Wednesday, October 06, 2010

NHL 2010-11 Preview: Orpik heart of Penguins defense

Veteran blue-liner uses candor, comedy to motivate teammates

Wednesday, October 06, 2010
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1



Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

Penguins defenseman Brook Orpik on hitting: "Hopefully, it's not painful for you. You're hoping it's painful for the other guy, sometimes."


Brooks Orpik is a serious man. And honest as a reality show judge. ¶ Corner the veteran defenseman about something related to the Penguins, and you'll get a thoughtful, insightful, brutally honest assessment.

"He's not afraid to tell the guys when he thinks we're playing bad," said fellow defenseman Alex Goligoski. "It goes the other way, too; he's encouraging when we're doing the right things."

Jump back to late December 2008. The Penguins, Stanley Cup contenders coming off of a run to the league final, were struggling.

"These are definitely the times that test the character," Orpik said then. "It's easy to be a good teammate when things are going well. I think when things are going rough like they are now, that's when you see each other's true colors.

"You would hope that everyone in the [locker] room kind of stays the path and works for a resolution here, but that's easier said than done sometimes."

It was done, all right, as the Penguins came on strong and won the 2009 Cup.

Orpik was, and continues to be, a critical cog for the Penguins as their only bruising presence among the regulars on defense, and as a barometer for the club.

The Penguins, who open the 2010-11 season and the Consol Energy Center Thursday night against rival Philadelphia, again are a championship contender. In a partially retooled defense, Orpik seems more comfortable -- and more valuable -- in his role than ever.

That's not the best news for opponents, who tend to get steamrollered if they get in Orpik's way.

He ranked sixth in the NHL last season, second among defensemen, with 255 hits. And that's not counting the players who got crushed by Orpik's words.

In overtime of a game at Verizon Center in February, Orpik took a critical high-sticking penalty against Washington sniper Alexander Semin, helping the Capitals to secure a comeback, 5-4 win. Orpik was miffed over what he thought were theatrics by Semin to draw the penalty, and he got an additional game misconduct penalty for letting the officials know it.

Afterward, he said of Semin's antics: "He sells it all the time. The kid's a baby. He does it all game long. I've got zero respect for the kid."

Harsh perhaps, but honesty is a keystone for Orpik.

That straightforward lean into life has helped him earn a Stanley Cup ring, an Olympic silver medal with Team USA last winter, an NCAA title with Boston College in 2001 and a hockey career that is thriving shortly after rounding the bend that is age 30.

It also makes him a top candidate to ascend to the Penguins' alternate captaincy vacated by former top defenseman Sergei Gonchar.

"At the end of the day, you're not going to fool anybody but yourself, so even if it's going to sting, he's going to be honest with you," said Orpik's younger brother, Andrew, who signed a minor league contract with the Penguins in the offseason.

"He's a great leader. You see it in his hard work, not only on the ice, but off the ice. You don't necessarily have to talk to him to know he's a leader. You can just watch him."

Straight man

Orpik, 6 feet 2, 219 pounds, can lay out an opponent in an instant, but he can't answer questions about honesty and leadership in snippets. That's not his style.

Instead, the longest-tenured player on the team -- he was drafted in the first round, 18th overall, in 2000, when team captain Sidney Crosby was 12 -- explains that they are woven into his personality and have been nurtured by the chemistry the Penguins have developed over the past four seasons or so.

"It's a fine line, but I think the luxury we have with this team is that guys know each other well and get along so well, so you can be hard on guys and expect a lot out of guys," he said. "That way, you might not always want to hear it, but you know the guys are doing it for the benefit of yourselves and for the team."

Orpik is reluctant to promote himself as a leader, but said he is lucky to have been on close, winning teams through most of his career and has learned to pass along his wisdom.

"I think a lot of leadership sometimes is just sharing your experiences with guys who maybe haven't had the opportunity to go through the same experiences," he said. "Hopefully, when you do that, you can help other guys out and they aren't blind-sided when they go into situations they haven't been in before."

Teammates know they won't be dismissed if they approach Orpik.

"I can talk to him about anything, and I always know I'll get a straight answer," goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury said. "We've become good friends after all these years together."

Orpik, by contrast, didn't have anyone to compare notes with when he hit one of the roughest patches of his career.

Who do you talk to when your coach gives you "the treatment," cutting your ice time and moving you to the wing for reasons you don't quite understand?

That's what Michel Therrien did in January 2008. After benching Orpik for three games in a row -- including one in Boston, where he played in college and loves to return as a pro -- the Penguins coach directed Orpik to play a forward position for the first time in his life during a 4-2 win in New Jersey, giving him 6:49 of playing time.

There is little question there was something amiss between Orpik and Therrien, although Therrien has always downplayed it.

Orpik still struggles to talk about that.

"When you see guys treated differently in the same situation, it kind of gets to you. If you think your performance is the same as someone else's or maybe above it and in somebody else's mind it's still not good enough ..." he said, then stopped himself.

"You just kind of keep your mouth shut and work your way through it," he continued.

"I'm still here and happy. I guess that's all that matters."

A fresh crew
Orpik seriously likes the look of the Penguins' defense this year.

It's not that he was thrilled that the team didn't re-sign Gonchar, Mark Eaton, Jordan Leopold and Jay McKee, but he likes the addition of free agents Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek, the maturation of Goligoski and Kris Letang and what Orpik defines as a bumper crop of defensive prospects.

The Penguins got a strong two-way defenseman in Martin and a potential shut-down player in Michalek. They have a better mix of right-handed and left-handed shots and, in Orpik's assessment, a great fit of players for coach Dan Bylsma's system, which Orpik likes.

"I think it works for me really well," Orpik said. "To play in this system and have success, you have to be a good skater and mobile. It doesn't matter if you're a defensive or offensive guy; it's just the way they want you with the transition and the breakouts and jumping up in the play. If you look at our defensemen, I think everybody's a really good skater."

Orpik, who is been on the Penguins blue line since 2005 and is on target to reach 500 NHL games this season, won't ever be confused with someone like Gonchar, a top-notch, two-way defenseman and power-play quarterback who took his skill to Ottawa.

But under Bylsma's design, Orpik can use his skating more than ever. He had two goals and a career-high 25 points last season, despite playing about half the season with a sports hernia that was surgically repaired in the summer.

Flatliner

Orpik left Boston College after three seasons -- he takes summer school classes there when he can and is serious about earning his final 12 credits toward a communications degree -- and put in his time with Wilkes-Barre of the American Hockey League his first two pro seasons.

At this point, years later, Orpik talks more about details and philosophy with coaches.

"I know what's expected of me," he said. "The coaches, they really don't even have to tell me that anymore."

For him, it's more about consistency, something he sees as a learned trait that separates young players from veterans.

"I always use the term, 'flatline,' Orpik said. "That obviously doesn't sound too good, but you just try to keep a consistent line throughout the season."

Orpik's mental makeup -- his serious, honest approach -- provides an essential assist.

"I think he's very honest in his evaluations of himself and his team," said former Penguins assistant Mike Yeo, now head coach of the AHL's Houston Aeros.

"Whether it's himself or anyone else, he believes in accountability. He believes that when it's time to get better, you figure out what it is you need to get better at, and you do it. That's a big part of his success as a player."

So is hitting. After all, Orpik is the architect of "The Shift," when he dished out four booming checks in one trip on the ice against Detroit in Game 3 of the 2008 Stanley Cup final (pictured at right).

Asked to describe what it feels like to successfully line up an opponent for a check, Orpik smiled slightly.

"Hopefully, it's not painful for you," he said. "You're hoping it's painful for the other guy, sometimes.

"A lot of times it's just situational. Guys are so good in this league and guys are so aware what's going on around them that if you go looking for it, that's usually when you're setting yourself up to look pretty stupid, and then you run out of position.

"It's funny, fans away from the rink will say, 'Remember that one game where you had all these hits? How come this [other] game you didn't have any hits?' Especially as a defenseman, there's no one behind you but the goalie, so you never want to run out of position looking for hits. You want to let it come to you."

Clowning around

Another thing Orpik is serious about is, well, not being serious.

"He's a quiet, reserved kind of guy," said his outgoing brother, Andrew, "but he's always had a pretty sharp and biting sense of humor."

Believe it or not, Orpik is one of the pranksters on the team, a holdover from a group of them.

"I think [former Penguins winger] Tom Kostopoulos is the guy who got us going on stuff like that," Orpik said. "And then when we had a lot of guys here -- [Colby Armstrong, Ryan Whitney, Jarkko Ruutu and Ryan Malone] -- it kept you on your toes every day."

This is the kind of thing Orpik does: He will switch similar shampoo and hair gel bottles in the shower and sink areas.

Fleury and Orpik remain from that era, and Fleury is all too happy to expose a lighter side of Orpik, especially the stunts Orpik pulled during the 2009 playoffs as the Penguins marched to the Stanley Cup.

Orpik, Fleury said, brought in stink bombs and coaxed someone to set them off. On the team bus, Orpik surreptitiously used a can of foul-odor spray.

"He would be sitting there all serious and then -- pssst -- and it smells so rotten," Fleury said, laughing. "Everyone was like, 'Who's that? Who's that?' It smells so bad on the whole bus. Even in front [where coaches sit], they turned around.

"And then he just looks around like [he's innocent]."

Fleury thought he came up with a good joke when Orpik turned 30 Sept. 26. The goalie used skate laces to string together water bottles and a sign, "Happy Birthday, Old Man," and tied them to Orpik's vehicle so they would be dragged like a "Just Married" decoration as Orpik left Southpointe after practice that day.

Unfortunately for Fleury, some fans squealed as Orpik walked out of the building. That worries Fleury because now Orpik owes him.

Nothing like good, honest payback.

Seriously.


For more on the Penguins, read the Pens Plus blog with Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson at www.post-gazette.com/plus. Shelly Anderson: shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10279/1092854-61.stm#ixzz11ZrMWesl

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