Crosby & hope

The face of the Pittsburgh Penguins seems to be evolving, with new profiles being added every week.

The team has banked on a young-guns approach, on the ice and in its marketing campaign, plastering the hearts and minds of local fans with what amounts to a senior class photo.

Sidney Crosby, Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Whitney and Colby Armstrong were first to strike the pose, appearing on the media guide cover and billboards with the slogan “Experience the Evolution.”

Well, evolution has picked up speed. Rookie Evgeni Malkin has already been added to the photo since the team has burst into the season, with fellow rookie Jordan Staal soon to be dropped in.

This has people in Pittsburgh believing that this cache of talent -- all six first-round picks and 23 or younger -- can rejuvenate the franchise, and keep it south of the border.

The Penguins, who play the Kings tonight at Staples Center, have been an NHL eyesore since the new millennium began, a bad team playing in an arena about as useful to a hockey team as Stonehenge.

Yet out of the ashes comes some hope. The Penguins are 6-3-0, having averaged more than five goals a game during their current four-game winning streak, and a new arena seems evermore likely.

“It can’t hurt when there’s a buzz around the city and region about the team,” said Tom McMillan, a spokesman for the Penguins. “We’re upfront in people’s minds. It doesn’t hurt we’re considered an exciting young team, with young faces.”

What did hurt was one terrible season after another, the payoff for which seems to have come. The Penguins had the first or second overall pick in the last four years and used them wisely, to the point where thoughts of a new home are more than just leaky-pipe dreams at the Mellon Arena, their current residence.

Much of the credit has be placed in the hands -- and on the sticks -- of children, starting with the wunderkind Crosby, who not only shoulders the marketing burden in Pittsburgh but is trotted out by the league to sell the game.

“You’re always selling hope and there is more hope in that market than there has been since Mario Lemieux’s second coming,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of Warsaw Sports Marketing at the University of Oregon. “It gives the franchise the leverage it needs to create a productive dialogue with the community.”

Things are far from settled, but they seem less unsettling. When Jim Balsillie, a Canadian businessman, bought the team in September, speculation began that the Penguins could be the first NHL team to be shifted back to Canada. But on Monday the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports & Exhibition Authority approved the final purchase of property near downtown to build a new arena. The Penguins’ lease expires in June, but construction on an arena could begin as soon as July.

“It is probably the best evidence that we’re serious about doing this,” Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said Monday.

The Penguins remain committed to an arena plan with the Isle of Capri Casinos, one of three local casinos vying for a state slots license, with a final decision expected Dec. 20. But what has been called “Plan B,” with funding from the city and county, is a fallback position.

This is a case of youth not only being served, but serving. The Penguins, who missed the playoffs the last four seasons, will have their best 10-game start with a victory tonight since 1994-95, when Lemieux was in his prime. The team had long relied on Lemieux, as a player and as the chairman of the ownership group that bought the team in 1999. Now he is being given a rest.

When the team re-retired his number before the home opener, Lemieux, while in the arena, was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Crosby was shown reading a tribute as the jersey was raised.

“It was the transition from that era, with Mario’s total blessing,” McMillan said. “He was ready for the team to move on.

“You don’t want to put too much on kids, but everyone is talking about them.”

Why not? The team’s top three scorers are Crosby, who is 19, Whitney, 23, and Malkin, 20. Fleury, 22, seems to be tapping his potential in goal.

Malkin, who got out of his contract with a Russian team, has scored goals in his first five games. One more will tie an NHL rookie record. Staal was ticketed to return to juniors in Canada but has played so well it was announced Monday he would stay through the season.

“We have a lot of teenagers on the team, a lot of young players,” said Staal, 18. “We obviously have a future with this club. Hopefully, in the next couple years, we can be a team to be reckoned with.”

There will be growing pains, to be sure, though probably less sharp than the labor pains it took to get to this point. The Penguins seemed to redefine rock bottom recently, finishing last in the Eastern Conference the last two seasons.

“The reward for all that angst was getting a very special group of young players,” McMillan said.

The Penguins took Fleury first overall in 2003 and Malkin as the second pick the following season. They then hit the jackpot in the 2005 draft lottery, getting the top pick to take Crosby. He didn’t disappoint, with 39 goals and 102 points last season.

“There’s going to be expectations and I think I’ve dealt with those throughout my life,” Crosby said. “I have to look at myself in the mirror and see what mine are. I can’t worry about other expectations too much.”

While Crosby remains a league focal point, the expectations in Pittsburgh fall to a six-man committee, one with high school student council-like looks.

“It goes back to showing the importance for the league to build regional support,” Swangard said. “While it’s stretching it to believe these guys can be the national face of the sport, Pittsburgh serves the league well by making the local market happy.”

KINGS TONIGHT

vs. Pittsburgh, 7:30, FSNW

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- 1150.

Records -- Kings 4-8-2, Penguins 6-3-0.

Record vs. Penguins (2003-04) -- 1-0-0.

Update -- This is Sidney Crosby’s first game in Southern California, but there is also a rookie-of-the-year watch in effect, with the Kings’ Anze Kopitar, who leads all rookies with 13 points, and the Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin.

chris.foster@latimes.com