PENGUINS Lemieux's injury looming as Morozov battles slump

Morozov has not scored a goal in the last 30 games.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- There was a Lemieux on skates as the Pittsburgh Penguins' practice ended Monday, gliding along casually at one end of the ice and occasionally whacking loose pucks into the net.
Unfortunately for Aleksey Morozov and his slumping teammates, it was only Austin Lemieux, Mario's young son, taking advantage of a snow day at school to skate with the players his father employs.
Except for Lemieux, Morozov is the Penguins' most skilled and productive scorer -- and their second highest-paid player to Lemieux at $1.5 million. It is Morozov who clearly misses Lemieux the most as the owner-player sits out the rest of the season with an injured hip.
Morozov, a 20-goal scorer two seasons ago, is stuck in a horrendous slump on a team that is likewise caught in a terrible slide. He hasn't scored in more than two months and 30 games heading into tonight's game against Tampa Bay, a seemingly interminable streak that has lasted nearly 40 percent of the season.
"It's really tough, 30 games without a goal," Morozov said Monday. "In this situation, this team wants me to score, they need me to score. I want to be the scoring leader and score some goals for the team, so it's really tough now for me."
Losing streaks
Morozov's disappearance would be troubling to the Penguins even if they were winning, which, of course, the NHL's worst team is not. But with Morozov being counted on to be their top scorer with Lemieux out, the slump is reaching critical proportions, as evidenced by the Penguins' losing streaks -- six games overall, seven at home.
An eighth straight home loss would be a Penguins' single-season record, breaking that initially set by their awful 1983-84 team in the season before they drafted Lemieux.
This certainly isn't what the Penguins envisioned when Morozov started the season on Lemieux's line. Then, coach Eddie Olczyk felt Lemieux's creativity and playmaking skills would greatly complement Morozov, a fast and shifty skater with some of the best moves in the Eastern Conference this side of Alexei Kovalev.
"If Mario could play, definitely it would be much easier," said Morozov, who hasn't scored on his last 50 shots. "He creates and makes the passes and guys are going to score. But Mario is injured, and what can you do?"
Slump snapping
Right now, not much. Morozov has tried everything to break a slump that began the game after he scored the winning goal in overtime Nov. 14 in Buffalo. He's altered his practice and gametime routines, even ordered a new batch of sticks that has yet to arrive.
Rico Fata, who has only one goal in 16 games, and Morozov also have gotten extra attention from Olczyk and his assistants, who have carefully gone through video tape looking for answers.
"We continue to talk to them, point out areas where we think they can improve," Olczyk said. "We need those guys to score and create offense for us."
Morozov also had a 44-game scoring slump in 2000-01, but it was barely noticed then as he dropped to the fourth line during Lemieux's comeback season behind scorers such as Jaromir Jagr, Robert Lang, Martin Straka and Kovalev.
They're all gone now as the low-budget Penguins struggle, a rebuilding situation that has only increased the pressure on the 26-year-old Morozov to produce.
One thing Morozov hasn't done is fling a stick or throw a water bottle in frustration.
"I don't like to be emotional because it makes me get out of the game," he said. "I try not to think about getting mad or breaking sticks because I don't feel like that's going to help me."