| | CANONSBURG, Pa. -- Three new players were on the ice, three more were on the way. Still, the player everyone was watching as the Pittsburgh Penguins worked out Wednesday was the one they almost always watch: Jaromir Jagr.
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Jagr practiced for the first time since getting hurt Feb. 21, even if it was a shortened session that left him less than confident he will be close to 100 percent any time soon.
Jagr realizes that no matter how many players the slumping Penguins add or subtract, he is the one most likely to decide if they make the playoffs or miss them for the first time in 10 years.
Jagr's main problem is that his leg muscles atrophied during a three-week layoff caused by a right hamstring injury and surgery to remove a blood clot from his left thigh. Getting back into game shape quickly is difficult, especially when there are only 13 games to go, and every one he misses could be decisive.
"I'm skating, but I still don't feel so good," said Jagr, still the NHL's leading scorer despite not scoring in a month. "There's still some pain. It's going to be a long time, but maybe I can come back soon and play maybe 10 minutes a game, play on the power play."
That could be as soon as Sunday night's home game against the New York Rangers, he said, although that might be an overly optimistic projection.
No matter, it sounded better to the Penguins than the earlier predictions he might be out for another two weeks. They are in a six-team race for the final two Eastern Conference playoff spots, an unenviable situation for a team on a 2-7-2 slide.
"When the season began, I thought we would get into the playoffs with the guys we had, easy," Jagr said. "But me, personally, I think we're better now."
Jagr likes that the Penguins have added muscle and toughness along the blue line with Bob Boughner, formerly of Nashville and Buffalo, and Janne Laukkanen, acquired from Ottawa with goaltender Ron Tugnutt for goalie Tom Barrasso.
They also added a hardworking forward in Rene Corbet and another forward, Josef Beranek, who played with Jagr on the Czech Republic's Olympic championship team in 1998.
"I thought we needed a change. I thought we needed some new guys," Jagr said.
Barrasso has played in only 18 games this season due to family emergencies and minor injuries, and many in the Penguins' organization questioned whether his heart was still in playing, especially in Pittsburgh.
"He felt he needed a change," Jagr said. "A change every once in a while is good for you."
Apparently, general manager Craig Patrick felt the same, as evidenced by the abundance of handwritten name tags above the Penguins' dressing room lockers. One-quarter of the stalls are occupied by players who were elsewhere two days ago.
Tugnutt, an All-Star goalie a year ago, will relieve some of the pressure on rookie Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who has played 15 consecutive games. Some of that pressure was applied by Barrasso, who offered Aubin little support and considerable criticism.
Of course, Barrasso has spent so little time in the locker room this season, his conversations with Aubin were infrequent.
"It wasn't that difficult," said Aubin, who probably will start Thursday against Florida. "It wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. It was no big deal. I haven't talked to anybody yet, but I think it's going to be great now. It doesn't matter how much I play, I'm just worried about making the playoffs."
Boughner was immediately paired with Kasparaitis, by far the Penguins' most physical defenseman this season. Beranek played on a line with Straka and Alexei Kovalev, two of the Penguins' top four scorers.
"In Nashville, we felt if we shut down Jagr and Kovalev and a couple of guys, we had a good chance to win," Boughner said. "Now we have guys here who can stand up and have a presence, some guys
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