head coach: Kevin Constantine

roster: C - Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Stu Barnes, C. Ferraro, Tyler Wright, Robert Lang. LW - Andreas Johansson, Alex Hicks, Garry Valk. RW - Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Morozov, Ed Olczyk, Robby Brown. D - Darius Kasparaitis, Kevin Hatcher, Chris Tamer, Fredrik Olausson, Neil Wilkinson, Ian Moran, Brad Werenka, Jiri Slegr. G - Tom Barrasso, Ken Wregget.

injuries: None.

transactions: Jan. 14, Peter Ferraro, lw, was claimed off waivers by the New York Rangers. Jan. 15, assigned Peter Skudra, g, to Kansas City of the IHL.

standings:

Eastern Conference - Northeast Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA
Pittsburgh   50  26  15   9    61  138  114
Montreal     51  26  18   7    59  153  124
Boston       49  21  19   9    51  122  121
Ottawa       50  20  22   8    48  116  121
Buffalo      48  19  21   8    46  117  122
Carolina     51  19  26   6    44  127  144

game results:

1/24 Boston             W 4-2
1/22 at New Jersey      W 3-2
1/20 Ottawa             T 0-0
1/14 at Boston          L 5-2
1/12 at Carolina        W 4-1

team news:

by Brett Taylor, Pittsburgh Correspondent

Penalty Killing Flying High: The Penguins killed off four Boston power plays Saturday, extending their penalty killing domination to 34 straight kills through the past nine games.

Stellar play up front from guys like Ron Francis, Jaromir Jagr, Ed Olczyk, Stu Barnes and Ian Moran has helped make the Pens penalty killing a force. This is not a new development though, the Pens have killed 47 of 48 penalties over the past 13 games, and 87 of 94 in the past 23 games.

They are number one on the road at 91.4%, but not so good at home, where they're at 82.6%. They are tied for seventh overall.

What do all these numbers mean? Well, two things needed in the playoffs are hot goaltending and good penalty killing. These are not the only ingredients needed to be successful in the playoffs, but they are the most important. Right now the Pens have both. Although the playoffs are still a few months away, it's good to get the penalty killing clicking early. Good penalty killing is not something that can just be turned on, it takes time to work out. The Pens have it now, they just have to keep working hard.

Speaking of goaltending, Tom Barrasso is at the top of is game. Most folks didn't expect to ever see Mr. Barrasso back in black in gold again, after missing last year and the whole incident with the team taking his picture down from the wall in the main office, but Tommy is back and he just keeps getting better.

Saturday afternoon, the Pens were dominating Boston for most of the game, but got lazy in the third period giving Boston a 14-0 run of shots on goal. Barrasso stopped everything thrown at him on his way to victory and was named the number one star.

Penguin fans cringed last week when Barrasso was injured for a game, visions of old-school Barrasso came back quickly. Visions of an indifferent Barrasso who didn't care to play until the playoffs, a Barrasso who would amass large numbers of injuries at one time and miss large portions of the season. But, that isn't Barrasso this year. He missed only one game and came back to pick up where he left off.

Speaking of left off, Barrasso is clearly one of the best goaltenders in the league this season. But he was not an All-Star and will not represent team Canada. Maybe a strong playoff run could wake everyone up and get Tommy some due recognition.

Gritty Barnes a Throwback to Cup Years: The Penguins are getting some of the best play at forward in years from Stu Barnes. Barnes is having a career goal-scoring year playing on the Pens top unit with Jagr and Francis. He has eight goals and two assists in the past 10 games for the Pens and has 18 goals on the season, in addition, his plus-12 leads the team.

Barnes has done more than expected on the power play, where he is tied for sixth in the league with nine power-play goals. This is very good considering he wasn't even on the top unit at the beginning of the season.

Numbers aside, Barnes has been the best player on the team, excluding of course, Jagr, Francis and Barrasso, the superstars who are expected to play that way. He and Jagr have began to gel resulting in numerous goals where Jagr wheels out of the corner with two or three players clinging to him and finds Barnes open in the slot for a one-timer.

Barnes' play on the penalty-kill has been a major contributor in the 34 penalty streak, and he is one of the toughest players on the team as well as one of the smallest. He's sort of reminiscent of Bob Errey, but better on face-offs.

Pens Send Eight Players to the Olympics: As hockey fans world wide gear up for the Olympics, members of the Pens prepare as well, because eight of them will make the trip to Nagano, Japan. Only Colorado, with nine players, will be better represented than the Pens.

The teams are as follows:
Czech Republic: Jagr, Jiri Slegr and Martin Straka.
Team Finland: Tuomas Gronman.
Team Russia: Darius Kasparaitis and Alexei Morozov.
Team Sweden: Andreas Johansson
Team USA: Kevin Hatcher

Conspicuously absent from this list is Ron Francis, who was not selected for team Canada. Francis is one of, if not the best two-way center in the NHL, but apparently not as good as Trevor Linden or Rob Zamuner who made the squad over him.

Anyway, the NHL will be on hiatus from February 8th to the 25th while the Olympics roll.

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