Long Island long shot

Robert Picarello | NHL.com correspondent

Mar 20, 2006, 1:50 PM EST

While it's a long, hard road for any young player to make it in the NHL, it can be argued that the path was even tougher for Rob Scuderi.

A 26-year-old defenseman for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Scuderi grew up in Syosset, N.Y., a stone's throw away from the Nassau Coliseum. But living near the home of the Islanders didn't make his path to the NHL any easier. Long Island isn't a traditional player-producing region in the U.S., like Minnesota, Michigan or New England. So, getting noticed by NHL scouts was a little more difficult.

"Where I grew up, Long Island really wasn't that much of a hockey hotbed, but the Islanders were awesome and my dad would take me to games all the time," Scuderi said. "I got involved in hockey from a young age and was fortunate to have good coaches and just got better and better as I got older."

He also ignored the doubters who said he'd never make it to the NHL coming out of Long Island.

"When I was growing up, I didn't spend too much time thinking about it. I was having too much fun playing hockey. In a place like Boston, every team has a town and on Long Island I think there were three or four youth hockey programs in the entire place, so it was tough to get ice."

But whatever ice time Scuderi had, he made the most of it. As a matter of fact, the young defenseman developed his game so well that Boston College came calling in 1997. In his freshman season with the Eagles, Scuderi scored 24 points in 42 games, prompting the Penguins to select the 19-year-old in the fifth round (134th overall) of the 1998 Entry Draft.

In the three years after being drafted, Scuderi did his college and NHL team proud. He not only finished his collegiate career as the all-time school leader in games played (168), Scuderi went out on top by leading the Eagles to the 2001 NCAA championship and by being named to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament team. Scuderi then took his game to the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. There, he honed his skills on the blue line for two and a half seasons before getting the call to the NHL.

On Feb. 12, 2004, Scuderi found out he was going to be making his NHL debut against the Panthers in Florida after Pittsburgh defender Martin Strbak hurt his foot blocking a shot.

"Obviously it was a dream come true," the 6-foot, 218-pounder said. "It's something that every kid dreams about who laces the skates up at five or six years old. I was just really happy to be there."

In all, Scuderi played in 13 games in the 2003-004 season, notching a goal and two assists. Even though he was only with the team for a cup of coffee that first year, Scuderi claims he learned a lot.

"When you get to this level right away you notice the speed, skill and size of the players," he said. "Everyone's a little bit bigger and certainly everyone's a lot smarter."

But the size and smarts of the players didn't intimidate him one bit.

"I think that's the biggest difference and adjustment everyone has to make. Honestly, things like the improved speed and skill happens in every transition -- when I went from junior hockey to college hockey and then from college to pro. You find out that the speed, size and talent is unbelievable."

Scuderi also found out that, unlike the other levels of hockey, there was no room for error on the backline in the NHL.

"I think it takes some time and some seasoning in the minors, or what have you, to get used to reading plays over and over and over again to know how to do the right thing. You pick up on what is the safe play or the right play. If the forwards make a mistake, the truth is they still have two defensemen and maybe another forward and a goalie back there. Most times they're probably going to have at least three guys back there, whereas a young defenseman trying to break in, if they make a mistake in the NHL, with the talent these guys have it's either a goal or a scoring chance from what I've seen."

This season more than ever Scuderi has had the chance to learn on the fly with the big club, practicing against talented scorers like John LeClair, Sidney Crosby, and before they retired, Mario Lemieux and Ziggy Palffy.

"Practicing against them certainly will make you better that's for sure. You're playing against all-stars and Hall of Famers, so it's certainly going to make your game so much better. It almost makes the games a little easier to play sometimes when you're constantly going up against that caliber of play everyday in practice."

He also has picked up a thing or two from the veteran defensemen on the team.

"I'm kind of a quiet guy. I like to observe guys and how they play. We have older guys here like Lyle Odelein and you just kind of get a feel for what they do. They've been here longer and I just kind of quietly observe those guys and see what they do in certain situations and I know I'll pick it up fast. I'm still learning and I have no doubt that in a matter of time I'll be able to stick as a top six guy in this league."
 

Pens' Eaton: Small profile, big presence

Shawn P. Roarke | NHL.com Senior Writer

Oct 10, 2006, 10:03 AM EDT

Usually, new players to a team want to make an immediate impact. Not so for Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton.

The 29-year-old free agent will be happy if nobody in hockey-mad Pittsburgh knows him after last Thursday's riveting season-opening show that included player announcements. Eaton doesn't want the media surrounding his stall in the dressing room after games and he doesn't want to be the subject of sports talk radio hosts on the city's two all-sports talk radio stations.

"The less press the better, that's the way I like it," Eaton said.

Don't think that Eaton is anti-social. He is among the most gregarious of the Penguins, happy to talk to anyone that passes by his stall. Rather, his aversion to the headlines comes from past schooling.

"I had a coach that told me if he didn't notice me out there, I was playing well and doing things right," he says. "That's my motto, my philosophy for myself -- just fly under the radar."

So far, he has followed his game plan to a tee. He had a solid pre-season and was brilliant in the Penguins' home opener. He played nearly 20 minutes, killed more than seven minutes of penalties, blocked a pair of shots and finished even for the game, an emotional 4-0 win against the rival Flyers.

Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury earned the shutout opening night, turning aside 40 shots. Afterward, he talked about Eaton's play in front of him, but he was certainly in the minority calling attention to Eaton on this night.

"He did great," Fleury said, shaking his head in wonder for emphasis. "He was diving everywhere, clearing rebounds, blocking shots with his head. He was just great. He saved me a couple of times."

Granted, it is hard for a defensive defenseman to gain notoriety anywhere among casual fans; but that is even more difficult on a team like the Penguins, which features young superstar Sidney Crosby, superstar-in-waiting Evgeni Malkin and venerable vets like Mark Recchi and John LeClair.

But Eaton has arrived in Pittsburgh, signed as a free agent this summer from Nashville, playing the simple no-frills game that has served him so well since he broke into the NHL as an undrafted free agent with Philadelphia back in 1999-2000 season.

Then, his lack of a high profile might have worked against him as he was judged expendable and traded from the Flyers the next season to Nashville in exchange for a third-round pick.

In Nashville, Eaton came into his own, following his game plan of being inconspicuous through excellence, quickly developing into a stay-at-home defender who excelled on the penalty kill and could eat up considerable playing minutes game-in and game-out.

In 2003-04, Eaton had a career-high 13 points and a plus-16 rating for the Predators as they finished the climb from expansion straggler to playoff contender. Last season, he blocked a team-high 170 shots and ranked fifth on the team in average ice time per game, playing a tick under 20 minutes per game, as Nashville earned a top-four finish in the Western Conference. He led Nashville's touted penalty-killing unit, which finished fifth in the League, by playing a team-leading 5:22 per game shorthanded.

Not surprisingly, new GM Ray Shero, the second in command in Nashville's front office before this summer, made the signing of Eaton one of his first moves. It did not get the same play as other summer moves, including the selection of Jordan Staal with the second overall pick of this summer's Entry Draft or the free-agent deal that brought Recchi back into the fold, but it was a solid move, nonetheless.

Coach Michel Therrien has paired Eaton with veteran defenseman Sergei Gonchar, an offensive dynamo. Eaton's defensive responsibility gives that top pairing the balance that Therrien believes will key its success.

"We are concentrating on the pairings with the defensemen," Therrien said. "When we hired some guys from the free-agent market, we had a plan for those guys. Like Eaton, when we went to get him, we figured he would be a great match with Sergei. So, we put those guys together since Day One and they've done a great job. I think the chemistry is there and we feel comfortable with the pairing."

It is also obvious that Therrien feels comfortable with Eaton despite the limited personal experience he has had with the player so far.

"First of all, he is the type of defenseman where he is not a flashy guy, but he is always doing the right things on the ice," Therrien says. "He is really dependable defensively. Ray Shero knew him really well in Nashville, so you gotta give credit to Ray on that one."

As good as Eaton is on the ice, he also believes he can bring veteran leadership to this very young Penguin team as it tries to fight its way to respectability. He has navigated the same difficult road during his tenure in Nashville.

"We've certainly joked about it a little bit in here, that I am a seasoned vet at 29," Eaton said. "But, I think that is a good thing. The young guys that we do have, they have a year of experience, most of them. When you are that young, with experience, you are only going to get better. So, we expect better things out of those players this year and also out of us as a team this year."

How much better? That remains to be seen, but Eaton draws on his experiences with the Predators to draw a healthy dose of optimism as they begin the long trek toward April.

"It helps me in some ways going through the transition years in Nashville," he admitted. "From what I have seen, we're much further along than we were in Nashville (in the beginning). That's a testament to the young guys we have here.

"A lot of these young guys here haven't had a taste of playoff NHL hockey. Once they get that taste and once they get that scent, watch out because there is nothing like playoff hockey and that that is what we are shooting for."

When the Penguins find their way to that promised land, Eaton may have to deal with the press he so studiously avoids. But, he'll cross that bridge happily when he comes to it.