINSON AP Sports Writer Tuesday October 16, 2001 3:10 AM PITTSBURGH (AP) - They tried it with an outsider, and some players didn't like Kevin Constantine's disciplinary ways or the rigidity of his system. So they tried it the European way, only to find that doesn't work so well when language barriers make a coach and his players seem worlds apart. Now, the Pittsburgh Penguins will try it their way. After crossing continents for their last coach, the Penguins didn't look beyond their own dressing room to hire his successor. Minutes after firing Ivan Hlinka four games into the season, the winless Penguins on Monday hired Rick Kehoe, a man as closely associated with the franchise as Mario Lemieux himself. Of the Penguins' 35 seasons, Kehoe has been a player or assistant coach for 27. He has been an assistant under nine coaches, some more than once, and is the third-leading scorer in team history behind Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. After seeing so many coaches, so many systems, so many players come and go, the 50-year-old Kehoe wanted a chance to run the show himself. Even if he lifts only a little from each of the many coaches he served - Scotty Bowman, Herb Brooks and Bob Johnson among them - he feels he has a lot to offer. "I've had the opportunity to work with some great coaches, to watch how they operated," Kehoe said. "Now, I've got the opportunity to take over and give it a shot. I've learned from those guys and I'll try to take all of their good points and apply them to the way I coach." Asked why he wanted the job this time when he was content in the past to stay an assistant, Kehoe said, "Well, I got older, that's what changed." Because Hlinka was not skilled in English, Kehoe already was doing much of the communicating with the players, running drills, conducting meetings. Now, he's got the title, too, as the Penguins' fourth coach in three years. Constantine was fired in December 1999 and replaced by Brooks, who was coaxed into the job by general manager Craig Patrick but didn't want to return full-time. Brooks stepped aside after that season and was replaced by Hlinka, who had coached the Czech Republic to its surprising gold medal in the 1998 Olympics. Even on the NHL's most heavily European team, Hlinka had trouble imparting his knowledge in a language he wasn't accustomed to speaking. So, on a team dominated by Jagr and Lemieux, Hlinka was given little credit last season as the Penguins advanced to the Eastern Conference final. "Sometimes there was miscommunication on the bench and in the locker room, sometimes he (Hlinka) would try to say something and he couldn't say it to the guys because the English wasn't there," said forward Martin Straka, who is from the Czech Republic. That won't be a problem with Kehoe, who clearly speaks the players' language. "Everybody respects Rick, and that's a big part of it," Lemieux said. The 50-year-old Kehoe didn't take long to start making changes to a team off to its worst start (0-4) in 18 years. He shuffled all the lines, with Straka and Alexei Kovalev coming off the second line to join Lemieux on the top line. If Kovalev sits out Tuesday night's game against Ottawa with a charley horse, rookie Toby Petersen will take his spot. Robert Lang stays on the second line, joined by Milan Kraft and Aleksey Morozov. Stephane Richer and Kris Beech drop from Lemieux's line to the No. 3 line with Jan Hrdina. If nothing else, Kehoe's decision to make big changes on his first day on the job illustrates why Patrick thinks he was the man for the job. "The last couple of years, he's become much more assertive, much more outgoing, much more take-charge than before," Patrick said. "I think he realized he was getting to the point of his career where he was ready to do something like this." Hlinka, who was unhappy at being let go, likely will return to the Czech Republic, where he remains a national hero for his Olympic success. He will be the general manager of the 2002 Czech Olympic team. The Penguins owe him nearly $1.2 million on his $600,000-a-year, three-season contract.
