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NHL Insider - Ferraro brothers still adjusting to split

By: Joe Starkey
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

For the first three-and-a-half months of the NHL season, identical twins Chris and Peter Ferraro were living a dream.

Both were playing for the same NHL team - the Penguins, who claimed them on waivers Oct. 1 from the New York Rangers.

The tough little Port Jefferson, N.Y., natives were inseparable, as they had been since the day they were born. In all their hockey careers, they had never played for different organizations.

All that changed the morning of Jan. 14, 10 days before their 25th birthdays.

The Penguins were in Boston, eating their pre-game meal when Peter Ferraro was informed he was headed back to the Rangers, who had reclaimed him on the waiver wire. He was assigned to the Rangers' American Hockey League affiliate in Hartford and told to report there for a game that night.

For Chris Ferraro, it was a jolt. But it wasn't totally unexpected.

"He's my brother, and I love him and miss him," Chris Ferraro said. "But we're both doing a job, and we realize what business we're in and all the sudden changes that can happen. The amount of time we did spend together in pro hockey was a miracle from the start. We knew at some point this was going to happen."

The Rangers had drafted Peter Ferraro in the first round of the 1992 draft, the same year they selected Chris in the fourth round. The duo teamed together for three seasons in the minor leagues and briefly with the Rangers before being claimed off waivers by the Penguins.

Peter Ferraro had three goals and four assists with the Penguins. Chris says his brother is doing well in Hartford.

"He played six games already," Chris said Sunday after practice. "They had three games in three nights, so he got right in the swing of things. It's good because he's been in that organization for two yeas. He knows the training staff and a lot of the players. It's also close to home, close to family."

The hardest part for Chris has been adjusting to life off the ice without his brother. The two shared an apartment together. Luckily, Chris says, NHL rules mandate that the Rangers must now pay for Peter's share.

"I still have my girlfriend here with me," Chris said. "But when you have a male figure around, you can say things and do things differently. It's a little strange, but I think it gives us a little more of an opportunity to
become a little more independent."

© Copyright 1999, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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