Visitors From Other Worlds : NHL: Lemeiux is already one of the all-time greats. Will Penguins get the same recognition?

For Pittsburgh goaltender Tom Barrasso, Tuesday night’s game against the Islanders had grown tiresome. He stared at the scoreboard early in the third period.

Pittsburgh 6, New York 0.

Yawn.

Then in the last 9 1/2 minutes, Barrasso let in three goals.

Yawn.

“I lost interest,” Barrasso said.

Such is life when you’re in the midst of constructing a dynasty. Between all the goal-scoring and saves, the NHL’s best team struggles to keep its eyes open, its attention focused. If they’re not being challenged--and on many nights they aren’t--the Penguins (18-6-3) give up goals through sheer boredom.

Of course, they can score two or three goals just as quickly to make up the difference.

The cities and the vanquished begin to run together--Hartford, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Buffalo. Been there, beat them. Tonight’s attraction is a rare break from the monotony--Pittsburgh plays the new and improved Kings at the Forum for the first time this season--but after that, it’s back to roughing up San Jose and Winnipeg.

Oh, well. It’s a job.

More compelling than their standing this season is the Penguins’ emerging place in NHL history. Consecutive Stanley Cup championships have put them in rarefied air, within range of hockey’s greatest franchises. The unofficial criterion for an NHL “dynasty” seems to be a four-Cup run, leaving Pittsburgh at the halfway point.

Still ahead of the Penguins are the Edmonton Oilers of 1983-88, four Cups in five seasons; the Islanders of 1979-83, four Cups in a row; the Montreal Canadiens of 1975-79, four consecutive Cups, and the Canadiens of 1955-60, who won a record five consecutive Cups.

Four dynasties, but no two alike.

The Canadiens of the mid-’50s amounted to a Hall of Fame wing on skates--Jean Beliveau, Maurice and Henri Richard, Bernie Geoffrion and Dickie Moore. They won through sheer intimidation, merely by entering the arena.

The mid-’70s Canadiens poured the pucks into the net. Guy Lafleur, Pete Mahovlich, Steve Shutt and Yvan Cournoyer were hockey’s version of the Lakers’ Showtime.

The Islanders, according to former NHL coach and television commentator Harry Neale, “were a big, strong team. They were like the (1960s) Green Bay Packers, ‘Here is what we’re going to do and try and stop us.’

“The Oilers had speed.

“And Pittsburgh has big guys with talent.”

Neale maintains that dynasties are good for hockey because they create more interest and have, over the last four decades, forced the level of play throughout the league to improve.

“Every time a team wins, the other three or four teams in their own division try to emulate it,” Neale said. “That’s what happening in the Patrick Division. Everyone wants big, talented guys like Pittsburgh.”

Wanting and acquiring are two different things, however. Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens, two-thirds of the league’s top line, are an amazing blend of size and skill.

Right wing Rick Tocchet has been the third member of the Lemieux line lately. Tocchet, who has scored 18 goals and 37 points in 24 games, recorded 11 of his 18 goals on the power play.

Stevens, back on the ice after Nov. 6 arthroscopic knee surgery, has 18 goals and 40 points in 18 games. His return to the lineup has given the Lemieux line an extra boost.

Lemieux leads the league with 30 goals and 68 points in 27 games. If he maintains that kind of pace and remains injury-free, Lemieux could eclipse Wayne Gretzky’s single-season marks of 92 goals, set in 1981-82, and 215 points, set in 1985-85. The league’s new rules and the return of four-on-four play have greatly bolstered Lemieux’s chances. And already this season, Lemieux has had a 12-game goal-scoring streak, one short of the modern-day record held by former King Charlie Simmer, who did it during the 1979-80 season.

Of course, dynasties go beyond the contributions of one player, one line, one goalie. Beyond Lemieux, Stevens and Tocchet, the Penguins have the deepest group of forwards in the NHL. Veteran center Ron Francis has six goals and 30 points, and right wing Jaromir Jagr, who has been struggling, has 10 goals and 29 points.

“Their top seven or eight players, or even up to nine, are far superior to anybody else’s nine,” Neale said. “I would say their top 10--six forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender--are superior to anyone’s 10.”

The depth of Pittsburgh’s defense, though, is somewhat suspect. But many hockey observers expect Penguin General Manager Craig Patrick to pull off another late-season trade, as he did to bolster the Cup runs of ’91 and ’92.

Last season, Patrick dealt Paul Coffey and Mark Recchi to pick up Tocchet, Ken Wregget, Kjell Samuelsson and Jeff Chychrun.

With Patrick, expect a move later than sooner. The Penguins opened with a 10-game unbeaten streak (8-0-2) and nobody appears worried about recent lopsided losses to Detroit and the Rangers.

“You might be able to outwork them or get better goaltending in a regular-season game,” Neale said. “But in the playoffs, their work ethic and their talent comes through. They were in trouble twice in the first two rounds of the playoffs. But they won the games they had to win and the next two rounds were a breeze, compared to the first two.”

Two playoffs down, two to go.

By June, 1994, the Penguins will know where they stand. Above the pack is where they are now. But alongside the Oilers, Islanders and Canadiens is where they want to be.