Mario's costly hip check. (NHL Insider).(hockey player Mario Lemieux; includes related article)(Brief Article)

Mario Lemieux is the No. 7 scorer in NHL history, a six-time scoring champion, a three-time league MVP, an Olympic gold medalist.

Not a bad resume by any measure, but Pittsburgh general manager Craig Patrick says Lemieux's absence for the rest of this season won't have a major impact on what the Penguins do before the March 19 trading deadline.

Lemieux, who will sit out the final 23 games because of a hip problem that has nagged him since training camp, shouldn't take that personally. After all, Patrick says the same about losing left winger Martin Straka, who is sidelined indefinitely with a broken left orbital bone.

"We believe we can make the playoffs," Patrick says. "We will make the playoffs. Whether I make deals or not is not contingent on the fact that Mario's out or that Marty is out. Whatever deals we may make, we were probably going to make anyway."

The deals the Penguins make--and with center Robert Lang and defenseman Darius Kasparaitis becoming unrestricted free agents this summer, the team will make a few--aren't likely to get them into the playoffs, ending their impressive 11-year streak of playing in the postseason.

Entering the season's final six weeks, Pittsburgh was seven points out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference; closing that gap would be a daunting challenge for a team with exceptional depth and balance, and the Penguins would be acquitted on all charges of having either.

Lemieux's doctors, who had been baffled by the precise nature of his problem since he was injured during a preseason game September 22, determined he had chronic tendinitis of a major hip-flexor muscle and inflammation of the hip capsule.