A few minutes after the cameras and reporters descended on him Friday afternoon, Matthew Barnaby flashed his famous smile. All NHL players know that smile, which doubles as a sneer. It's the one that drives them insane with rage, the one that makes them want to club Barnaby over the head and rip his eyes out.

Barnaby loves it when they think like that.

He spoke at length on that subject and others after finishing his first practice as a member of the Penguins. Asked if he uses his smile as a weapon to agitate, he said, "Sometimes."

He added, "Usually when I get beat up I have to smile because that's the only thing I have going for me. Everyone has a role, whether it's scoring goals, agitating, fighting or just playing hard. Hopefully, my smile will add a little something to (his role)."

Barnaby, whom the Penguins acquired from the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday for winger Stu Barnes, will make his Penguins debut at 1:30 p.m. today against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.

It just so happens the Flyers are the team Barnaby tortured in the playoffs last season, when the Sabres ousted them in the first round. No city hates Barnaby like Philadelphia.

"It's amazing," he said, smiling. "It couldn't start any better way. It might have been nicer to start in Philly just to get the fans going, but it's going to be nice to start here, hopefully get the fans on my side and start a brand new career with the Penguins."

This might take a while to get used to. Penguins fans who booed Barnaby silly will find themselves cheering him today, perhaps wondering why. Players who once wanted to kill Barnaby will find themselves passing the puck to him.

Yesterday, they dressed next to him at Southpointe. "It's better to have him in here than out there," said center Tyler Wright, who is every bit the pest Barnaby is. "He's one of those guys everyone hates to play against, but you love to have on your team."

The Hockey Scouting Report book breaks down the 6-foot, 188-pound Barnaby like this: "He has to do some cheap stuff to survive, which makes him an even more irritating opponent. Big guys especially hate it, because it's a no-win when a Bob Probert or Randy McKay takes on the poor underdog Barnaby. He's so obnoxious they just can't help it."

Barnaby likes to study his opponents. He tries to find out those who anger easily. Who will take a stupid penalty? Who will try to fight him?

Whenever the Sabres played the Penguins, he found a mirror image in Wright. "I'm glad I'm playing on the same team as Wright, because he's got one of the biggest mouths in the league," Barnaby said.

Said Wright: "I think every time we played, we were always talking at each other."

Saying what? "Half the stuff I don't think you can say in the paper," Wright said. "It's part of my game; it's part of his game. You're always due to clash. The first thing we said to each other when we walked into the dressing room today was, `God, I'm glad I'm not going to have to see you much anymore."

The Penguins hope to get more from Barnaby than just a few power plays, though. They'd like to see him recapture the scoring touch that enabled him to score seven goals in 15 playoff games last season and 19 during the 1996-97 regular season.

He has scored only nine goals in his past 116 games. "I think people will be surprised at his skill level," Penguins general manager Craig Patrick said. "He's shown it in spurts. We think he's more gifted offensively than maybe he's shown so far."

Penguins coach Kevin Constantine wasn't sure how much Barnaby would play today. Barnaby skated on a line with Robert Lang and Aleksey Morozov at practice. A right winger by trade, he is capable of playing any forward position. He believes this might be an environment where his scoring touch resurfaces.

"My linemates today, they moved the puck pretty well," Barnaby said. "I was getting some passes I've never gotten before."

The general consensus in the Penguins dressing room was that they'd acquired a player who could help them - no matter how much he annoyed them in the past.

"We lost probably the best goal scorer on our team," team captain Jaromir Jagr said. "But we got a very good player. We got toughness, a guy who works hard every night taking the body. And that's what we were missing as a team.

"It's what we needed if we want to do something in the playoffs."