re ron francis matthew rush writes is there an award for best back up behind a hockey great underneath all the hype about lemieux stevens jagr ulf etc ron francis has quietly put together a point season goals and assists in games that was probably the best acquisition the penguins have made since getting lemieux apologies to rick tocchet who has had a hell of a year himself the pens got just the right person at just the right time when they got francis before the playoffs two years ago to back up mario who was the second line center before they got francis i remember randy gilhen who really plays tough an ace in the face off circle but nobody with all the skills francis has scoring passing winning face offs and putting into every game every night just wanted to glow a little i know what you mean i glow everytime ronnie s out on the ice in fact one of the neatest things about seeing the pens in person is that i can key in on him instead of watching what i d probably be seeing on tv he does so many subtle things behind the play he said in an interview recently that when he was a kid his dad stressed the importance of playing two way hockey that you have to learn how to play defense as well as offense and he obviously took that advice to heart he was a breath of fresh air when he arrived in pittsburgh to the team whose forwards for the most part couldn t and wouldn t play a lick of defense it s really difficult to assess what the key trades were that brought all of this success to the pens you mention rick tocchet and he has certainly helped and even ol kjell has been steady but looking at this team you could almost take any one of them out of the line up permanently and replace them with an extremely mediocre player and it wouldn t matter if i had to pick the top three acquisitions in recent years they would be tom barrasso ron francis larry murphy i d love to put francis first but i do think the only thing that could really damage the pens right now would be to lose barrasso mom
