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The Pens' First Cup · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, welcome to the Pittsburgh Sports Memories Podcast.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: My name is Tim Hannon, and I am joined by my always whimsical co-host, Steve Ward.
0:11
SPEAKER_03: I'm whimsy.
0:12
SPEAKER_03: I'm full of whimsy and wonder.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: You are.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: This episode, we're gonna talk about the first time that the Penguins won the Stanley Cup.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: That uh that first Stanley Cup for the Penguins comes back in 1991, which is now, gosh, over 30 years ago, Steve.
0:48
SPEAKER_01: That's hard to believe, isn't it?
0:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was just figuring something that happened in the 90s, and I thought it was only 20 years, and I was like, oh, missed missed 10 years in there.
0:58
SPEAKER_03: I guess I just didn't figure that decade from 2000 to 2010 didn't happen.
1:02
SPEAKER_03: I I don't know.
1:04
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:06
SPEAKER_03: And we're talking about the Stanley Cups that everybody going nuts uh like buying on eBay drinking out of or different Stanley Cups.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, not those.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: No, I know about those Stanley Cups, yeah.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: But we're talking about the the one that they give out to the champion of the National Hockey League.
1:23
SPEAKER_03: Ah, okay.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: So and people do drink out of that one too.
1:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's just not as portable.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: So um, before we talk about that season, let's give a little bit of context here.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: The the the Penguins come into the NHL in 1967, and then like the next 20 years are really just strange.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: They have this really up and down history, and I think like I think, Steve, people tend to remember the early days of the Pens the way they remember the early days of the Steelers.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: Like they were just this team that flat out sucked, uh, and then they never went anywhere.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: But that's not really the case.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: So here's a good trivia question for you.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: Between 1970 and 1982, that's a span of 13 seasons.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: In those 13 seasons, how many times do you think the penguins made the playoffs?
2:11
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
2:12
SPEAKER_03: Like half, seven, six?
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Nine.
2:15
SPEAKER_03: Nine.
2:16
SPEAKER_03: It was close.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: They make the playoffs nine out of those thirteen seasons.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: That's that's actually pretty good.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: So they're not they're not like a terrible team.
2:24
SPEAKER_03: But they never won anything in the playoffs.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: They they they do go semi-deep a couple of times.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: One of those times they actually are only two wins away from making it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but like you said, they never actually make it to the finals or or win anything.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: They also have some pretty good players during those years.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh guys like Sil Aps and Rick Keyhoe and Dean Provenos.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: They also have a Norris trophy winner in Randy Carlisle.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: Still to this day, the only Norris trophy winner ever to play for the Penguins.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: That's the award they get for the best defenseman.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh so they're they're they're not terrible.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: What they are is, for lack of a better word, unlucky.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: That season that we said they were two wins away from the cup, that was largely because they had this 20-year-old phenon named Michelle Briere, and he dies in a car accident that offseason.
3:16
SPEAKER_01: The the Pens famously also become the first team in any major sport to blow a three-to-nothing series lead in a seven-game playoff series.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: That happens against the New York Islanders, because of course it did.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh their general manager, Baz Bastian, also killed in a car accident.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: And then in the middle of all that, the Penguins are forced to declare bankruptcy and actually padlocked the doors of the Civic Arena.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: So by the time we get to the mid-1980s, this team is under the ownership of the DeBartelou family.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: We've talked about them before.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: The attendance is really bad, and the team has drafted this 18-year-old kid from Montreal by the name of Mario Lemieux.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: And we did an entire episode on how the Penguins ended up with Mario.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: It took a lot of manipulation, a lot of people sacrificing their jobs.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: So please go listen to that episode if you haven't already, because it's it's a wild trip, man, of how the penguins ended up with Mario.
4:11
SPEAKER_01: But the mentality in Pittsburgh at that time is like, boy, we've got this once-in-a-generation player.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: Surely this will turn things around.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and because that's what always happens, right?
4:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the the the Cleveland Cavaliers stunk, and then they get LeBron James and their contenders.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh heck, even the Penguins years later, when they got Sidney Crosby, had that same kind of trajectory.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: But that's that's not what happens here with Mario Lemieux.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: Now, he's great.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: In fact, even better than people expected, I would say.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: But the Penguins just can't put any pieces around him, and they essentially waste his first six seasons.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins only make the playoffs once, Steve, in Mario's first six years.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: And you have to remember, this is back when the NHL only had 21 teams, and 16 of them qualified for the playoffs.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:59
SPEAKER_01: So that means that in five out of Mario Lemie's first six seasons, the Penguins were literally one of the five worst teams in hockey, even though they had the NHL's best player.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: That's pretty pathetic.
5:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I they used to say, you know, you used to joke, just wear a white rose and you would make the, you know, white rose on your lapel and you'd make it into the playoffs.
5:19
SPEAKER_03: It's like it literally, you just had to be like literally mediocre and you would make the playoffs.
5:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:26
SPEAKER_03: A little more difficult now with the more teams, but Right.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: Right.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: And there's it's funny that they have the same d in today they have the same number of teams qualifying for the playoffs, but they have 30 teams instead of 21.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: So you yeah, you actually have to be a good team, pretty good team, to make it to the playoffs.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: And back then you didn't, and the penguins still can't do it.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: So uh, like you said, pretty bad.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: And and things really come to a kind of a head in 1990 because that season, there's there's so much hype headed into that season because the penguins had made the playoffs the year before and they actually made a pretty deep run.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: That was the year that they they lost to Philly in game seven, right?
6:05
SPEAKER_03: That was a yeah, another like goal field series with Philadelphia.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: And and so you're thinking, okay, that was disappointing, but they're gonna build off of that.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: And so there was a lot of hype headed into the season.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: The all-star game was in Pittsburgh that year, too, and that was gonna be and actually ended up being a showcase for Lemieux.
6:25
SPEAKER_01: So this is finally the year they put it all together, and the Penguins finished eight games under 500, and they lose in overtime on the final game of the season when all they needed was a tie to make it to the playoffs.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: So that's disappointing.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: They do have some bad luck along the way, mainly the fact that Mario misses a bunch of games with a back injury, but it's still a really huge letdown.
6:49
SPEAKER_03: I don't I think their coaching was a little subpar back then, too.
6:54
SPEAKER_01: It it it was, it was.
6:56
SPEAKER_03: And and ownership Is that Ubriaco or whatever?
7:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, their coach at that point was Gene Ubriaco, and and ownership decides, you know what, enough is enough.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: And and and you have to remember too, that at this time that the Bartolos owned two sports franchises.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: They own the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Steve, do you know who the other team was?
7:20
SPEAKER_03: And they have arguably two of the best players in both sports.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: They they do.
7:25
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: And and in early night in the winter of 1990, the 49ers had just won their fourth Super Bowl.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: They're one of the greatest teams of all time.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: And then the Penguins, despite having this generational talent in Lamieu, can't even make the playoffs.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: So the Zavartalos make a bunch of changes midway through that season, starting with the firing of Geniaco, who you mentioned.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: They also fired their general manager, Tony Esposito, and they're both replaced by a guy named Craig Patrick.
7:54
SPEAKER_03: That's right.
7:55
SPEAKER_03: I forgot he coached, I forgot he coached for a minute.
7:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:58
SPEAKER_01: He he actually coached them twice.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: He was he actually became the interim coach I want to say seven or eight years later when they fired Eddie Johnston.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh so he actually had two different stints coaching the Penguins, but but like you said, very, very short.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: He was really general manager more than he was a coach.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: So Patrick's history, he had been an assistant coach for the the Miracle on Ice Olympic team.
8:19
SPEAKER_01: And then he had been general manager of the Rangers.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: But I don't know that anybody in Pittsburgh was like, oh, wow, Craig Patrick, this is the guy that's really gonna turn things around, right?
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Um Patrick does, though, immediately hire somebody who was well known.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: He makes Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman the director of player development and recruitment, and that was a big get because Bowman had retired at this point to be a broadcaster, and he was out of hockey in terms of like administrative or coaching level.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: He he was out, and they get Bowman to come in to be the director of player development, that was big.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh Patrick also hires a new head coach, a guy by the name of Bob Johnson.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: And Johnson's a guy a little older, has a ton of coaching experience.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: He had even guided the Calgary Flames to the Stanley Cup finals, and Patrick thinks he'll be a perfect fit for this team.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: And then Eddie Debartalo Sr.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: installs his daughter, Denise D'Bartolo-York, as team president.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: So between Patrick Bowman, Badger Bob, and Denise Debartalo-Yor, like it's a completely revamped set of people running the franchise.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: So that's good.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: What about the roster?
9:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh obviously the Penguins have Mario Lemieux, and by this point, I mean, Mario has already been a league MVP.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: He's already won multiple scoring titles.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: He had posted an 85 goal season, 85 goals.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: My goodness.
9:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:51
SPEAKER_01: And he's already by 1990, he's the franchise's all-time leading scorer in six seasons.
9:57
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: So he he's, you know, he's already the best player in hockey.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh the team has a defenseman named Paul Coffee, who is coming off of back-to-back 100-point seasons.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: They have a young second-line center named John Collin, who had scored 32 goals for them in 1990.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: And then they have two really young young wingers named Kevin Stevens and Mark Recke.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: Both of those guys also had 30 goal seasons the year before.
10:23
SPEAKER_01: And they have a franchise goaltender, a guy named Tom Barrasso.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's a decent nucleus.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: But remember, that nucleus had gotten them a mere 32 wins in 1990.
10:38
SPEAKER_01: So Patrick starts making some moves.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he trades for Joe Mullen, who was a really good goalscorer and who had won a Stanley Cup, and who actually had played for Bob Johnson in Calgary.
10:50
SPEAKER_01: But Joe Mullen at this point is 33 years old.
10:53
SPEAKER_01: He looked to be slowing down.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: That's actually why Calgary dumped him.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: So that was kind of seen, that was kind of seen at the time as a risky trade.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: Patrick signs free agent center Brian Trackier.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: Now, this was a guy with the resume.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: He was going to be a Hall of Famer.
11:08
SPEAKER_01: He had won four Stanley Cups with the Islanders.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: But Brian Tracier is at the very, very end of his career at this point.
11:14
SPEAKER_03: Well, he's a fourth line.
11:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: He's a fourth liner, right?
11:18
SPEAKER_01: Like, how effective is he going to be this this late into his career?
11:21
SPEAKER_01: But Patrick's like, well, we can use a guy like this who's been there, done that, knows how to win, can kind of guide the younger guys.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: So that was a big signing.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh, in the draft, Patrick selects an 18-year-old kid from the Czech Republic named Yaramir Jager, which was also a risky move at the time because Steve, there was a lot of what would you say, geopolitical stuff happening in each other?
11:44
SPEAKER_03: Well, they that's why he dropped uh what would they pick him?
11:47
SPEAKER_03: Fifth or sixth?
11:48
SPEAKER_01: Fifth, yeah.
11:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like he should have really gone first, but people were afraid he wasn't gonna be able to come over here because the Czech Republic wouldn't let him.
11:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: Was it still what year is this?
12:00
SPEAKER_01: 90.
12:01
SPEAKER_03: So were they still Czechoslovakia?
12:03
SPEAKER_01: No, I think they were the Czech Republic at this point.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: But I mean all that was.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: It was it was a lot of shifting sands.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: Because the Berlin Wall came down, what was that, 89?
12:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so yeah, I mean, a lot of stuff happening.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: And and there's a story of Yager supposedly telling those other teams that he wouldn't he wouldn't be able to come play for them so that he could like manipulate his way onto the penguins because he loved Mario.
12:30
SPEAKER_01: And and everybody in Pittsburgh loves that story because I think A, it's classic Yager, and B, because the Flyers were one of those teams that he allegedly deceived.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: But but in reality, it really wasn't like his choice.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: Patrick had to negotiate uh the release of Yager from uh Kladno of the Czech Elite League.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't like it wasn't like you know it was up to the Yager, like I'll come or I won't come.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
12:57
SPEAKER_01: It was like a lot of uh moving parts there.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh early in the season, Patrick also trades Jim Johnson and Chris Dahlquist.
13:07
SPEAKER_03: Not Jim Johnson, oh man.
13:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, the the yeah, those guys had been there like forever.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, they they weren't stars or anything, but they'd been there forever, and I think Patrick was like, yeah, they've been here forever, and what have we done with them, right?
13:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: So he trades them away uh to Minnesota for Peter Tagne Taglianetti and Larry Murphy.
13:29
SPEAKER_03: Not gravy.
13:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
13:30
SPEAKER_03: They gave up Larry Murphy for those two guys.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: They did.
13:35
SPEAKER_03: What was this, a salary dump?
13:37
SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, wow.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and Craig Patrick thought they needed a puck moving defenseman.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: And boy, did he get that in Larry Murphy, who ended up?
13:46
SPEAKER_01: He was good by then.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like, yeah, I mean Well, we'll actually talk about Minnesota later.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: I think that that wasn't their style.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: And and that was the Penguin style.
13:56
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins were free-flowing, puck moving, like let's get the offense going.
14:00
SPEAKER_01: And Jim Johnson and Chris Dahlquist were more of the stay-at-home kind of guys.
14:04
SPEAKER_01: So maybe it was more of that.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: I I don't know.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: But either way, that's a steal.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh the other thing that happens is uh Patrick trades away winger Robbie Brown.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: I know.
14:16
SPEAKER_03: We lost our celebration there.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: Well, and that yeah, that was that was controversial at the time because Robbie Brown had scored 50 goals playing on Mario's line, and he was a huge fan favorite.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: You mentioned the celebration, Steve.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: That he used to do like this his arm in like this windmill motion when he scored a goal.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: Ron Hexdall loved it.
14:37
SPEAKER_03: Big fan of that celebration.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Ron, yeah, Ron Hexall chased him around the ice for doing that.
14:43
SPEAKER_01: But but what I I loved Robbie Brown.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: Like when I played street hockey and I scored a goal, which wasn't often, that's that was my I would mimic that celebration because I loved Robbie Brown.
14:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh so Patrick clearly wants to remake this roster, and he has, but there's a huge problem heading into the 1990-91 season.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: Mario Lemieux had to have back surgery in the offseason.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: We mentioned he had that back injury the year before, which is fine.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: You're like, okay, good, he's gonna have surgery in the offseason, he'll be ready to go.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: Well, afterwards, he develops a rare bone disease, and it knocks him out for the first four months of the season.
15:23
SPEAKER_03: Hodgkin's lymphoma is no fun.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: That's a that's a bad one.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I the this was before the Hodgkins.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know what the heck was.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: But this wasn't the Hodgkin's yet?
15:32
SPEAKER_01: No, that was several years later.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh this was some kind of bone disease.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: So he's out for four months, and you're thinking, that's it, right?
15:42
SPEAKER_01: Like all these changes in the front office, all these changes on the ice, and the season's over before it even begins.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: Well, what happens is the penguins shock everybody by winning a bunch of games while Mario is out.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: And and that's obviously a total team effort, but it's really spurred by the top line, which is centered by John Collin and the wingers are Mark Rece and Kevin Stevens.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: You definitely want to hang on to John Cullen then.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll get into that for sure.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: So Reci and Stevens had scored a bunch of goals the previous season, as we said, but the real surprise there was John Collin moving up to that number one center position and basically not missing a beat.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he's the team's leading scorer.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: He posts 94 points in the season's first 65 games.
16:30
SPEAKER_01: So John Collins just on a tear.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: All three of those guys make the all-star team.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, the defense is way better with Coffee and Murphy.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: Jagger is showing a ton of promise as a rookie.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: The veterans Mullen and Trocier are big contributors, and Tom Barraso is actually having a pretty stellar season.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: And Bob Johnson leading the team forward night after night as the head coach.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: So on January 29th, Mario Lemieux comes back.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins beat the Capitals in overtime at the Civic Arena.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's excited.
17:02
SPEAKER_03: That was a given.
17:03
SPEAKER_03: The Capitals, come on.
17:06
SPEAKER_03: It's just gonna happen.
17:07
SPEAKER_03: It's inevitable.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: And at this point, I mean, there's real genuine excitement in Pittsburgh because that win makes the team 28-21 and three on the season, puts them in second place in the Patrick Division, just one point behind the first place Rangers.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: So you're thinking, if they could be one point out of first place without Mary Olamieux, imagine what the team could do with Mary Olamieux.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: Like the sky is the limit at this point, right?
17:35
SPEAKER_01: Right?
17:37
SPEAKER_03: You would think.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So what happens next is the Penguins proceed to only win four out of their next 14 games without it It's weird how this like actually spurs a Stanley Cup.
17:50
SPEAKER_03: This is probably what wins them a Stanley Cup, weirdly enough.
17:56
SPEAKER_03: Well maybe not the only reason, but it definitely is like the seed that starts the the trip or yeah, the beginning.
18:03
SPEAKER_03: This is the it is weird how like a trial like that is the beginning of such a great run.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I totally agree with you.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: And and it's weird that that happened.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: I I don't know if there was like this mentality of like Mario's back and maybe we can just uh relax a little bit.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
18:22
SPEAKER_03: Maybe the style changed with Mario.
18:24
SPEAKER_03: I mean sometimes they do that.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: But but you're right, without the slump, if they just would have kept going like they were going, like even played like 500, let's say instead of what was it, four out of fourteen, so is that 18 games?
18:37
SPEAKER_03: Say they do nine and nine or ten and nine or nine and ten.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: You know, they probably don't do much of anything.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a that's a really good point.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: So so what Steve and I are referring to, what why this really shakes things up is because uh after that streak where they only win four out of their out of fourteen, you know, at this point we're in March, the regular season's almost over, the penguins are hovering around 500, and their playoff hopes are kind of on life support.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: So it's like here we go again with this franchise, just when something good seems to be happening, the bottom falls out, and Craig Patrick decides he's got to act.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: Right?
19:15
SPEAKER_01: He's got to do something to save the season.
19:17
SPEAKER_01: So on March 4th, Patrick pulls off arguably the biggest blockbuster trade, not only in the history of the Penguins, I'd say Steve, in the history of Pittsburgh sports.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: He sends John Cullen and defenseman Zarly Zapsky to the Hartford Whalers for center Ron Francis, defenseman Alf Samuson, and defenseman Grant Jennings.
19:39
SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean, obviously, you know, the John Cullen for Grant Jennings swap was in that.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: Well, and thrown in Zarly Zelopsky had to make Hartford, you know, very excited.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: The late Zarly Zlafsky passed away, actually.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I didn't know that.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think uh over COVID he was a COVID victim.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:58
SPEAKER_03: He was another like free skating defenseman.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: He was.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he was.
20:03
SPEAKER_03: And they the the guys they got, you can see are the opposite of that.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: Right.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: Right.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: And and that that move sends absolute shockwaves through Pittsburgh.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, this is one of those things where you have to put yourself in the in the time period.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: Because now you look back on that and people remember that as the greatest trade ever, and we fleeced Hartford to get the nucleus of two Stanley Cup winners.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: But at the time, people were were pretty upset about that.
20:34
SPEAKER_03: I mean, John Collin, as we already mean piece, yeah, he was a key piece of the season.
20:39
SPEAKER_03: I mean, he's a good player.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and he's having a monster season.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: If you go back and look at the league's leading scorers at the time of that trade, you have a top five that consists of Wayne Gretzky, Bret Hall, Steve Iserman, and John Collin.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: Like, it's it's literally John Collins up there with Gretzky, Hall, and Iserman.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: And if not for John Collin, the season would have been over back in October, and you're gonna trade him away?
21:04
SPEAKER_01: And for who?
21:05
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Ron Francis at this point was a three-time All-Star, but he played for Hartford, so who cares?
21:12
SPEAKER_01: And then who the hell is Alf Samuelson?
21:14
SPEAKER_03: And Grant Jennings, even is like another tough guy kind of defenseman.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, yeah.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: And I I remember thinking at the time, like, this just reeks of desperation.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: Like, they were in a slump, I get it, but they could have pulled themselves out of it, and they they sure as heck aren't gonna do it without their leading scorer that you just traded away.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: And I I I also really like John Collins Steve.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: I got to meet him at Allegheny Center Mall.
21:39
SPEAKER_01: And he was a super nice guy, and he signed my street hockey stick, which I still have, by the way, in my basement.
21:45
SPEAKER_03: He didn't run out without you signing him.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: That's a different story that we'll say for another podcast.
21:50
SPEAKER_01: But yes, somebody else did that.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: A different player.
21:54
SPEAKER_03: On that team, even I think.
21:56
SPEAKER_03: On that team, yes.
21:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh but I still have that hockey.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Stick in my basement with John Cullen's autograph on, and I was really sad to see him go.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought Craig Patrick had made a huge mistake.
22:08
SPEAKER_03: Did you say that was that Allegheny Center mall, too?
22:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:12
SPEAKER_03: Wow, there's about six things that aren't there anymore.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: Yep, that's right.
22:19
SPEAKER_03: John Cullen and Allegheny Center.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: Both both and both went away, and uh not too long after that, probably that Allegheny Center Mall went away.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: Well, anyway, as we all know by now, 15-year-old me was wrong and Craig Patrick was right.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh Francis turns out to be a really good two-way player that the Penguins sorely needed.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: And then Of C Emielson provides a grit that the team just didn't have.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: And it it that trade pays off almost immediately because the Penguins go on a seven-game, unbeaten streak, and they're once again neck and neck with the Rangers in the Patrick Division.
22:55
SPEAKER_01: So on March 21st, the Rangers come to the Civic Arena, and at this point, there's only five games left in the regular season, and the Penguins have a chance to overtake New York and win their first ever division title.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: Now, you probably wouldn't think this is a big deal today.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, who cares what seed you are in the playoffs?
23:15
SPEAKER_01: If you're the division champion or the two seed, what difference does it make?
23:18
SPEAKER_01: But at the time, it was massive because the Penguins had never won anything at all.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: You know, so so just even being able to hang a banner from your roof that said 1991 Patrick Division Champions was more than you could have ever done in the past.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: And to this day, I honestly cannot remember a regular season game being as anticipated as this one was.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: The only other time I can remember something coming close to you was that game against Toronto when Mario made his comeback years later.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: That's the only other game, the only other regular season game I can remember people being as excited for.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: And that game against the Rangers, it's a great back and forth game.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: It goes into overtime.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: And as they start overtime, that's where the Penguins, that's just this more about franchise with a history of terrible luck, finally have luck turn in their favor.
24:10
SPEAKER_05: Here's Stevens, though, down the right wing of the Rangers in.
24:13
SPEAKER_05: Shoots it wide of the goal, and Beesbrook was split and went in.
24:15
SPEAKER_05: And Beesbrook went up his glove and went in.
24:17
SPEAKER_05: Penguins win the game, I believe.
24:19
SPEAKER_05: It went out the glove of and Beesbrook.
24:21
SPEAKER_05: The Penguins win five to four.
24:24
SPEAKER_05: Oh, she wants to sell my monkey.
24:29
SPEAKER_03: I love how John Van Beethurst argue.
24:31
SPEAKER_03: Hey, I didn't put it in my own net.
24:33
SPEAKER_03: Yes, you did.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's a crazy, crazy play because Kevin Stevens, he's not shooting at the net.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: He's just at the blue line.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: There's a bunch of guys in his path, so he's like, I'll just dump it back to the corner boards, right?
24:49
SPEAKER_01: And then hope that somebody can skate in and they can start making a play out of it.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: But it like ricochets off the corner boards towards the net, and Van Biesbrook's just trying to put his glove on it, and he accidentally just hops over his glove and goes right barely over the line.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: So that win propels the Penguins to a Patrick Division title, and like we said, that meant something at the time.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: So they win the Patrick Division, they're going into the playoffs as the division champions.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: Their first round opponent is the New Jersey Devils, who are not a very good team in 1991.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: The Devils barely squeezed into the playoffs.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: They have an under-500 record.
25:28
SPEAKER_01: Like we said, back then you didn't have to be super good to make the playoffs.
25:31
SPEAKER_01: They had also just recently fired their head coach.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you match that up against the fact that the Penguins had home ice advantage and all this momentum.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: This should just be a short series, right?
25:44
SPEAKER_01: Of course, that's not what happens.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh New Jersey wins game one, which is going to become a trend.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: And then they end up taking three out of the first five games of the series.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: And I remember watching those games, it was so frustrating because the Penguins were this high-flying goal scoring team.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: And against New Jersey, they just kept dumping the puck into their end because they couldn't get any rhythm going.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: They just looked flat, they looked totally stymied by New Jersey's defense.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: And at this point, so so now New Jersey has a three-two lead in the series.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: Game six is in New Jersey, and the Devils can eliminate the Penguins with a win, which is just going to be like such a disastrous end to what was such a promising season.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: And to make matters worse, Tom Barrasso is hurt, and the Penguins have to start their backup goaltender, a guy named Frank Peterangelo.
26:35
SPEAKER_03: I remember him.
26:36
SPEAKER_03: I remember him before this game, though.
26:38
SPEAKER_03: I remember him like they played an overtime game one time and he gave up an overtime goal.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't a regular season.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: And and see, that's that's the funny thing about what you just said is the funny thing about Frank Peterangelo, because when you mentioned Frank Peterangelo's name today, everybody remembers him fondly for what's about to happen here in game six.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: But at the time, Frank Peterangelo, I mean, he kind of sucks.
27:03
SPEAKER_03: He's like mediocre on a good day.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: He's been on the team for four seasons at this point.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: His goals against all four of those seasons is always over or hovering around 4.0.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's not not that impressive.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: Not impressive.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he was the backup goalie for a reason.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: He really never wanted to be in a situation where where Frank Peter Anzo had to save your season, but that's where they're in in game six.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: And it's a really tight game.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins have a one-goal lead when this happens.
27:35
SPEAKER_05: Lane left point.
27:36
SPEAKER_05: But Tisoff shoots it, deflected.
27:38
SPEAKER_05: Right in Peter Angelo save rebound.
27:39
SPEAKER_05: Stasy stopped by Peter Angelo.
27:41
SPEAKER_05: I don't believe that save.
27:42
SPEAKER_05: Neither does Peter Stasney.
27:44
SPEAKER_05: He can't believe the save that Peter Angelo just made on him as Frankie sparkling on that maneuver there to stop and rob Peter Snazny is to get five to ten for that.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: That play today is simply known as the save.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: It's it's legendary in Pittsburgh Sports Lore.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm surprised we have not erected a statue of it yet, Steve.
28:05
SPEAKER_03: Of Peter Snazny shooting the puck in the Peter Angelo's net uh glove, I mean, pretty much.
28:11
SPEAKER_03: He had the whole net to work with.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a great shot by Statsny, but I mean still I you want And it was like poor defense by I forget who it was on the Penguins.
28:21
SPEAKER_03: Like he he like kind of gives the goal like the puck like rebounds right to him.
28:27
SPEAKER_01: I but it's one of those it's one of those plays like you could watch it a thousand times, and every time, even though you know it's gonna happen, it feels like Statsney's gonna score.
28:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:36
SPEAKER_03: And they were leading, right?
28:38
SPEAKER_03: Were they leading?
28:39
SPEAKER_01: They were up by one, and the penguins end up winning that game by guess how many goals, Steve?
28:44
SPEAKER_03: One.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: One goal.
28:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: So that's huge.
28:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh it staves off elimination.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: And then Peter Angelo comes back at home in game seven and actually shuts out New Jersey to win the series.
28:56
SPEAKER_01: And in that game seven, Yuri Herden has two goals.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: And that's one of those instances where like it it it the Penguins have now won five Stanley Cups, and I think one commonality between all five of those runs is you can't have a long playoff run without the entire roster contributing.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: Right?
29:14
SPEAKER_01: So like you had to have like a moment where Frank Peterangelo and Yuri Herdina were the heroes because it's not always going to be Mario Lemieux and and the stars.
29:23
SPEAKER_03: Uh that that's the case here at least.
29:26
SPEAKER_03: It's funny, yeah, because then you have Max Talbot later.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:30
SPEAKER_03: It is weird how hockey kind of works like that.
29:32
SPEAKER_03: Like it seems like the guy you wouldn't expect kind of seems to make the play in Game Sevens.
29:38
SPEAKER_03: They're very Game Sevens are very like, you know, flip of a coin kind of stuff.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you need and you need like your unsung heroes sometimes to just step up and and win you a game or or come out of the you know, come out of nowhere.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: Rem remember like Jeff Zatkoff, right?
29:57
SPEAKER_01: Even names like that.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: Like just guys that just maybe had one or two games where they they got you a win where you needed it.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: So the the other thing about that, it's the first time in franchise history that the penguins have won a game seven.
30:10
SPEAKER_03: Yikes.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: So every other time they were in a game seven, they lost.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and this time they win.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: So that's a that's definitely a good omen heading into the second round of the playoffs.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: And uh as as they head into that second round, they're they're starting to gain confidence, and a lot of that comes from Badger Bob.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh Mario Lemieux cites that Bob Johnson as the reason the team feels like they can win no matter what the situation.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: And he he praises what a great coach he is, and that meant something because Mario Lemieux had clashed with so many previous Penguins coaches.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, like you would think like Mario Lemieux coming out in the media and being like, Yeah, he's a great coach, and he really instills us with confidence, it's just like boilerplate, you know, media stuff.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't he didn't do that with the previous coaches.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he he sort of got a few of them fired.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: So so Mario is really feeling like Bob Johnson is is leading this team forward.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: The opponent in the second round is a team who up to this point the penguins have never faced in the playoffs.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: It's a team called the Washington Capitals.
31:17
SPEAKER_03: Well, I wonder what's gonna happen in this series.
31:21
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if we'll ever see them again in the playoffs, Steve.
31:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, really.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Penguin the Penguins come out sluggish and they drop game one.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: As we said, this is gonna be a trend.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: And then game two turns into a shootout.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: The immortal Randy Gillen scores a late goal for the Penguins to tie the game six to six.
31:41
unknown: Jeez.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: I miss this era of wide open hockey.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: And then Randy Gillen, like we said, you need like these unsigned heroes.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then the game goes into overtime, and that's huge because if if Wackington gets an X-goal at this point, then they've just taken the first two games of the series at Pittsburgh.
31:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's gonna be tough to come back from.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: So let's see what happens next in overtime.
32:03
SPEAKER_05: Afraid into the left lane.
32:04
SPEAKER_05: Gets around a third man.
32:05
SPEAKER_05: I afraid he goes against the fourth, but he can't beat him.
32:07
SPEAKER_05: And Mullah turns in the counterattack.
32:08
SPEAKER_05: Penguins hurrying up.
32:09
SPEAKER_05: They got a man open left flank of Stevens.
32:11
SPEAKER_05: Francis has it.
32:12
SPEAKER_05: He goes to Stevens.
32:12
SPEAKER_05: He's there.
32:13
SPEAKER_05: A shot.
32:13
SPEAKER_06: He shoots it's gone.
32:17
SPEAKER_06: Kevin Stevens wins it in overtime for the Penguins.
32:21
SPEAKER_06: And ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has just left the building.
32:34
SPEAKER_03: A lot of the Elvis has just left the building.
32:37
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
32:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh the crowd there, too.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: How about the crowd?
32:40
SPEAKER_03: Like the crowd is there's a lot of eighties hairdo going on, but it was cool.
32:43
SPEAKER_03: It was cool.
32:44
SPEAKER_03: I don't who was the goalie for the Capitals?
32:46
SPEAKER_03: I don't even know.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh I believe I don't have it in front of me, but I believe it was Don Bopra, who was an all-star goaltender at that point.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: I was a pretty good goaltender.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: But but the Penguins win that game in overtime, and then they they dominate in games three, four, and five as well.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: None of those games are particularly close.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: And Barraso says later that the Capitals never adjusted to the the Penguins' fast-paced style of play.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: He said the Capitals kept trying to do dump and chase, and that kept creating all these two-on-ones.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh that actually that overtime goal there that you heard was a two-on-one.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: So that ends up being a short series.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins eliminate the Capitals.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: Like we said, maybe that'll be a trend too.
33:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the Penguins advance to the Wales Conference Finals.
33:30
SPEAKER_03: And this is when the Wales, the Prince of Wales.
33:33
SPEAKER_03: I love I it still is the Prince of Wales trophy, I do believe.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: It's still the Prince of Wales trophy.
33:39
SPEAKER_03: I I I like those old division and conference names having like those names rather than I'd rather have the Patrick Division than the Metropolitan Division and the Norse Division.
33:50
SPEAKER_03: I wish they would go back to them.
33:51
SPEAKER_01: I I do too, and I like the Wales Conference the Wales and Campbell's conferences.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: Those were the names of the conferences.
33:58
SPEAKER_03: Is it the Western Conference?
33:59
SPEAKER_01: They don't have Yeah, it's just East and West, which is boring.
34:02
unknown: Yeah.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: So I mean that was unique about hockey, and I think I think they were trying to change to be more like everybody else because it was such a niche kind of league at that point.
34:11
SPEAKER_03: Well, I think what had happened was they didn't have enough teams to make it purely like geographical.
34:17
SPEAKER_03: So you had kind of had teams every which way, you know, with the teams in Canada and the United States.
34:22
SPEAKER_03: So that's why they didn't, oh, this is the north, this is the south, this is the it's like, okay, we can't do it, you know, geographically.
34:29
SPEAKER_03: We'll just uh name it after you know.
34:32
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
34:33
SPEAKER_03: I guess the Prince of Wales is big in England.
34:35
SPEAKER_03: That's like the successor to the throne.
34:37
SPEAKER_03: Campbell was uh what's his name?
34:40
SPEAKER_03: That's the Clarence Campbell.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he founded like the NHL or you know so uh the conference finals is when stuff kind of starts to get real because the Penguins opponent in that series is the Boston Bruins.
34:55
SPEAKER_03: Oh, does it have our favorite head coach?
34:57
SPEAKER_01: Are we gonna Oh yeah, we're gonna talk about him.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry, we're gonna talk about him.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Bruins at this point are the defending Wales conference champions, and they had played in two of the previous three Stanley Cup finals.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: So they they're a good team.
35:11
SPEAKER_01: They have these powerhouse stars like Ray Bork and Craig Gani and Cam Neely.
35:15
SPEAKER_03: What division did they win?
35:17
SPEAKER_03: What was the name of their division?
35:18
SPEAKER_03: I forget now.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: Was it the uh uh Adams Adams?
35:23
SPEAKER_03: It was the Adams, yeah, that's it.
35:24
SPEAKER_03: And that's another guy, like he's a famous hockey, yeah.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was Patrick, Adams, Norris, and Smythe, I think was the fourth one.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: Smythe, yeah.
35:33
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: So uh Boston, Boston has some superstars.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: They have a really good goaltender too, named Andy Moog.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: And this was like one of those been there, done that teams.
35:44
SPEAKER_01: It's it's kind of comparable, Steve, to like remember Bill Coward's first year with the Steelers?
35:50
SPEAKER_01: Stewers are really good, but then in the playoffs they had to play the Bills, and the Bills were in the middle of those four Super Bowls, and it just was like, okay, the Steelers are like new to this, the Bills are the Bills are used to big games, and the Bills just won by a lot of points.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: And that was kind of what people thought was going to happen in this series against Boston.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: The other thing hurting the Penguins is that they don't have Paul Coffee.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh he had taken a stick to the eye early in the playoffs, and then he eventually came back wearing this big visor to protect his eyes, and then he took I remember that thing.
36:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, then he takes a puck to the jaw.
36:25
SPEAKER_01: So it's like he he just he just should have worn like a guy in face mask because his face was just destined to get repeatedly injured in that year's playoffs.
36:35
SPEAKER_01: So he's not playing.
36:36
SPEAKER_01: The series opens at the Boston Garden, a place where the Penguins are 6 and 44 all time.
36:43
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's better whenever their record was in the spectrum.
36:46
SPEAKER_03: In the spectrum, yeah.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: The spectrum was much worse in Philadelphia.
36:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Bruins crush the Penguins in game one, but just like all the other series, the Penguins are resilient in game two.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Mario scores a late goal, which is seemingly going to give the Penguins the win.
37:02
SPEAKER_01: But then a terrible call from referee Dan Marowelli awards Boston with a five on three power play in the final minutes, and Boston ends up scoring on that to send the game into overtime.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: And that was people were really upset about that at the time because Steve, you know this.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: If you watch playoff hockey at all in your life, you know that really nothing draws a penalty in the final two minutes of a playoff game.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe homicide, but even then that's like a two-minute minor.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: And and and these penalties that Dan Marowelli are calling, they would have been ticky tack stuff in the first period, much less in the final minutes.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: And and to get to award them a five on three, that's almost like an automatic goal.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: Five on three is almost impossible to defend.
37:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
37:46
SPEAKER_03: Playoff hockey is its own different like they just don't it's like the opposite of like football, where like they call everything pretty much the whole game for the most part.
37:55
SPEAKER_03: This this is like as it goes, it's like you said, you know, it's you can basically sit on a person on the ice and they're probably not gonna say too much.
38:03
SPEAKER_03: Right.
38:04
SPEAKER_03: Right.
38:04
SPEAKER_03: Please, can you get up?
38:06
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay, alright, you're good.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: So so that that sends a game in overtime, and then Boston wins it in overtime.
38:13
SPEAKER_01: So now they have a two games to nothing lead in the series.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: And and the penguins are pretty upset about how that went, particularly Boston native Kevin Stevens.
38:23
SPEAKER_03: Here it comes.
38:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, he says, quote, everything about that game was nonsense, only he doesn't say nonsense.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then after that game, a bunch of reporters are in the locker room asking questions, and Stevens tells them, quote, we're going to win four straight.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: Write it.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: We're going to win four straight.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: And that wasn't just like an off-the-cuff statement.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: He was just mad and he just said something and then walked away.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: He even calls over some of the reporters who weren't there the first time and says, Hey, can you guys hear what I told these other guys?
38:56
SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to make sure you got that too.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: So he actually like literally makes it a point to make sure that every reporter in the room hears him say that and writes it down and publishes it.
39:05
SPEAKER_01: And and Steven says later, he says, quote, I was just really, really mad, so bleeping, frustrated.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say it to fire us up.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: I just said it because I was angry and because I knew we were going to win anyway, so what's the difference?
39:21
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
39:22
SPEAKER_03: That's impressive.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: That's it's pretty bold, right?
39:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean, especially given the fact that Boston was this team, again, who had been there, done that, you know, and and who had just made the penguins look like amateurs in the first two games.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: And here he is telling all these reporters, hey, we're gonna win the next four, write it down, I guarantee it.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: Again, pretty bold.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh, two things change after that game.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh, number one is that the Penguins' offense shifts into another gear, and Stevens definitely backs up his words with some stellar play.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: Phil Bork says that Stevens went into quote beast mode after that.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but the real key is that Mario just takes over like he typically did in those days.
40:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh Stevens even said about his guarantee, he said, uh, I knew we were going to win because we had Mario.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: I still remember the look on his face after that second game.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when you've got the best player who've ever who's ever lived on your side, it makes it a little easier to say something like that.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and so in game three back at the Civic Arena, there's a play where the Bruins defenseman is bringing the puck out of his own zone.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: It's a very standard, typical, you know, they've just made a line change.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: Here we go, the defenseman's bringing the puck out of his zone.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: And Mario just skates up to the guy, takes it right off of him, and then skates in all alone on Andy Moog.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: Here is what that sounded like.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: And just, man, just listen to the roof of the arena like blow off here.
40:47
SPEAKER_05: Heels back into his own in and will leave the putt now for Gary Galley.
40:50
SPEAKER_05: Galley lost it on Lemie.
40:51
SPEAKER_05: Lemieux trying to get around and does.
40:52
SPEAKER_05: He walks in alone.
40:58
SPEAKER_05: Mario Lemieux beats Moe like a winning mule.
41:01
SPEAKER_05: And the Penguins lead four to one.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: So Mario's being Mario, the the second thing that happens after after that game two was that the Penguins really clamped down on defense, which is not their forte necessarily.
41:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh Barrasso shuts down the Bruins in game three and game four.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: He allows only one goal in each of those games.
41:27
SPEAKER_01: But the other thing that happens is that the Penguins assign off Samuelson to shadow Cam Neely, and this causes massive amounts of controversy in Boston because there's a play in game three where Neely, who is probably Boston's best player, he's skating up the ice and off is skating the opposite direction, and those two collide.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: And Samuelson's knee catches Neely's leg, and eventually Cam Neely has to leave the game.
41:55
SPEAKER_01: And the Bruins are furious, they think it was an intentional cheap shot.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: Like that like off Samuelson basically kneed him in the thigh and knocked him out of the game.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: Boston is coached by a gentleman who Steve referred to earlier, his name is Mike Millberry, who, for lack of a better word, is a meathead.
42:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know how to describe it.
42:14
SPEAKER_03: They go into the stands that one time in New York and beat a guy with his own shoes.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: That's that's exactly right.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: That's who Mike Millberry is.
42:21
SPEAKER_01: And when that happened, uh Millberry picks up a stick on the bench and he keeps slamming it against the glass until the stick breaks in half.
42:29
SPEAKER_01: Like this is the head coach, just like throwing a temper tantrum in the in the uh on the bench.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: And then so so that so that's in the moment.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: You can certainly get the emotions of the moment.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: But then like there's a couple of days between game three and game four.
42:44
SPEAKER_01: And for game four, Millberry dresses a bunch of goons for the next game.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: It's four guys who have a combined seven goals on the season and who haven't really been playing in the playoff games.
42:54
SPEAKER_01: He dresses those guys with the sole intention of exacting revenge on Alf.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: And he even talks about that in the media.
43:01
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Well, we need to we need to have a response.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: And then Boston loses four to one.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: It's like so stupid.
43:08
SPEAKER_03: Well, there's your response.
43:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's just it's just that again, like that meat head hockey mentality of like goals, goals and points don't matter.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: What matters is that you know we send a message and we exerted ourselves physically and rrrr rrrr rrr.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: It's a stupid alpha map.
43:26
SPEAKER_03: If it would lead the goals, then I'd agree with you.
43:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: So so now the series is tied.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: And meanwhile, Cam Neely is back.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna talk about this a little bit more later, but he's he's back.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: He has a bruise on his thigh, which I'm sure hurt.
43:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure means he's not necessarily a hundred percent, but essentially he's fine.
43:47
SPEAKER_01: And there's this narrative in Boston that all not only knocked him out of that series, but like ruined his career with that cheap shot.
43:55
SPEAKER_01: And it's completely false, but we'll talk about that in a minute.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: So the penguins even In the series with two wins in Pittsburgh.
44:02
SPEAKER_01: It goes back to Boston for game five.
44:04
SPEAKER_01: And Cam Neely's obsessed with off-seamerson, and he gets called for multiple penalties.
44:09
SPEAKER_01: And Cam Neely was, I mean, Cam Neely was a goal scorer.
44:12
SPEAKER_01: He was not a guy that took a lot of penalties.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: And those penalties turn into penguin power play goals, and the Penguins win seven to two.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: And man, I'd love to know what the rent was for the space that the Penguins had inside the heads of Millberry and Neely.
44:28
SPEAKER_01: Because whatever it was, it was a great deal, man.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's like Joey Porter level messing with the heads of the opponents there.
44:36
SPEAKER_03: I still remember Millberry taking that stick and whacking it on like the glass and stuff, and just oh my goodness.
44:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just like they completely melted down.
44:46
SPEAKER_03: He started calling like Badger Bob the professor and stuff, and say, oh then the professor sends his goon over.
44:53
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
44:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the professor of goonism, I think is what he called him.
44:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
44:57
SPEAKER_01: Like he thought he was so clever.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: So the Penguins win game five.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: They now have an opportunity to do something truly historic back at the Civic Arena.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: They can punch their ticket to their first ever Stanley Cup finals with a win in game six.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: And game six is a lot closer than the previous three games.
45:16
SPEAKER_01: It goes back and forth.
45:17
SPEAKER_01: But Mark Recy scores a late goal in the third period to break a three to three tie.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: Mario adds an empty netter.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: And the Penguins are going dancing with Lord Stanley.
45:28
SPEAKER_01: It's just an amazing comeback after being down two games to nothing.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: And then Stevens predicting that they would win four straight, and then they go out and they win four straight.
45:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it's it was uh if you watch that highlight, like I've seen it before, like the end of that game.
45:43
SPEAKER_03: Boy, the crowd really goes nuts.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
45:45
SPEAKER_03: And it's like it's just such an amazing moment in penguins' history.
45:48
SPEAKER_03: Probably the first time like they've won anything.
45:51
SPEAKER_03: It is the first time they've won anything of any significance.
45:55
SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, the the the it's funny the tradition of you know, you don't touch the the whales that team didn't care.
46:02
SPEAKER_03: They were all over that whales trophy like you know, a hobo on a ham sandwich.
46:08
SPEAKER_03: And it's funny because the only time they've never touched the whales trophy was in 2008, 2009, and they didn't win.
46:17
SPEAKER_03: So ever since then, it's funny because Crosby's so superstitious.
46:20
SPEAKER_03: If they win the whales trophy, they always touch it.
46:23
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I feel like that'll carry on if you know years, years down the road.
46:28
SPEAKER_01: Like you if any penguin team ever wins that trophy again, they're always gonna have to touch it.
46:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
46:35
SPEAKER_01: So so one other note for game six, Cam Neely, who is still only concerned about avenging his honor at this point.
46:43
SPEAKER_03: You've offended my honor, sir.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: He tries to check off Samuson along the boards, but off ducks, and then Neely's left thigh hits the boards, and it really hurts him.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Cam Neely ends up missing most of the next season, the 1991-92 season, because of that play.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: And again, the narrative is that Off hurt Cam Neely and his whole career got sidetracked.
47:07
SPEAKER_01: Cam Neely was this great superstar player, gonna be a Hall of Famer and the best player in the league, and the Bruins were in the Stealing Cup finals every year, and then this sturdy player, Alf Seamus, and you know, tee-shotted him and ruined his career.
47:22
SPEAKER_01: But in reality, the the injury that quote unquote ruined Cam Neely was his left thigh.
47:29
SPEAKER_01: And what that hit back in game three that everybody was upset about, that was on his right thigh.
47:34
SPEAKER_01: And and here his left thigh in game six, whiffing on his bloodthirsty attempt to injure Alf.
47:39
SPEAKER_03: Bloodthirsty, wow.
47:43
SPEAKER_03: He had a he had a vendetta to settle.
47:45
SPEAKER_01: So well, yeah, and he and he he he missed.
47:50
SPEAKER_03: Alf was that kind of guy though.
47:51
SPEAKER_03: Like Alf that was kind of Alf's thing, like getting in.
47:54
SPEAKER_03: He was like what they call an instigator, like a Matt Barnaby or there's every like Darius Casparatus or Yeah, yeah.
48:02
SPEAKER_03: He was just he wasn't he scored a goal here and there, and he didn't play bad defense, but if you gave him an assignment, he could really shut people down.
48:10
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, but I mean the the Cam Nealy sort of did all that to himself.
48:17
SPEAKER_01: And any attempt to blame Alf is just utter nonsense from the Boston fans.
48:22
SPEAKER_01: But but years later, Steve, that's what you always hear.
48:25
SPEAKER_01: That's always the the narrative.
48:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the narrative is yeah, Alf Samous and yeah, at least from Mike Millberry, at least.
48:32
SPEAKER_01: And and you know what?
48:33
SPEAKER_01: If you don't believe me that that whole narrative is a lie, let's hear directly from Cam Neely himself.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: The the hit that created all the problems with my left thigh and then my left knee wasn't the one that was shown.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: It was a different hit.
48:48
SPEAKER_00: I actually went to go hit him in in the corner and he ducked.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: And uh, as he was ducking, my thigh went into his knee, and I was going at a pretty good pace.
48:59
SPEAKER_01: So there you go.
49:01
SPEAKER_03: So even he admits it, yeah.
49:03
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
49:05
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, I just that always annoys me that that's the uh that that's the narrative, and I just that needs to be like the record needs to be set straight on that.
49:17
SPEAKER_01: So now that we've done that, let's talk about the Stanley Cup finals that the Penguins have now advanced to.
49:23
SPEAKER_01: And one thing I remember distinctly at this time, obviously, you know, we as fans were very excited, and and one of our teachers in school, Steve and I went to the same high school, one of our teachers, uh, a guy named Mr.
49:37
SPEAKER_01: Collins, uh, he was he was a Canadian and he knew a ton about hockey, and I always loved to talk hockey with him because he was very knowledgeable about the sport.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: And when we were in the conference finals, I remember Mr.
49:50
SPEAKER_01: Collins saying, yeah, it would certainly be a surprise if they were able to beat Boston.
49:54
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be an uphill climb.
49:56
SPEAKER_01: But even if they somehow beat Boston, there's just no way that they're gonna beat the Oilers.
50:03
SPEAKER_01: And the the context there was the Edmonton Oilers were the greatest team of that era.
50:08
SPEAKER_01: We talked before about the 49ers.
50:10
SPEAKER_01: That was like the 49ers of the NHL.
50:13
SPEAKER_03: I think they still they still had Gretzky at that point.
50:15
unknown: Yeah.
50:16
SPEAKER_03: They did not, but Oh, the Gretzky was gone by then?
50:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so they they so they had won five of the previous seven Stanley Cups, and and yeah, they had traded away Gretzky by that point.
50:26
SPEAKER_01: But they they were still winning cups.
50:28
SPEAKER_01: They had won the cup the year before with Marc Messier leading the way.
50:31
SPEAKER_01: So while they didn't have Gretzky, they were still a dominant force.
50:35
SPEAKER_03: They substituted one Hall of Famer for another.
50:37
SPEAKER_03: Right.
50:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: Right.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: And in 1991, they're right back in the Campbell Conference Finals, about to play for the Cup yet again.
50:45
SPEAKER_01: And their opponent is not the Flames or the Blackhawks or any of the other powerhouse teams from that era in that conference.
50:53
SPEAKER_01: They're playing against the Minnesota North Stars.
50:56
SPEAKER_01: So let's let's talk about that franchise here for a moment.
50:59
SPEAKER_01: They actually came into the league the same year as the Penguins, and like the Penguins, never really have a lot of success.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: In 1991, they finished the regular season with a record of 27 and 39.
51:13
SPEAKER_01: If you're doing the math, that's 12 games under under 500.
51:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's the fifth worst record in hockey.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: Like, they suck.
51:22
SPEAKER_01: 27-39 is a bad hockey team.
51:25
SPEAKER_01: But lucky for the North Stars, they play in a division called the Norris Division, which is not a great division.
51:31
SPEAKER_01: In fact, this is interesting, Steve.
51:34
SPEAKER_01: I never knew this.
51:34
SPEAKER_01: At this point, no team from the Norris division had ever made it to the Stanley Cup finals.
51:41
unknown: Yeah.
51:41
SPEAKER_03: Who else was in that division?
51:44
SPEAKER_01: It was uh I think Chicago, Detroit, um, Toronto, I'm not sure who the other team was.
51:49
SPEAKER_01: St.
51:49
SPEAKER_01: Louis, probably St.
51:50
SPEAKER_01: Louis.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: But but back then the dominant division was the Smythe, you had Edmonton, you had Calgary.
51:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
51:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh those were the those were the um the really good teams.
52:00
SPEAKER_03: So uh Yeah, because it was like the Dead Wings, the Red Wings sucked and the Blackhawks.
52:05
SPEAKER_01: Well, the black the Blackhawks were good that year, but yeah, you're right.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: And and the Blues had like Brad Hall.
52:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there were some good teams in there.
52:12
SPEAKER_01: It just it just that division usually didn't have didn't compete with the other division in that conference.
52:18
SPEAKER_01: And then the North Stars, again, being 12 games under 500, the the fact that they even made the playoffs, but it like we said back then, you just had to be worse better than the worst team in your division.
52:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and Toronto is somehow worse than Minnesota, so the North Stars are in the playoffs with 27 wins.
52:35
SPEAKER_03: Thank goodness for Toronto, huh?
52:37
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
52:38
SPEAKER_01: And and like that was kind of fluky, but like whatever.
52:41
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so what they're in the playoffs.
52:43
SPEAKER_01: They'll just they'll just get blown out pretty quickly, right?
52:47
SPEAKER_01: Well, to the absolute shock of everybody, the North Stars get hot, they win their first two playoff series, and then in the conference finals against the almighty dynasty of the Edmonton Oilers, the North Stars win that series handily, four games to one.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: Jeez.
53:02
SPEAKER_01: So now instead of playing the Oilers in the Stanley Cup finals, the Penguins are going to play the Cinderella Minnesota North Stars team, which was just a surprise to everybody.
53:13
SPEAKER_01: So the series opens in Pittsburgh, and the Penguins drop game one.
53:18
SPEAKER_03: What a shocker.
53:19
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
53:20
SPEAKER_01: Now they've lost game one of every series in the playoffs.
53:23
SPEAKER_01: Congrats.
53:23
SPEAKER_01: That that completes their reward card.
53:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
53:26
SPEAKER_01: They get a free medium soft drink at Wendy's or whatever.
53:30
SPEAKER_03: Tim Hortons, if they're in Canada.
53:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, there you go.
53:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh so uh game two is a big deal because uh obviously the the Penguins had come back from two games down against Boston, but that was when the first two games were in Boston.
53:46
SPEAKER_01: You can't drop the first two games at home and expect to win the series.
53:50
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins do get an emotional lift in game two with the return of Paul Coffey wearing a ton of stuff around his face at this point.
53:57
SPEAKER_01: And they jump out to an early two to nothing lead.
54:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh Bob Erie gets a big short-handed goal.
54:04
SPEAKER_01: But Mike Madono, the Hall of Famer for Minnesota, he scores a goal in the second period to cut the lead to one.
54:10
SPEAKER_01: And now the Penguins need a moment.
54:12
SPEAKER_01: They need something that's really going to turn this series.
54:15
SPEAKER_01: And who better to provide that moment than this guy?
54:20
SPEAKER_06: Here's Lemieux.
54:21
SPEAKER_06: The center penalty coming up.
54:23
SPEAKER_06: Look at the deal.
54:24
SPEAKER_06: Oh my heavens.
54:25
SPEAKER_06: What a goal! What a bowl.
54:27
SPEAKER_06: Le Mieux.
54:29
unknown: Oh baby.
54:33
SPEAKER_01: That's now an iconic goal, right?
54:37
SPEAKER_01: And we've talked about that before.
54:39
SPEAKER_01: Like I think when they built the statue of Mario Lemieux, a lot of people were shocked that that wasn't what they built the statue from.
54:46
SPEAKER_01: That's that's like the signature Mario Lemieux goal.
54:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he he skates through the entire Minnesota defense.
54:51
SPEAKER_01: He like there's two defensemen.
54:54
SPEAKER_01: Like, how do you get through two defensemen?
54:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
54:57
SPEAKER_03: Only Mario, yeah.
54:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
54:59
SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, one of the big reasons that Minnesota had made it this far was their goaltender was a guy named John Casey who was just playing lights out against everybody else.
55:07
SPEAKER_01: And Mario just makes him look silly on that play and would continue to make him look silly for the rest of the series.
55:13
SPEAKER_01: So the Penguins win game two.
55:15
SPEAKER_01: They go to Bloomington for game three, and all the talk is how the North Stars are just so dominant at home.
55:23
SPEAKER_01: In fact, they've only lost two home games since January at this point.
55:28
SPEAKER_01: So you just can't beat them at home.
55:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh but the Penguins have a bigger problem because literally, right before the game starts, Mario has severe back spasms and he can't play.
55:40
SPEAKER_01: And Minnesota ends up winning the game.
55:43
SPEAKER_01: And that that was shocking because literally he was like out there for the pregame skate and he had these really bad spasms, and they had to like scratch him like literally like five minutes before the game started.
55:54
SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
55:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I don't remember that.
55:57
SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't remember that at all.
55:59
SPEAKER_03: Jeez.
56:00
SPEAKER_01: And I think that really sucked the life out of the pens, you know, and they just and now Minnesota has a two games to one lead in the series.
56:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh and it's it's at this point that the local media in Minnesota does something kind of odd.
56:13
SPEAKER_01: They do this story about like what if, what if the North Stars win?
56:20
SPEAKER_01: And they go to the Minnesota players and they give these interviews for this story, the players do, where they talk about like going to the White House, they talk about like the size of their rings.
56:31
SPEAKER_03: Uh there's even they talk about the parade or something.
56:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was gonna say there's even something leaked about the parade route.
56:37
SPEAKER_01: And I can I can certainly get the media doing the story, maybe.
56:42
SPEAKER_01: But I guess, Steve, why would the players not just you know give like the vanilla like, hey, way too early to talk about that?
56:48
SPEAKER_01: It's a long series.
56:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
56:50
SPEAKER_01: Like, why would you why would you give in and talk about like, oh yeah, it'd be great to meet the president and I want to meet President Bush.
56:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
56:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, why would you do that?
57:01
SPEAKER_03: That Gulf War and everything, yeah.
57:03
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
57:04
SPEAKER_03: Trying to think what else was the Golf?
57:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this was the Gulf War.
57:07
SPEAKER_03: That was the year, yeah.
57:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
57:09
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
57:10
SPEAKER_03: Maybe we'll get to meet Whitney Houston.
57:12
SPEAKER_03: I I don't know.
57:13
SPEAKER_03: Um Yeah, it's an odd I do remember them planning the parade after like, you know little premature parade celebration, but it happened to the best of us, I guess.
57:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's that's something where you know uh not not a smart move by the team in general, but like when you have the players, like quotes in the in the newspaper, remember the newspaper.
57:37
SPEAKER_03: Well, I mean Kevin Stevens, yeah, yeah.
57:39
SPEAKER_03: Kevin Stevens did kind of the same thing, kind of.
57:43
SPEAKER_01: That's fair.
57:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, but but it it really causes a lot of uh it is it's a big controversy at the time.
57:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was.
57:52
SPEAKER_03: Because I I know they commented on in game six.
57:55
SPEAKER_01: Right.
57:56
SPEAKER_03: I think I remember they the Style World or one of them comments about, oh, I wonder the parade, uh, you know.
58:03
SPEAKER_03: Like they say something kind of smarmy about it.
58:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people were mad, including the penguins players, and I just it it just boggles my mind.
58:11
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I get that athletes in 1991 aren't as media savvy as they are today, but but still, I mean the the only thing I'll say, you know, the general managers of the North Stars at this time is a guy named Bobby Clark.
58:23
SPEAKER_03: Oh, jeez.
58:24
SPEAKER_03: That Bobby Clark?
58:26
SPEAKER_01: That Bobby Clark.
58:27
SPEAKER_01: And Bobby Clark liked to build teams that were high on physicality and low on intelligence.
58:33
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, he did.
58:34
SPEAKER_01: I mean, look at all those Flyers teams.
58:37
SPEAKER_03: Well, he knew how to hack a Russian guy's ankle pretty good.
58:41
SPEAKER_03: Of course, we're he he he famously broke Valerie Kalarmoff's ankle in a summit series in the 70s.
58:48
SPEAKER_01: Well, and that's that's the kind of teams he put together in Philadelphia all those years later, too.
58:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, he had he had been the general manager in Philadelphia in the 80s when they had Ron Hexall chasing people around.
58:59
SPEAKER_01: He was a general manager later when, you know, they had guys like Scott Hartnall throwing his glove at a guy on a breakaway to try to stop him.
59:07
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
59:08
SPEAKER_01: It just it was it was a lot of Mike Milberry kind of meatheads.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Bobby Clark liked to stack his team with.
59:15
SPEAKER_01: And if you're gonna go up to guys like that and be like, hey, what do you think about meeting the president?
59:19
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they're not gonna think to themselves, boy, maybe this is a question I just shouldn't answer right now.
59:24
SPEAKER_01: Or just say, hey man, it's a long series.
59:26
SPEAKER_01: This team's really good.
59:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we gotta play, you know, we're not done yet, like whatever.
59:31
SPEAKER_03: It's only two games to one.
59:32
SPEAKER_03: Like, if it would have been three games to one, then maybe I could have seen it, but two games to one?
59:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that that was That seems odd.
59:41
SPEAKER_01: It was very odd.
59:42
SPEAKER_01: And and the Penguins read all this, and like you said, Steve, they're ticked off.
59:47
SPEAKER_01: Like, it's not a three-game series, it's a seven-game series.
59:49
SPEAKER_01: North Stars haven't won anything.
59:51
SPEAKER_01: So the Penguins are really fired up for game four.
59:54
SPEAKER_01: Mary Oli is back, and the North Stars have just made the Penguins mad.
59:59
SPEAKER_01: So 58 seconds into game four, this happens.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_05: Now played to the right wing corner, and Stevens has it again.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_05: He has frames us open, comes out the one, shoots himself.
1:00:07
SPEAKER_05: He scores.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_05: The Penguins take a one and they leave.
1:00:10
SPEAKER_05: Kevin Stevens and call Arnold like from Colonel Craig.
1:00:15
SPEAKER_03: What was John Casey doing there?
1:00:18
SPEAKER_03: That's like that was terrible.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_03: That was just bad goaltending.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_03: He just like stood there and watched it go in.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_03: Like, oh, should I close my legs?
1:00:27
SPEAKER_03: Should I like he's not a butterfly goalie, obviously.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, John Casey starting to get psyched out at this point.
1:00:33
SPEAKER_01: That's 58 seconds into the game.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_01: 98 seconds later, this happens.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_05: Back up by Stevens.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_05: He's got a puck now.
1:00:40
SPEAKER_05: He's got the shooting stop made.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_05: Rebound score! The Penguins have scored again.
1:00:44
SPEAKER_05: Ronnie Francis makes it 2 0.
1:00:46
SPEAKER_05: Wow.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_01: So now it's 2-0, and then 22 seconds after that.
1:00:56
SPEAKER_06: Mario Londo at the side of the net.
1:00:59
SPEAKER_04: And this game isn't three minutes old.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_04: And you can't tell us Mr.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_04: Neil.
1:01:05
SPEAKER_04: You thought it was going to start like this.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_03: They're supposedly invincible.
1:01:12
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:01:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, in in in the old Met Center, people have barely even gotten their seats yet.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_01: And it's 3-0 Pittsburgh.
1:01:20
SPEAKER_01: I uh what I remember distinctly about watching this game, Steve, was that my dad missed all of that simply because he was taking our dog outside.
1:01:31
SPEAKER_01: Like the dog was like standing at the door, had to go to the bathroom, and he's like, okay, they just dropped the puck.
1:01:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll just, I'll just, I'll be right back.
1:01:39
SPEAKER_01: And I remember I ran outside to tell him it was three-nothing, and he didn't believe me.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_03: They quit messing with me.
1:01:46
SPEAKER_01: I thought you just thought I was messing with him because he it was like, I just came out for a couple minutes to let the dog out.
1:01:51
SPEAKER_01: How's it three nothing already?
1:01:53
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, clearly the penguins were angry.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_01: Clearly the penguins wanted to send a message.
1:01:59
SPEAKER_01: However, I will say that the problem with scoring that many goals that early is it it does make it easy to kind of take your foot off the gas pedal.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_01: And sure enough, Minnesota does come back and they make it a one-goal game.
1:02:12
SPEAKER_01: And then with about seven minutes left in the game, with the Penguins still clinging to that one goal lead, Troy Loney high sticks Mark Tenorty in the face and he gets called for a five-minute major.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_01: And and this is this is not like the Dan Marowelli call back in the Boston series.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_01: This is a this is a good call because and and and like Troy Looney didn't do it on purpose.
1:02:33
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't dirty, it was accidental.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_01: And Mark Tenortie was a huge jag-off.
1:02:38
SPEAKER_01: But but Loney still caught him square in the face, and Tenortie's bleeding and everything.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_01: Like it's an automatic five-minute penalty.
1:02:46
SPEAKER_01: You have to call it.
1:02:47
SPEAKER_01: So right here is what many people consider the single most important moment of this entire series.
1:02:53
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins are leading by one.
1:02:55
SPEAKER_01: The North Stars are going to have a power play for essentially the rest of the game here with seven minutes left.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_01: And Minnesota's two biggest strengths of that playoff run was number one, their home crowd that we mentioned, right?
1:03:07
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't lose at home.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_01: But also their power play, their power play was what had spurred them to all these upset victories.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_01: And now they've got a five-minute, and it was one of those, Steve, it was one of those like five minutes score as many goals as you can power plays.
1:03:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a major, yeah.
1:03:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:03:22
SPEAKER_01: And their crowd's going absolutely ballistic.
1:03:24
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is the point.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_01: They just need one goal to send it in overtime.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but they could get more than one.
1:03:30
SPEAKER_01: But the Penguins, this offensive-minded finesse scoring first Penguins team, smothers the Minnesota power play.
1:03:38
SPEAKER_01: Guess how many shots the North Stars get on their extended power play, Steve?
1:03:42
SPEAKER_03: Uh one.
1:03:44
SPEAKER_01: Less.
1:03:45
SPEAKER_03: Zero.
1:03:45
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_03: Unless you can go into negatives.
1:03:48
SPEAKER_03: Negative one.
1:03:50
SPEAKER_01: They get zero shots.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_01: Shots.
1:03:52
SPEAKER_01: They don't even get a shot off.
1:03:54
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
1:03:56
SPEAKER_03: I wonder what they were thinking.
1:03:58
SPEAKER_03: I mean they must have like really you know been frustrated by the end of that.
1:04:03
SPEAKER_01: I mean Yeah, talk about just crushing the soil.
1:04:07
SPEAKER_03: Like I can see like the first minute or two, you're like, oh well, you know.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_03: But then after that It kind of like kind of like one of those things where it snowballs when you don't score half a shot for like the first minute or two, then it like you keep like the pressure heats like building, you know.
1:04:24
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
1:04:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:04:26
SPEAKER_01: So the Penguins win that game, they go back to Pittsburgh, and they win game five after scoring four goals in the first period.
1:04:33
SPEAKER_01: Again, they get out to an early lead.
1:04:35
SPEAKER_01: And that sets up game six back at Minnesota in this just unbelievable scenario.
1:04:40
SPEAKER_01: This this franchise that had all these dreadful moments, all these terrible things happen to them, who never once gave its fans anything to celebrate, are now on the precipice of what most people never thought was even possible.
1:04:53
SPEAKER_01: They could win a championship.
1:04:55
SPEAKER_01: The North Stars have their backs against the wall, so you think, okay, game six in Minnesota, you know, must win for the North Stars.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a really tight game.
1:05:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh Alf Samuelson, who you mentioned, Steve, didn't score a lot of goals.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_01: He gets a power play goal a couple minutes into the game.
1:05:12
SPEAKER_01: But then later in the first period, the North Stars have a power play of their own.
1:05:16
SPEAKER_01: So it's one-nothing Penguins.
1:05:18
SPEAKER_01: The North Stars are in a power play.
1:05:20
SPEAKER_01: They have a chance to tie this thing up.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_01: And then here's what happens on the Minnesota power play.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_05: Taganetti got it around the wood without out.
1:05:28
SPEAKER_05: Brian Glenn leaves it in the corner.
1:05:30
SPEAKER_05: Murphy should be able to get the puck out.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_05: He has it and nice Wait by Murphy to go to the news of the hands of the move, take the bucket from the minute against the man.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_05: Cuts in on goal, makes a little move.
1:05:38
SPEAKER_05: He shows that scars.
1:05:41
SPEAKER_05: He beat Casey like a rented mule.
1:05:44
SPEAKER_05: And the Penguins lead two to nothing.
1:05:47
SPEAKER_05: What a play by Lemieux.
1:05:49
SPEAKER_03: I yeah, he's uh John Casey had no answer for Mario Lemieux, I think.
1:05:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and um I mean just just What like whatever fight Minnesota had left, Mario just sucks it out of them right there.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's it.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_01: You can't at that point, it's like, okay, this guy's just better than us.
1:06:11
SPEAKER_01: Like, we can't beat him, right?
1:06:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:06:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh so after that, uh the route is on.
1:06:18
SPEAKER_01: The penguins score eight unanswered goals.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, of all the championships that we've witnessed, Steve, this one it was so great.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_01: It's just a great final 10 minutes or so because like you knew it was over.
1:06:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, the penguins were going to be champions.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_01: You could just sit back and enjoy the ride.
1:06:35
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't coming down to the final minutes and the Ben Rosselsberger driving against the Cardinals.
1:06:40
SPEAKER_01: It was just like, okay, it's over.
1:06:42
SPEAKER_01: We won.
1:06:42
SPEAKER_01: No flurry making a save with well, even yeah, even the other Stanley Cups, like you it came down to like the Penguins had to get an empty net goal at the end to ice it.
1:06:52
SPEAKER_01: This is like eight, eight to nothing.
1:06:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not even within the realm of possibility that anything's gonna happen.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_01: So um, here's what the final seconds sounded like.
1:07:03
SPEAKER_05: Stevens shoots it back to center with five, four, three.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_05: Time runs out.
1:07:09
SPEAKER_05: The Stanley Cup has come to the city of Pittsburgh, the 1991 Stanley Cup champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins.
1:07:19
SPEAKER_01: So that's it.
1:07:20
SPEAKER_01: The Penguins are Stanley Cup champions.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_01: Mario Lemieux wins the Conn Smythe trophy as a playoff MVP.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_01: He finally fulfills his destiny.
1:07:28
SPEAKER_01: He's now the indisputable greatest player on the planet.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_01: Bob Johnson, after all those years in coaching, he gets a Stan Cup.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_01: Craig Patrick and that management team he built, it all comes together for a title.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_01: To this day, it's it's still one of the most talented teams in the history of Pittsburgh sports.
1:07:46
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this stat, Steve.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_01: Of the top 20 scorers in NHL history, six of them were teammates on the 1991 Penguins.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_03: Well, when you got Ronnie Franchise as your second team center, you're gonna be okay.
1:08:02
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
1:08:02
SPEAKER_03: And then you got Yager in there and yeah, uh Joey Mullen and yeah.
1:08:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:08:09
SPEAKER_03: The immortal Jimmy Pack, you know.
1:08:13
SPEAKER_01: Just an overflow of talent there.
1:08:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and the last thing I'll say too is uh this this championship, I think it it just it meant so much to the city.
1:08:27
SPEAKER_03: Well Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is a note, like is one of the few cities, I think, that has a Stanley Cup and a Super Bowl and a World Series.
1:08:36
SPEAKER_03: I I think we're one of the few.
1:08:38
SPEAKER_01: But it but I think I think this one also meant so much just because um, like we talked about in previous episodes, how rough the 1980s were on the city, right?
1:08:48
SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
1:08:49
SPEAKER_01: Like that was a like the steel mill closures, the mass exodus of people.
1:08:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like we all knew people or had friends or family that left the city, right, Steve?
1:08:59
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was a bad time for Pittsburgh.
1:09:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, it was a rough time.
1:09:03
SPEAKER_03: I remember my dad bounced around between a lot of jobs.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_03: I mean, he was in the medical field, but that still was you know tough there closing hospitals and stuff.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_03: And um yeah, it wasn't easy for Pittsburgh, and it really was kind of like a short, brief respite because really nobody won anything until what, 2004.
1:09:23
SPEAKER_03: The penguin the Steelers didn't win until 2004, 2005.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_03: The Penguins kind of won these two, and that would that was it.
1:09:30
SPEAKER_03: That was really it from 1979 to you know 2004, and then we kind of had that mini, you know, like we did a whole you know podcast on the golden age that you know.
1:09:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:09:43
SPEAKER_01: We had like a a second 70s.
1:09:45
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
1:09:46
SPEAKER_03: This was kind of like the oasis in the middle of a you know, championship desert.
1:09:51
SPEAKER_02: That's that's very true.
1:09:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:09:53
SPEAKER_03: And I I was young, I remember thinking when they won those two, it was like, oh, this is gonna happen every year.
1:09:57
SPEAKER_03: I didn't realize that you know, this didn't happen every year.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_01: And and I think that you know, so there was that like groundswell of pride in the 70s.
1:10:05
SPEAKER_01: Like people just reveled in the fact that Oh, people became penguins.
1:10:08
SPEAKER_03: I mean, this made people penguins fans too.
1:10:10
SPEAKER_03: Like the penguins were kind of like, you know, uh, maybe there's the Steelers and the Pirates, and then maybe the Penguins, like kind of down there.
1:10:16
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's true also.
1:10:18
SPEAKER_03: Because I remember going out and getting like you know, I didn't know hardly anything about hockey except, you know, and you know, people we started playing it, like I remember and I like junior high playing it every day at gym class, and that was you know, probably because of the penguins more than anything.
1:10:32
SPEAKER_03: And yeah.
1:10:33
SPEAKER_03: I used to have a shirt that said Wales Conference Championship on it.
1:10:37
SPEAKER_03: I don't know where that went.
1:10:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and and like it's like in the 70s you had the Steelers and Pirates winning championships, and and I think people were so proud of like Pittsburgh, you know, nationally, Pittsburgh was just seen as a smoky steel town that nobody wanted to go to, and then it brought all this national pride, and then you had this entire decade of of bad economy, people leaving, and then all the sports teams just went into the gutter.
1:11:04
SPEAKER_01: And so for this team to come out and bring another championship back to the city, it it I just think it meant a ton to people, and I think you saw that was what happened at the airport.
1:11:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this is this is incredible.
1:11:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
1:11:18
SPEAKER_01: A throng of 40,000 people flood Greater Pit at three o'clock in the morning to greet the penguins as their plane lands.
1:11:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think they had to shut down the airport, didn't they?
1:11:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
1:11:31
SPEAKER_03: Do you video do you have the video of this at all?
1:11:34
SPEAKER_01: I I well I'll post a link to that on our website.
1:11:36
SPEAKER_01: But you'll never see something like that again.
1:11:38
SPEAKER_03: Well, you just never will.
1:11:40
SPEAKER_03: Well, because of security, yeah.
1:11:41
SPEAKER_01: But they they wouldn't even allow it today, right?
1:11:43
SPEAKER_03: Well, the second one, remember they told people don't come to the airport.
1:11:47
SPEAKER_03: But yeah, and then people like once the rumors spread, and this is back before cell phone, reserve.
1:11:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like this is just word of mouth, Tim.
1:11:55
SPEAKER_03: Word of mouth.
1:11:56
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm saying.
1:11:57
SPEAKER_03: This is there was no Facebook, there was no Twitter, it was just word of mouth.
1:12:02
SPEAKER_01: Steve, even with Facebook and Twitter, could you get 40,000 people to show up for something at three o'clock in the morning?
1:12:09
SPEAKER_01: It would be hard enough to get 30,000 people to show or 40,000 people to show up for at like two in the afternoon, yeah.
1:12:14
SPEAKER_01: For something you sold tickets to months in advance.
1:12:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
1:12:17
SPEAKER_01: Much less, like you said, impromptu, three o'clock in the morning.
1:12:21
SPEAKER_01: And and and yeah, that's a really good point that I never thought of, Steve.
1:12:24
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
1:12:24
SPEAKER_01: There was no social media, like, hey, we're going to the airport.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I want to be at the airport.
1:12:28
SPEAKER_01: Literally, like everybody kind of independently had to decide that or call their neighbors or whatever.
1:12:33
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
1:12:33
SPEAKER_01: There there wasn't, you're right.
1:12:34
SPEAKER_01: There was no other way to do that.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_01: It was just a very impromptu thing.
1:12:38
SPEAKER_01: And I think it just shows what my point about how much it meant to the city.
1:12:42
SPEAKER_01: Like how expensive.
1:12:43
SPEAKER_03: Well, you couldn't get through the corridors.
1:12:44
SPEAKER_03: Like when you watch the video, you like it, like there's just like they had to like basically clear a path for the players to get out of the plane, you know.
1:12:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:12:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:12:54
SPEAKER_01: So pretty incredible.
1:12:56
SPEAKER_01: Just a great season, a great run.
1:12:58
SPEAKER_01: Um, man.
1:12:59
SPEAKER_01: And and it just, like I said, it meant a lot to to not only the city, but just having this franchise, it just was so so bad luck stricken for so many years, come in and win a championship.
1:13:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, just a great memory.
1:13:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
1:13:15
SPEAKER_03: I I remember too, like, with like people made up like little sayings like, oh, we deviled the devils or something, you know, and yeah.
1:13:24
SPEAKER_03: Toppled the capitals.
1:13:25
SPEAKER_03: I forget what it was, but I remember that too.
1:13:27
SPEAKER_03: Like, there's just a lot of fun stuff that happened and good times.
1:13:31
SPEAKER_03: I mean, and like you're so young you think it's gonna happen every year, but then you know, you realize, hey, wait a minute, this is kind of a special thing, it doesn't happen every year.
1:13:39
SPEAKER_03: So it makes you appreciate it more.
1:13:41
SPEAKER_01: It does.
1:13:42
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you everybody for listening.
1:13:44
SPEAKER_01: We so appreciate your continued support of our little show here.
1:13:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh, please check us out on uh Facebook or Twitter.
1:13:52
SPEAKER_01: Please check out our website, those links are in the show description.
1:13:56
SPEAKER_01: Um we always say word of mouth is a great way to gets people to the airport at 3 a.m.
1:14:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it does.
1:14:03
SPEAKER_01: It does.
1:14:04
SPEAKER_01: It also gets people to listen to the podcast.
1:14:06
SPEAKER_01: So if you like the podcast, please tell your friends, and we will catch you next time.