Fate smiles on Penguins once again

It was a transcendent Penguins moment, so it was only right that Mike Lange made the call.

And he really did.

Lange predicted the Penguins would win the NHL's Draft Lottery on Friday -- they had only a 6.2 percent chance of doing so -- and thus win the right to draft 17-year-old Canadian centerman Sidney Crosby, who might be the most tantalizing prospect since a kid named Mario Lemieux skated down the pike in 1984.

When NHL commissioner Gary Bettman opened the winning envelope in this one-time episode of "Canadian Idol," the media room at Mellon Arena erupted with cheers from Penguins employees.

Lange was at home, calmly preparing to check the Internet, when he got word by phone.

"I knew it was going happen," he said. "I really did. It isn't something I haven't been saying for the past four or five months. I think it was destiny."

Understand, Lange joined this mercurial franchise in 1974, so he learned a long time ago that Penguins hockey has no middle ground. It has only the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. It has bankruptcies and last-place finishes and untimely deaths, and it has two Stanley Cup championships and a 17-game winning streak and a revolving door for legends of the game.

It has Bob Johnson, Scotty Bowman, Craig Patrick and Herb Brooks. It has Lemieux, Ron Francis, Paul Coffey and Jaromir Jagr.

Now, it has Sidney Crosby -- and Pittsburgh has a household name to rival that of Ben Roethlisberger (Crosby's a pretty good passer, too).

Do you think the franchise's value just shot up a bit?

How about opening night Oct. 5, which also happens to be Lemieux's 40th birthday; think that might be sold out by this afternoon?

Think Lemieux has a magical touch?

Lange sure does.

"Mario might be the luckiest person I've ever been around in my life," Lange said. "Everything he touches really does turn to gold. I've been to a number of appearances with him, and I swear, if there's a raffle, he's going to win it. Luck just follows him."

Kind of like the odd sense of fate that follows the Penguins.

Lange recounted a few examples. He cited the 1989-90 season, when a last-game, overtime loss to Buffalo eliminated the Penguins from the playoffs -- but put them in position to draft Jagr.

Lange also noted that if the Penguins had not missed out on the Alexander Ovechkin sweepstakes last year -- they finished second in that lottery -- they likely would not have been in position to draft Crosby.

Lange's not the only one who believes in lucky charms. Craig Patrick carried a tiny four-leaf clover in his hand yesterday and visited St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York before the lottery.

If you're looking for symbolism, it's there, just as it was when Jagr came along and people figured out that 'Jaromir' could be broken down into 'Mario Jr.'

You probably don't have to guess how many goals Crosby scored in his final season of junior hockey.

Sixty-six, of course.

"What an incredible situation, where you can have Lemieux be able to teach him in his first year," Lange said. "Oh my God! Think about that."

You'd have to be here to believe it. And to think, it's going to be more than three years until anybody can buy Sid a drink and his dog one, too.