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The 2008-09 Penguins · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone, welcome to the Pittsburgh Sports Memories Podcast.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Tim Hannon.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm Steve Wirt.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: And for those of you that may be unfamiliar with this podcast, we're two lifelong Pittsburgh sports fans, and every episode we sort of take a deep dive into some memorable event in Pittsburgh sports history and discuss it.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: This week's uh uh topic that we're going to deep dive into is the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguin season that ended with the Stanley Cup.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: As we really get into that season, the 2008-2009 season, let's let's let's start a few years earlier.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um so so the Penguins uh going back to the 1990s have this uh really strong decade of hockey.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the decade, they declare bankruptcy.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Mario Lemieux comes in and buys the team and saves it.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um but uh eventually in the early part of the 2000s, the financial issues kind of catch up with them.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they they also badly need a new arena.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're playing in the in the league's oldest building in the Civic Arena.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh they have to start sort of selling off parts of the team.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: They trade uh Yaramir Yagar, who is their best player, and they go through this stretch in the early 2000s of just some miserable, miserable seasons.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Steve, what do you remember about those seasons?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, they were pretty bad.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Pen the Penguins, um, you know, Mario's whole thing with buying the team was um he signed a rather large like superstar contract with uh Howard Baldwin.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he never really got paid on that because Howard Baldwin didn't have the money that he promised them.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of like one of those deals, well, I don't have any money, but I can give you the team.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So Mario took the team kind of in a trade to satisfy this contract where he really never got paid.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh as to the arena, the Civic Arena was built as an opera house with a retractable roof, and they filled the fish that saved Pittsburgh, which is a classic Jonathan Winters Dr.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: J uh vehicle.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you love if you love basketball movies.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, I do remember going to a game before um before Terry, I went to more than one game, but I remember one time I sat in sea level and those tickets were like expensive.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't cheap.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you I was in the end, and to see the other end because of the way the overhang was, you would have to stand up.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and you kept wondering why people stand up after the first time, you're like, what's going on?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, oh yeah, you can't see unless you stand up.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the Civic Arena was like badly suited for hockey.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: The um the new arena, the console, is much, much better to watch a hockey game.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they had the Howard Baldwin seats, they used to call them.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Remember way at the top.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Second F.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: I had seasoned tickets.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So during that era, I had seasoned tickets.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I've sat up there.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've sat up.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you felt like you're taking your life in your hands.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean you felt like you were gonna fall off.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was just and that that's why they could never retract the roof either, remember?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was in the way.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: They were well, they were like tied to the roof.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So so the fact that every NHL team had had a new building built since the Civic Arena was built, every single NHL team had gotten a new arena in that time frame.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and what had also happened was um the city the city had uh built um Heinz Field and PNC Park in that time period, and um there was a strong backlash because they did I don't think people minded them building it.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: They just didn't want them to use public money to do it.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so there were some political things, so they they didn't the the mayor and such didn't stand up to necessarily the Steelers and the pirates the way they did the penguins.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure if that was just uh, you know, in Pittsburgh, you gotta understand it's very parochial and like, you know, I've been here a long time, but my parents weren't from Pittsburgh.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: They grew up in Harrisburg, and they are still 40, 50 years, still not consider, you know.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you gotta be here a couple generations before some of the locals consider you a true local.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So there might have been some of that going on towards poor Mario.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the difficulties, and like you said, they got rid of Yager, but a good thing happened in hockey.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hockey kind of went through this.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hockey's always been like behind basketball, I would say, you know, as far as on the sports pecking order, and they were always more of a regional, and they had a large expansion of 20 teams.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so finally they they figured out that they couldn't just kalt to they have teams called the original six, which is the Rangers, Canadians, Maple Leafs, Blackhawks, Bruins, Bruins.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So those are kind of the original teams that make the money and have solid fan bases.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the Penguins and the Flyers and the Blues, and they were in the expansion of 67.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: They were kind of the Johnny Come Latelys and then the other.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So what had happened was there was this economic disparity like there is much in baseball, was you negotiate your TV contract, and the Rangers and those teams get large TV contracts and can sign top name players and teams like the Penguins and that don't have as big a TV markets fall behind because you don't have the money to compete.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's much like it is in baseball.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So what happened was is now not liking baseball, is hockey didn't back then there wasn't high Def TV, probably not quite there yet.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have quite the TV ratings and TV fan base.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was more of a it hockey is totally different if you go.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a much better game viewed in person than it is on TV.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was kind of playing into it.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So in 2005, the owners in the decided they couldn't, you know, continue, they were gonna lose the league, and they had a lockout for a whole season.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: They lost a whole they are the only professional sports to lose a whole season.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Entire season, yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And come back.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta I mean yeah.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: But it like you said, it was necessary for especially for teams like the Penguins.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would say, yeah, the Penguins, and I don't know about the Flyers, but I would imagine the Flyers might be in that boat.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Tampa Bay, you know.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I forgot Detroit.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Detroit was an original six.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: But but you're right, the the the after the after the lockout, they instituted a salary cap.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the other thing that really benefited the Penguins was they instituted a bunch of role changes that favored offense.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well that was they were trying to get TV, you know, ratings up.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like ESPN had kind of cut them, or they might have been on versus the the whatever verses is now the NBC network.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that was uh but much like in 1984 when they won the Mario Lemieux lottery, they sent uh our lucky, lucky charm, Craig Patrick, up to the draft, and uh Lord knows in 2005 he came up aces again and got his Crosby.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what what a what a what a what a lucky charm, huh?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Crosby and Lemieux.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: That was very unique because the so the the Penguins, I mean, they they stunk, so they always had a high draft pick.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they they really had a lottery.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was a total lottery system.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because there was no 2005 season.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you do, right?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: There there was no oh there was no uh four-05 season.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: So now you can't just give the first pick to the team that stunk the previous two years ago because there was no season.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So they they did a lottery, but they did wait it, where the the bad teams from the 04 season had more better chance.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: So the Penguins had a better chance, but but literally.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and Crosby, like Lemieux, like Connor McDavid, like Wayne Gretzky, was a once-in-a-generation talent.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Every every probably I'd say in hockey, every like dozen years or so, you get those guys.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Eric Windross was one of those guys too, although he didn't quite pan out as well as the other guys I mentioned.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: But every once in a while you get that once-in-a-generational player and the draft, you know, you're whoever gets that guy, it's gonna be a huge deal.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that was the other reason they had the lottery that year.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure they would have had the league-wide lottery had uh a player like that not been the consensus over number one overall pick.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: If it would have been a couple years later and you would have had a smattering of guys, maybe they don't do that.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: But because Crosby was gonna be this once-in-a-lifetime player, they had that.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and amazingly, the Penguins' ball came up at the end and and they were the ones that got Crosby, and that really changed everything.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and the Penguins had drafted uh Malkin and Flurry the two years before, but then Malkin was stuck in Russia for a year or two because they wouldn't pay the KHL enough money to get him, ransom him out of Russia.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: So But but you had these, yeah, you had Flurry, Malkin.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Which is kind of Russian.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: They just pay, just pay the Russians.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just pay him.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: They they drafted Gordon Stahl the next year.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And at that by that point, uh they had fired Craig Patrick and they'd brought in Ray Hiro as the GM.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And Hiro's model was a three-center team deep offense.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: So you had Crosby, Malkin, and Stahl were the three centers, and he Hiro figured I could just build around those three centers.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: I have my goalie.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: I have they had drafted Chris Latang, they had some young defensemen.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was a very, very young team.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Guys, I mean, Crosby was 18 when he came into the league.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: All these guys were teen late teenagers, early 20s.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but there was certainly a lot of excitement.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um it it really turned things around.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: You went from this miserable time that we talked about going to these games and and lose seeing them lose all the time to they started selling out.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in 2007, they started a streak of sellouts that's still active to this day.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, they just recently celebrated their 600th straight sellout.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's impressive.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: So 600th straight sellouts since 2007.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they had that one year in there where like Mario was still on his second return, and I think Mario wanted to just, okay, let's go for it one last time, and that's kind of what Craig Patrick Fox Like they they signed a bunch of like I heard John LeClair playing with Crosby.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like it that team, it was a bunch of old guys in Crosby, and it was so here's here's so the the first season uh uh after the lockout was 05-06, and you're right, they signed Ziggy Palfey, John Leclerc, they signed these veterans to try to make a run.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: It did not go well.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And they didn't even make the playoffs.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't make the playoffs.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick got fired, uh, and Eddie Olcek got fired to coach.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so then in 06-07, they brought in Michelle Terrion, who had coached the AHL team, and they thought he he now Michelle Terrion was a disciplinarian.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: He was not a player's coach, he was he was hardcore, and they thought with a bunch of young guys we need somebody that's going to, you know, to to sort of be a drill sergeant with them.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it worked.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: In 07, they made the playoffs.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: They got they they lost some five to Ottawa.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean they probably just too young, not quite.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: It was a quick exit.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think anybody was upset about that.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's it was a young team, their first time in the playoffs, and and you thought, okay, as long as they show improvement after this, we're going in the right direction.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the next season, the uh 07-08 season, they're back in the playoffs, and this time they just storm their way through the Eastern Conference.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I I've never seen a playoff series, set a series like this.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: They beat the Senators in a sweep in four games, and in the in the next two series against the Rangers and Flyers, they went up 3-0 in both those series, lost game four and won game five.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So literally, they they make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, losing only two games, and both of those games were after 3-0 series leads.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: So they had zero adversity.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: They never were down in a series, they were never even close to on the brink of a series.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they just stormed their way through the Eastern Conference with this young team, and there's so much excitement, you're thinking, oh my gosh, they're in the Stanley Cup Finals already.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: It was sort of beyond what you would have expected from that group.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and and you're just thinking, this is this could be another dynasty.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then they then they ran into a really good Detroit Red Wings team.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh unfortunately they uh now were those first two games in Detroit?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Was it that?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: The first two games that year were in Detroit.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Detroit, yeah.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that that probably they probably weren't quite ready.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, you know, you it's kind of like the the theme of this is they they steady improvement in the team maturing.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that they probably maybe not mature.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can't, you know, what's the statistic?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you lose the first two, it's there's not many teams that have won that.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: But but don't worry, we'll we'll we'll fix that, yeah, next year.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Detroit was a Detroit was a veteran team.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: They had won uh a handful of Stanley Cups already.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um they were just a veteran team, they were way better than us.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it was there's no other way to say it.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was a six-game series.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was it was sort of almost fortunate that it won six games.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: We had won game five in triple overtime just to keep things alive.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: That was the Peter Secora War.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Peter Secora called the game.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're eating dominoes because the owner, the owner owned little Caesar.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so um and I think the the thing that really hurt was game six when they won the cup was at the Mellon Arena.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so they they hoisted the Stanley Cup on our home ice.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and so that was sort of a sad end of that season because uh watching them raise the Stanley Cup.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And and so now, okay, tough loss.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: We go into the offseason, and the Pens lose a couple of players.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: They lose Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone in free agency.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan Malone was a tough one, he was a local kid who was really instrumental in that 2008 run.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: But the the big story of the offseason was Marionosa.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And Marionjosa was a guy that uh at the 2008 trade deadline, they they gave up a lot for.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: They gave up a first-round pick, they gave up a few other players, good good players like Colby Armstrong, to get Marianjosa to go all in to make this playoff run.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and Marianjosa is a big reason why, again, they stormed their way through the conference.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so now Marienhosa was a rental player.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so, and so originally you're thinking, okay, well, he's he's a free agent.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: He had this great postseason, he's just gonna, he's somebody's gonna pay him, some terrible last place team is gonna pay him a gazillion dollars and he'll be gone.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: But Marionhosa didn't want a gazillion dollars.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Marionosa wanted to win a CM Lee Cup, which in any other situation we'd all think would be really admirable, you know, because it's it's against the grain of your typical stereotypical athlete.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: This guy didn't care about making him um the most money.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: He wanted to go to the place where he had the best chance to win, and he narrowed his two choices down to staying with Pittsburgh or going to Detroit, the team that had just beaten us, and he went to Detroit.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um Marion uh probably uh maybe regrets that decision in hindsight.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: But uh maybe maybe he saw something he didn't like Terry and I don't I don't know.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh definitely he went to Detroit and uh became a villain in Pittsburgh.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: His his I have his quote here um the day he signed with Detroit.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: He said Pittsburgh has a great team, great people, great organization.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I had to compare the two teams, and there's a little better chance to win the Cup in Detroit.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: I had a great time with Sid and Gino, but the team in Detroit is something special.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that was sort of a knife in the gut.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, think of imagine when the Steelers lost that Super Bowl to the Packers, if, you know, two weeks later Troy Polomalo would have gone and signed with the Packers and said, you know, I just I think they're a better team and I've they're they're they're just more special.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was just painful.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, boy, we lost, and this guy leaves us for Detroit.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: And again, like I said, from if you're not a Penguins fan, good for him.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: He he he wanted to win a cup, he turned down potentially more money to go to a place where he really thought he had the best chance.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But as a Penguin fan, uh, that was painful.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's probably one of the bigger free agent defections in Pittsburgh sports history.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It really was.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: And again, if he signs with the last place, you know, Arizona Coyotes or whatever.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Goes back to Atlanta.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: You don't even you don't you okay, fine.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like you sort of expected that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: But but it going to Detroit just uh, you know, and so now you're going into the next season and now Detroit just won the cup and they just got one of the best players in the league from you.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um nevertheless, going into the season, there's certainly still lots of optimism.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um if you look at the preseason picks that year, a lot of people picked the Penguins to represent the Eastern Conference in the finals again.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um the the team also inked Michelle Terry into a new three-year contract, rewarding him for the really good, you know, steady year-by-year improvement that he had shown.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and the Penguins were in 99% of their season ticket sales from the previous year.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: So again, attendance is good.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um they had also, I I don't know if we mentioned this, but they had also, during that previous season, made a deal to stay in Pittsburgh.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: So the long-term future was good, the short-term future was good.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was still an exciting time to be a Penguins.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because they were they were threatening to leave the Kansas City.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know how real that threat was.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was negotiating with um some governor from that may or may not be an Eagles fan.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, I'm sure he negotiated with the Flyers like he did with the Penguins.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Ed Rendell.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: What a joker.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: There was a there was a lot, but I mean it was so nice to be done with that.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, okay, no more arena issues, no more like we're in the financial tank issues.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Things were really turning around.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: You could just focus on enjoying this good young team.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And before the season, uh there was this kind of famous commercial um that came out.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it was the commercial was was an NHL commercial, and it was um it was footage of the last couple seconds of game six against the Red Wings, and you see the Red Wings celebrating and hoisting the cup, and you see a still shot of Sidney Crosby sort of standing by the bench watching Detroit raise the cup.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And in this commercial, Crosby steps out of what is a still shot, uh still picture, and he steps literally out of the frame, and he looks at the camera, and he says, I never want to be in this picture again.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: And it was, it ended up being such a um, you know, it was kind of an interesting commercial at the time, but you you it's interesting later how important that would become because sure enough, he would be right back in that same potential spot again a year later.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the season starts, the Penguins open up strong, they they open the season 12-4-3.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they, you know, so again, you're just thinking, okay, they're just gonna cruise into the playoffs again.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then around uh December, January, which is sort of that time frame when everybody's still kind of paying attention to football and and you're just kind of going going along with hockey, things really start to go south for the Penguins.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and by the time we get to the All-Star break, uh it's the Penguins are 23, 21, and 4.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And they're in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, which it means that they're out of the playoffs.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that was pretty shocking.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they had a good start to the season and they had this great season beforehand, and like you again, you're just expecting steady improvement, and now the bottom falls out.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: They did have injuries, I think that was part of it.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um Sergei Gonchar had gotten hurt in their first preseason game and he missed the first four months of the season.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: So that certainly hurt.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they just weren't playing up to expectations, and and there could be a lot of reasons why.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um it it it could have been the fatigue of the long playoff run the year before, although again they had a lot of short series that previous year.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it also could have been that the coaching was starting to wear on them.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a Terrian, like you said, is a disciplinarian.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And for for some reason in hockey, it seems like um unlike other sports like football or even college collegiate sports like basketball, there's not a longevity there.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, besides Lindy Rupp, I can't explain him, but uh I i it there there seems to be a shelf life.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, if for some the message wears off, or maybe it's just you know, it's more of a creative process on the ice where, you know, just having a strict system doesn't play as well.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he was definitely a strict disciplinarian, the infamous stuff, the defense stuff, you know, they don't don't like and apparently there was like, you know, he cussed out uh everybody in bilingual.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if you were French or spoke French or English, you got the picture, I guess.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure how you draw drop drop curse words in French, but uh I guess Mark Arnjury Fleury got got the hint, him and Latin.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: But uh I don't know what the Russians players thought, but I'm sure.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Gontar passed it along the mock anyhow.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and you're right, that the press the the press conference will always be remembered for Tarion is it was a few seasons previous to this one, but yeah, where he went up after the game and he just tracked the entire team and he said the defensemen were soft.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: He said that, you know, these guys they just they really don't want to win.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well didn't he threaten to give 'em like fifty percent of their pay or something.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like yeah, if you only go fifty I mean
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: He was very he was very like like the way you would imagine like a Vince Lombardi or Paul Brown.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: But in this era when the athletes make millions of dollars, it's that's a fine line to walk.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have 18-year-olds, that might work for a while and eventually it's gonna wear thin.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: People tune you out.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's probably what started to happen that Terry and although I've heard uh Mark Madden, who's a local uh journalist and radio host, um who's probably the best hockey person if you're looking to learn about hockey, um said that he's the best turnaround coach in in hockey.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think that's evidenced by this.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's just his you know his message wore off, and uh unfortunately the penguins had to make a change.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so on Valentine's Day, they they uh they they're playing in Toronto, they um are ahead, and then Toronto scores five uh third period goals to to win the game, and that's kind of the last straw.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: So the next day they fire Tarrion and they replace him with a guy named Dan Biosma, who liked Tarrion when he got hired, is the coach of the Penguins AHL affiliate and Wilkes Berry Scranton.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so they hire him on an interim basis, and he is sort of the opposite of Terrian.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: He's young.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um he he had actually um was not that m far removed from being a player.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: He had played for Anaheim when Anaheim made it to the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, and this was 2009, so he was not that far removed from even being a player.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So he's pretty young and he's a player's coach.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and and it's it's funny because that this is the same um the same time frame when the steel when the Steelers across town had hired Mike Tomlin, who was also a young coach.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of the trend to bring in these young coaches, they related better to the players.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: So um you know that's what they did.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now he was an interim coach, so he wasn't necessarily gonna be the long-term solution at the time.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they just they definitely needed a change.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think they did lose the even under him, they lost the n was it to the Islanders?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think they did lose their first game with him, because I remember that game, yeah.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking, well, we'll see what this guy and then it was like, well.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I kinda I kind of lost faith at that point.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: I I thought, well, maybe the penguins are kind of kind of done here for this year.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it felt like a lost season.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then Balsman came in and for whatever reason they start winning.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: They start piling up wins, and he actually um he goes 18-3 and 4, which is pretty good.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: You know, pretty much losing losing only three times outright in 25 games.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they had to, had to to to even make the playoffs.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: They had to they had to go on this like incredible hot streak.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then and now players are coming back, Gonchar comes back, which that's a big thing for the defense.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he's a leader in the locker room and you know, he's a good player.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: So that helped.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh we're having at the the deadline they probab acquired Bill Guerin.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they got more more veteran presence.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Chris Kunitz, who's uh one of my favorite players, you know, a guy that could go and get the puck for Crosby and dig in the corners and probably you know provide some uh toughness and fore-checking.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that was and that kind of played into what Balsman was aggressive, you know.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas the Terrian seemed to be more, they would play back more, and I think uh Balsman was more fore checking and being aggressive.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and and those were two like gritty players too.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: They like needed some grit.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Garin, especially.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Guerin, what he was what everybody in Pittsburgh remembered him.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: He was playing for the Islanders at the time that they traded for him.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: But his real productive years were in New Jersey on those 90s devils team that that some people would argue kind of ruined hockey for a while.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: But that was where he sort of made his name on those on those defensive, defense first kind of gritty I uh devils teams.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And he was 38 years old at the time.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but like you said, Steve, veteran presence, they they were such a young team.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of took Gary Roberts' place from the year before.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good point.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: So so they they pick up some guys at the deadline, they finish uh with 99 points, that's good for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh if Guinea Malkin, that was his his sort of breakout season, he wins the Art Ross Trophy, leading the league in scoring.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: So now they're going into the playoffs, they are uh again the fourth seed, playing the fifth seed in the first round.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: The fifth seed is none other than the Philadelphia Flyers, the team that they had beaten in the conference finals the year before, and of course their biggest rivals.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh Philly always, outside of the year before, Philly seemed to have the Penguins number a lot.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: They they had not beaten the Flyers a lot in the playoffs.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, the Flyers definitely have a certain style, you know, that might be considered very aggressive, and uh that but that's how the that's how they roll over there in Philadelphia, and uh they seem to like it over there, and uh good for them.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean I mean let's just be blunt here.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: The the Flyers are scum.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well they're not above uh gooning it up a little bit there.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus And look, look, like we we we live in a day and age where there's a lot of divisiveness in this country, and I'm I'm uh always a big proponent of you know, let's sit down, sit down with people that maybe have different backgrounds or political beliefs than you do.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus But you won't sit down with a Flyers fan.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's nothing redeeming there.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just be honest.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's nothing redeeming there.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Another great Mark Madden quote about the Flyers is they serve red meat to cannibals, which I always thought was hilarious.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I I mean I don't see what's redeeming about rooting for a team whose whose goal has been to turn a sport that I really love into like a game of of Street Fighter II.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: It it it just it's so yeah, I don't like the Flyers.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of other Penguins fans.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: But you can't beat them in the ring, beat them in the alley.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that was that was the Flyers, and that's why they haven't won a cup forty plus years.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: One of the Campbells said that when he coached for one of the Canadian teams.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: So now we're playing the Flyers in the first round.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, there's but despite the win the year before, there's there is a um the penguins don't have a good history here.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: But this series, so there's there's two memorable things about this series, and both of them are very, very Philadelphia Flyer-esque.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the first is game two goes into overtime, and and if you if you've ever watched playoff hockey overtime, the referees swallow is is an understatement with their whistles.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they they take a shovel and they bury their whistles underneath the end.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: You'd have to commit a felony.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: You have to commit a felony.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the flyers somehow get called for two penalties at the same time.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like they they actually go into a the penguins get a five on three in overtime.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: It still took them a minute to score, if I remember correctly.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's still like a like five on three.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: It still took them like forever to score on that battle.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: It did.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: It did, but they did.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Bill Guerin got the game winner, a five-on-three.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: I was watching that game in William Sports, Pennsylvania, in a bar, and I jumped up and screamed and then looked around the bar, and it was all flyers.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I realized I was not in friendly territory, and I I just sort of uh wobbled my way out.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but that was that was game two, and then so the penguins actually went up 3-1 in the series, and you're thinking, oh good, another short series, we're gonna put them away.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the Flyers storm back in game five, and then game six is in Philadelphia, and they go up three to nothing early in the game.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: Into the second period, they're up three to nothing.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: And now as a penguin fan, you're starting to get panicked.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um Yeah, game seven, who knows what happens.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah, right.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, so you you're already thinking game six is over, it's three-nothing.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and so now the all the momentum has completely shifted back to the Flyers.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: And as it's three-nothing, Max Talbot, who ends up being a pretty key player in this whole 2009 run for the Penguins, he um he uh picks a fight with Daniel Carcillo on on the Flyers, who was one of their many, many goons.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: And at this point in the game, 3-0, there is zero upside to Carcillo fighting.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: Zero.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's upside for the flyer, actually.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it is.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Bobby Clark is up there Does a tiger change its drive side?
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: Slow clapping, because that's that's what they that's what they do.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: There's zero upside, Cartillo fights him, um, it fires up all the penguins.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Talbot's being escorted off the ice.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: But they would have said uh, you know, if you watch the fight, like Cartzilla really does the animals like Oh, yeah.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Cartzilla won the fight, which is all that the flyers cared about.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what mattered.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like Talbot got into a fight.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Talbot got into a fight to try to fire up the team, and it worked.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: And as as they're escorting Talbot off the ice and all the fans are yelling at him, he puts his finger to his mouth and makes the sign.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that honestly, that could be a statue.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: That could be a statue outside.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: It should be.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: It should be a statue right beside the Mario statue outside of the arena.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: And after that, the Penguins storm back, they score the next four goals, they take a four-to-three lead.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then the most beautiful thing at the end of that game, the Flyers pull their goalie, and it's it's 87 that scores the empty netter to end their season.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And their fans are so angry, so angry.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And because they they just they if there's anybody they hate more than than anyone in the world, it's Sidney Crosby, and he ends their season on an empty net goal.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, right then and there, that series, I mean, that was almost enough to make the whole season worthwhile just knocking out Philly in that fashion.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we're on to round two versus the Washington Capitals.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And why is why is that a big deal, Steve?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Capitals.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have a theory, and it's kind of an overarching theory.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's certain teams that just maybe it's not as pronounced as it used to be, but there's just certain teams that beat other teams.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter how good or bad, and it's like across every sport.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I would say the Steelers always beat the Indianapolis Colts.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter who their quarterback is, coach, whatever.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't think like the Patriots always beat the Steelers.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in the history of hockey, for some reason, the Penguins beat the Capitals every time.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what happens, who's going, you know, who's there, how good the Capitals are, how bad the Penguins are.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Penguins always beat the Capitals.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Capitals reversed that a little bit a couple years ago when they finally won their cup.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just over historically, it's been definitely one-sided Pittsburgh Penguins.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: There was a big comeback.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they were down three games to one in the 90s on one of their cup runs.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and in two, Gonchar was a lifelong Capitol and they never won a cup with them.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: So there was some, you know, definitely crossover.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: There was a rivalry between Ovechkin and Crosby, never mind, you know, Ovechkin and Malkin.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's some rivalry too, you know, who's the best Russian player.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: But uh definitely for whatever reason, the Capitals just uh especially in Washington, too.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: They don't, they, they, they, they just don't do well.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh when when Pittsburgh comes calling, it's not, it's been bad news for them.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it it was it was a they played each other in the playoffs so many times in the 90s and early 2000s.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: And this was the first time sort of in that new era.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you had, like you said, Crosby and Ovechkin.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um the NHL, they really needed a marquee, you know, like like LeBron versus Steph Curry or Magic versus Bird.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bird, yeah.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: This was their yeah, that.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they needed that.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so and so the national hype coming into the series was oh, here we go, Crosby versus Ovechkin.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: These are the two star players of the generation that are going to play each other in this series.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so there was a lot of hype around that.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and game two, it really lived up to that because in game two, both of those players had hat tricks.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you're seeing the two best players in hockey really play at their best.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately for the Penguins.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: So so if you're watching that as an unbiased fan, that's some good hockey.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, if you're a Penguins fan, the Capitals won those first two games, and now we're down 0-2, heading into game three.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: In game three, uh, the Capitals tie the game late and send the game into overtime.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's funny, uh anytime, I think any team that's ever won a championship, um, not any team, but there's a lot of things where you can look at one moment in their season where if that result would have gone differently, would they have won a championship?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think for for this team, for the for that 2009 Penguin team, it was this game three overtime because if the Capitals score the next goal there and we're down zero to three, that's a series.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a season.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty historic, yeah.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're it's probably coming back.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: You're not coming back.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that was it.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh Crystal Tang off of a face-off uh from from the blue line scores uh in overtime for the Penguins to win the game, to get them back into the series.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: And now the momentum shifts.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: The Penguins win game four, and then game five in Washington goes into overtime, and this time Malkin uh it's a controversial play because if you if you watch the replay of the game five overtime goal, everybody's booing before Malkin scores because they wanted a penalty on the Penguins, but they didn't call it.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Malkin skates down, he tries to center a pass.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: I believe, I believe Crosby was on the ice.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever he tried to center it to, though, the Washington defenseman tried to dive, and when he dove, he knocked it into his net.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so the Penguins win game five.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now they're up three games to two, heading back to Pittsburgh.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so now, first all this momentum goes to Washington, now it's back to Pittsburgh for game six.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: Game six goes into overtime, and this time David Steckle, who years later becomes infamous for uh basically knocking Crosby off for two of two whole seasons in the winter classic, but David Steckle, pre-imfamy fame, um, scores the overtime winner.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: So you're going into game seven with uh three of the last four games going into overtime, the two best players in the world playing at their best, um, all this back and forth momentum shift.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: So you just figure game seven in Washington is going to be this epic, huge, you know, memorable game.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: And um it really uh I guess it was memorable from the Penguins fan.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the big I think the big moment that set the tone early was um Ovechkin gets a breakaway early and Fleury absolutely stones him.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he just and that and that seemed like then the Penguins uh scored a a couple more goals after that, and that seemed to be the um that put uh Washington in its place there.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh kind of they never really recovered after you know your best player got stopped on a breakaway.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: They just can never recover the momentum.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it is weird that there was such a back and forth series, and finally, you know, the final momentum swing was to the penguins on the on I would say on that breakaway by uh by Ovechkin uh flurry coming up with a big save or Ovechkin, because maybe if Ovechkin scores that goal there, maybe you know they go on to win 62.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a big moment.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was a big save.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: But they're the Capitals and they're not gonna beat the Penguins.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't even matter.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: I know No, I mean I hate to say it, but it just seems like I don't know why it's like maybe it's psychological or whatever.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well like you think it's like not like Oxander Ovechkin in Russia cared in 1990 that you know it it just doesn't make any sense.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to wrap your head around.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, when they won when they won the cup, they sort of they did overcome it that year.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: So who knows who knows if that's like if that really got them over the horse.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: But like in in this case, yeah, at that point, especially, it was just the way it always went for the Capitals versus the Penguins, and to and to have that kind of a series back and forth, back and forth, overtime games.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: And the final at Game 7 was six to two, and it wasn't even that close.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like six to two wasn't.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, they dominate thoroughly dominate.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was over by the middle of the second period.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and in in Washington.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: So now that now the Penguins so they dispatched the Capitals, which is a big deal.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was a big series for round two.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was probably one of the more key round playoff rounds in that playoffs.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely was.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and the third round almost feels like a letdown because they're playing the Carolina Hurricanes for the conference in the conference finals.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: And Carolina was kind of an odd story.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: They they were a little bit of a Cinderella team.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um they had won the cup three or four years earlier, so they weren't like a no-name team.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: But that year they were the sixth seed.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they weren't that good, but they took out two division champions.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: They took out New Jersey and Boston.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and in the Boston series, that was a real back and forth series.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: That that there was a lot of controversy in that series where uh Scottie Walker for for Carolina had knocked out Aaron Ward for the Bruins, and everybody in Boston wanted him suspended, and he ended up playing game seven and scored the the overtime goal that ended the Bruins season.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: So Carolina had just been through this very much of a roller coaster series similar to the Penguins.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and you know, when when you when we played the Capitals, the big fear was Ovetchkin.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you they had this great, not just Ovetkin, their whole offense was Semen and all their other great players that they had.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um Baxstrom, is it?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: Backstrom, yeah.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: They just just they had a great offense.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so you were just afraid of them scoring goals.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Carolina, I mean, they had they had Eric Stahl, they had some good players, but really the big fear with Carolina was Cam Ward, their goaltender.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: He they he was really the reason they had won the Stanley Cup several years earlier.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the Penguins, there there are uh a handful of great, great Penguins teams, 93, 96.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: I can think of a handful of examples where great penguin teams ran into a hot goaltender and that was it.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: That just stopped them dead in their tracks.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the goaltending in hockey is the great equalizer.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um but it ended up this is this was the easy series of all of them, is is what happened was uh they the the Hurricanes had no answer for Bulkin.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean they're D their their second, whoever they were pairing against him, just he absolutely shredded.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he shredded Cam Ward too.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he that this is probably the best I've ever seen Malkin play, I would guess.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just from an offensive standpoint, he was unbelievable.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean they took care of the hurricanes, no problem.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't even a series, quite honestly.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was a sweep.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um Malkin had the the goal in game two, the completed at Hatchark, where he had the no-look, he flipped it like flipped it over his shoulder basically into the net.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was one of those like you remember where you were kind of goals.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and yeah, they just dominate.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest story out of that series was um in game four.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: So Carolina at their arena, they they had some kind of siren that they sounded before.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've been to that arena, yeah.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: They they have they have a they have a siren.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they ring it like because it's like a hurricane warning because of the hurricane.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then they play Rock You by a Hurricane by the Scorpions, which is just it's a great entrance.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is a great entrance.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: Having been to a game, hockey game in Carolina.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I didn't know I didn't know what that was.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: I just remember that.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um I went to a Penguins Carolina game several years later, yeah.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: In Raleigh, yeah.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because I didn't I didn't know what it was.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: I just what I remember is the game for They have different it's like the flag in Seattle or celebrity or local celebrity.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: So the so who do you remember who sounded this out?
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Bokauer, because he went it's in Raleigh.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're in Raleigh, and he went to NC State, and um they l him and his I think his wife his his former wife, they they both lived in um I think they still do live in North Carolina.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well she doesn't, but uh he does, still lives in uh Carolina.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh he would ring the siren, and I guess that was controversial because how dare you betray the Pittsburgh who you know, they're like, okay, yeah, whatever.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was one of those overblown.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: How dare you go to your vacation home and you know do people get mad that he like lives in New York now?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: How dare you go to Central Park, go to Point State Park?
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you know it was one of the it was one of those it was one of those overblown Pittsburgh van controversies.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we're winning three to nothing, let's make something out of nothing.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and and like you said, that was the easy series.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: That the fact that that was the biggest story meant that it wasn't much of a series.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and so they win in four games, and the interesting thing, so so after game four, they wheel out the Prince of Wales trophy, which is what they give to the Eastern Conference champion.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: And typically, when when you get the Prince of Wales trophy, you don't touch it.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's the superstition because it's not the trophy you want to win.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: You want to win the cup.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so the previous year, when they won the Prince of Wales Trophy in Philadelphia, or against Philadelphia, um, they wheeled it out, Crosby stood next to it and took a picture, and they all skated off the ice.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't touch it.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then of course they lost.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: So Crosby, who's superstitious, very superstitious, um, this time he goes up to the Prince of Wales trophy, he picks it up.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: He literally hoists it over his head.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: There there's a more context when the Penguins won their back to back cups, Mario and them had touched the Prince of Wales trophy.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I think Mario kinda yeah, it's just you know, just touch it.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be all right.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they could have had the Prince of Wales come out and handed it, or whoever he who whoever that person is at that point.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure the Prince of Wales was busy doing important Prince of Wales things.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Harry, William, uh, yeah, I don't know either.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so so yeah, so now right, so now he he touches it and and uh and the two times subsequently in sixteen and seventeen when they won it again, he did the same thing because every time he touched it, they ended up winning the cup, and the one time he didn't touch it, they lost.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: So now I think I think Well, that's definitely the reason they won that year.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, but I I think I think twenty years from now, if if if the Penguins get back to that point, definitely somebody's gonna be gonna have to pick that trophy up because it's now it's just a franchise tradition.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: What a great name for a trophy, too, the Prince of Wales.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is what's the Western Conference?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is it still the Campbell?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Clarence Campbell, yeah.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's still Clarence.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, he's a hockey guy.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like they just Right.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like they just picked a random royal.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we could do the Duke of Edinburgh taking that.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we could do a whole uh podcast about weird Canadian trophy names and weird Canadian, like you know, English royalty associations.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: No lady bing.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: Why the Queen's on their money and stuff like that.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, we digress.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: So so so meanwhile, so the Penguins are back in the finals, and meanwhile, in the Western Conference, uh it's Detroit.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: Detroit's storming their way through in Detroit.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: With with their Campbell trophy.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know whether they touched the Campbell trophy.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know whether they touched it or not.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Zetterberg did.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure they did whatever they had done the previous year.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_01: So so they they win the they win the West.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: So now, oh my gosh, here we are, Stanley Cup Finals, the same two teams a year later.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_01: Detroit basically has the same team plus HOSA, so they're even better.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: The Penguins have gone through a lot of change, different coach and everything else, but they're back.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: They they sort of take a different path back to the finals.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: But regardless, here we are, the same two teams back in the finals.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the first two games were in Detroit just like they were the previous year.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the the previous year, the first two games were shutouts.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: Detroit shut out Pittsburgh in both of those first two games, and that's when you really started to realize that we weren't up to up to snuff.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: The second time around, uh they were a lot closer.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: The Penguins are competitive in those first two games.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: They get some bad bounces.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: The Joe Lewis arena was infamous for the weird bounces off the yeah.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were really like springy.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_01: Super springy, super, super weird.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so there were some bad bounces, and the the Penguins lose the first two games, and you're you're kind of thinking, okay, uh man, y it we looked better.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: It we seem like maybe we can hang with this team this year, but after two games, it's the same exact result.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're down.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the odds, I think in the final, the odds are like if you win the first two games, it's something like 70% you win the cops.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the odds are and this is kind of the the I think a theme of this series is the odds are against the Penguins the rest of the way.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: They really, really, you know, pulled an upset here because in all reality, you know, Detroit probably should have won this series.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well think about think about think about the math.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: You win the first two games, that that means there's five games left.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you only have to win one what?
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: Two well, you gotta win.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the other team has to win four out of five.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: For for if you're down 0-2, you have to win four out of the last five.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can only lose one more time.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that means you gotta win on the road twice.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because they had the home home uh ice, yeah, you would have to win.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_01: The the thing I'll always remember about game two, when game two ended, um they played uh the and I and every time I hear this song, I'll always think of game two.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: At the Dillas Arena, they played Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: And do you know why they played that song?
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because the Penguins were Living on a Prayer.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_01: No, because oh, we're halfway there.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: They had won the first two games, they were halfway to four games.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: To repeating as Stanley Cup championship.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's lost, too, is they were about to re- and no team had repeated since the Red Wings had done it in the late 90s.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: And and this was the salary cap era, which was harder to repeat.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a big deal for them.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, every time I I I still hear that song and I still think of I how I've I felt really angry because it was like we're I couldn't believe we were right back in that same spot being down 02 after everything that had happened, after the the great run we had put together after all the after everything we went through and the Capital series and the coaching cane, and we're down 02 and they're th this is oh it's funny, this isn't even the low part of the series.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I I now would moving on to game three, was when was the Jordan Stahl goal?
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Was that game of the thing?
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: That was game four.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: So game three is back at it at home and the Mellow Arena, and the Penguins win game three, but that to me that wasn't a big deal because the previous year they did the same thing.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: They they lost games one and two, they won game three.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: Game four was the big one because Yeah, because you're just trying Detroit's just trying to win one out of two.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're not in trouble until you lose at home.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's the saying, yeah.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so when the when the Red Wings won Game Four at in Pittsburgh, you're in trouble, yeah.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: And went up 3-1, that was that was virtually I mean, that was really, in all honesty, the end of the series.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: We said that they they sort of eked out a six game with a triple overtime win, but really that was when the series ended.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_01: So now in 2009, the big game is game four.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: If we can win game four, then the script is completely flipped from the previous year.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so and so to your point, Steve, that was that was the game where so that game, Osgood and Fleury, the first period, both make some big saves.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in the second period, Detroit's up two to one, and they get back-to-back power plays.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh Malkin goes to the box, and then at the very end of that penalty, there's like two seconds left.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: The Penguins kill the penalty, Malkin's about to come back onto the ice, and Brooks Orpick is called for tripping.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so now um Detroit's gonna have a four-minute, well, a three-minute and fifty-eight second power play.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_01: And this this is really the series here.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, three minutes of the five years.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_00: I always I remember at the time, and this plays in Jordan Stahl, he comes up huge here.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_01: He does because it's it's not only so if Detroit scores and goes up three to one in the game, they probably win the game.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_01: Detroit, once they had a lead, they were hard to come back on.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: But they would play possession and keep play keep away.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: They were they were a really good, well-coached game.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_00: And their offense too was where like they didn't have like a ton of like skating skill, it seems it seemed like their offense was to stand in front of the net, if I remember correctly, and shoot pucks at you until you know it bounced off something and went in.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: So so was that abdicator or yeah, what yeah, they're they just had guys that like big oofs that would just like literally sit on your goalie.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, one of so one of their big oaths, so so as their penguins were desperately trying to kill off this four-minute power play, Malkin actually got a breakaway.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: And and he's skating down the ice, and and this big horse, Johann Franzen, that they had, just this massive horse of a player, um, hauls down Malkin on a breakaway.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and you're like, okay, well, fine, now that'll even things out at least.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: And they call nothing.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: They call nothing.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so now Detroit's still on a power play.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's screaming, booing, and that's where Jordan Stahl makes, like you said, Steve.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think he just has this beautiful breakaway goal.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, not that Jordan Stahl was like this amazing offensive player, but he had a nice little power move.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_00: He just kind of slides across and puts it right over Osgood.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: And boy, I do I at that point I started, I believe.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: I thought they're gonna win.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna win because that was such a turn.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, Detroit's not just gonna like run away with this.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to win.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: At least until game five, I thought that.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_01: So the stall goal, the sc the stall goal tied it.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: Crosby gets uh a goal two minutes later because they it it just shifted the momentum.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like Detroit had a four-minute power play, and they not only didn't get a goal, they got scored on on a short-handed goal.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the Penguins just came back and won that game.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like you said, now we're gonna go.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was 2-2, and game five's always a pivotal game in any seven-game series.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then you thought, okay, game five, if you can pull this out, you only got to win one in Detroit.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'd rather win game five than game seven, because normally road game sevens don't go well for you.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so that you thought you got to win game five.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and all the momentum was in our favor.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: We just won two games in a row.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_01: We'd had that great game four, the short-handed goal, everybody's excited, go into Detroit, and it's it's disastrous.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_00: Price is right, fail buzzer.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, they literally it could have been a lot more than five-nothing, probably.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: Fleury got smoked.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean that was probably one of Flurry's not good the worst performances of his career.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was bad.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: They pulled pulled they pulled Flurry out of the game.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_01: They lost five nothing.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_01: The offense couldn't score anything.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that was key for this game was Pavel Datsuk Yeah came back.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was our I mean, he had he had not been he had not played in that series, he was hurt.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he was he was arguably their best player.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh, you know, neck next to Lidstrom and and Zetterman, Zetterberg.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but you know, um he came back for that game, so now all the momentum, so now it's game six back at the back at the end.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they're pretty much in the same situation as they were the year before.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean it again, a different path to get there, certainly, but Detroit's up 3-2, and now, once again, has a chance to hoist the cup at our building.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um but this time things go a little differently.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Jordan Stahl scored early.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then in the third period, it was a very close game.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: Tyler Kennedy.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: Unbelievable.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: Who um if if I remember Tyler Kennedy.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like Jordan Stahl, Tyler Kennedy.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, well, and this isn't exactly Crosby and Malkin area.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: Crosby had the goal in game four, and I think that was his only goal of the series.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's that's I mean, go back to even the 90s teams.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: You you had like the Troy Loneys and the Bob Erie's.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you I think any team like this, you need the role players.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_01: And Tyler Kennedy, um, he was a frustrating player.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: He shot like he was that guy that shot the puck every time he had the puck.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: He could shoot.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the time he should make penguins ha fans happy.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_01: He was well liked probably for that, but he he didn't he wasn't a very good shot.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this night he was.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_01: He got he gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead um with 14 minutes left in the game.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh one of the gut-wrenching things about playoff hockey is to have a lead and you're watching the clock just tick down slowly.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_01: And in this game, the Red Wings got one of those goals back with 12 minutes left.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so for the last 12 minutes.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was rough, yeah.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's just an onslaught by the other team.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and again, the Red Wings were a really good offense.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they they would keep possession anyway, like I said.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I think they didn't quite have the skating, but then they would, like you said, it and it's what happened, like yeah, I see in our notes, Skideri.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: I remember Skideri making a save, like with a skate.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because he was in the crease.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if he would have put his hand on the puck, it would have been a penalty shot.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he couldn't, like Skideri was in like that's one of those iconic, like that's up there with the Peter Angelo save, like that moment in Penguin's history where like he just literally, it's like a kickstave in a beauty.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it Rob Scuderi saved the day.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_00: And in another role player, I mean Rob Scuderi wasn't exactly you know Sergei Gonjar here.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you talk about the role players.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Scuderi was one of those guys.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_01: He he was he had been with the penguins organization a long time.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: He was on some of those really bad teams uh earlier in the decade.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: And he made two big plays.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh earlier in that period, he there was a a loose puck in the crease and he cleared it out of there.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then, like you said, in the final seconds, somehow Flurry got out of position and the crease was wide open, and Skuderi, like you said, with his leg, saves it.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it was just Detroit was just piling people into the I mean, it was it like you said, it was an onslaught.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was they were just throwing everything in the kitchen sink at them.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_01: So the Penguins hang on, and I'll always remember the Mike Lang quote at the end of that game.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the game ends, and Mike Lang said, I'll meet you in the schoolyard, baby, for all the marbles Friday night in Detroit.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_01: That was I remember that, yeah.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_01: Game six was a Tuesday.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: Game seven was scheduled for Friday, a Friday night, and he said, I'll meet you for all the marbles on Friday night.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so now, again, different script than the previous year.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're going to a game seven.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: The finals game seven.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: They don't happen all that often, but just for some context, game seven's in sports at play, seven-game series to decide their championship, that will be basketball, hockey, baseball.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: At that point in time in 2009, since 1979, no road team had won on the road.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: So another, the Penguins had a lot of history going against them.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like n all the other, there may be three or four, and that's in every sport: basketball, baseball, hockey.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_00: They had one, Carolina had won.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think the you know, somebody in baseball had won, in some basketball, I think the Spurs had won at home.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: So they really had a lot of significant from and you know who the team in 1979 who won a game seven in the road uh on the road.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_01: Pirates at Baltimore.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: That would be, yes, your Pittsburgh Pirates beating the uh the We Are Family Pirates.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's been done since then, it's been kind of weird.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's been done two or three times.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: But up until that up until 2009, I think Boston did it to Vancouver in hockey, and uh Chicago beat Cleveland.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think that was.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, Chicago.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Cubs beat the Indians for their first one.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I think in uh Cleveland again.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, not Cleveland, again Cleveland beat Golden State in Golden State.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it it it doesn't happen all that often.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well at that point there was that was 30 years, you're talking 30 years, 79 to 2009, so 30 year span where that had never happened.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's not common and it's hard to do.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's impressive.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_01: I that's yeah, that's that like you said earlier, the odds the odds this whole season and this whole postseason were really against the Penguins.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and and that was two series where they had gone down 0-2.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so twice they had to come back from that.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_01: And this is another game seven on the road.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and Mario um he sent a text the morning of the game.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_01: He he had mauled this over, he wanted to send a text to the team.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the text he sent was, play without fear and you'll be successful.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: See you at center ice, Mario.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_01: And he said later on that he just wanted to give them this vision of standing at center ice, all gathered together, raising the cup.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and a lot of the players said it it really inspired them.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you gotta uh that's a leader there.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's Mario guy you want in charge of your I hope he never sells the team, but but yeah, he's been he's been a great owner, and uh compared to a lot of the other owners the penguins have had throughout their history, he's definitely been the most successful.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, absolutely.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh not a not a very high barred at me, but yes.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's no, he's he's an all-time Pittsburger, and that's that text message uh really inspired the team.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: So they go into this Game 7.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: The first period's scoreless, a lot of back and forth, but it's scoreless.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_01: And in the second period, um the Penguins get the first goal for Max Talbot.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's a turnover deep in Detroit territory and a pass in front of the net, and Talbot scores.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then the second goal, Talbot's kind of racing down the left boards, and Chris Osgood, who who was a really good goaltender, veteran goaltender for Detroit, kind of gets out of position and Talbot beats him on a slapshot.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so Max Talbot, of all people, scores two goals in the second period.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: And now you're going into the third period up to nothing, and just like we talked about with Game Six, it is a gut-wrenching feeling.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I was with my brother-in-law, and we were watching this at his house, and I said, please don't turn this into a 20-minute power play for the Red Wings.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: And what did the Penguins do?
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_00: They turned it into a 20-minute power play.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's basically what the third period was.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was pre-vent defense.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: It was the Red Wings, I think maybe were on the other side of their own red line for maybe two minutes, if that.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and it's and it's it's one of those things too where like, you know, there's, I don't know, uh 15 minutes and and 30 seconds left.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then you sit there and you watch back and forth.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_01: You watch the Red Wings take eight shots and their saves, and they clear the puck and there's a whistle, and you look back at the clock, and now there's like 1526.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, what?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_01: Four seconds, there was like a million things that happened.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_01: So the clock just moves so slowly.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't remember what the rule was back then.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: Was that be when you could ice the puck and still make a line change?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think they still had that back then.
• 1:01:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can't remember.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, because now you can't do that because like you end up scoring because you just can't people get tired.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: But then it was like, okay, just ice the puck and we'll get some fresh people out here.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that probably played into it.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, ooh, you know, just throw it down there, you know.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that happened was Crosby had gotten hurt in the second period.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um and he tried to come out and skate.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_01: He couldn't put any pressure on, I believe it was his ankle.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so they played the whole third period without their captain.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh not that they were like to your point, they were trying to they weren't trying to necessarily score goals, but just moving the puck without, you know, arguably your your best puck mover.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um it really led to just an onslaught by Detroit.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I I you know, there's always been a thing that European players don't play defense or don't like to play defense.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_00: Malkin played great defense.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_00: What he did to Zetterberg, Zetterberg, you know, had to know what gum Malkin was chewing by the end of that game, the quote Poojiers.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he he was he was unbelievably good in his defense defensive zone time.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's you know one of the reasons he has a few more cups than a guy that might wear number eight, you know.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: True.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean that that performance in that third period by Malkin, Malkin really, really carried the team.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_00: He did.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_00: He did.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_01: And and and so the nice thing was they had a two-goal lead, and you just you know Detroit's gonna get one, which they did at uh at the um 1353 mark.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_01: So that was good because they they went the whole first almost 14 minutes without giving up a goal.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_01: Erickson gets a goal, now it's two to one.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, now you gotta kill off the last eight minutes of the game.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_01: And um the the thing so the thing that everybody will remember, and we'll talk about it here in a minute, is the save on Nicholas Lidstrom at the at the in the final seconds of the game.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_01: But honestly, the thing I remember was with 2.15 left, Nicholas Cronwall took a slap shot from the blue line, and it rang off the crossbar.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I remember that, yeah.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and the the Joe Lewis arena where the Red Wings played at the time, was an old arena, and the camera, um, you always saw like the tops of everybody's heads.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because it was sort of like this.
• 1:03:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_01: People would stand, yeah.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_01: So so when that rang off the crossbar, everybody stood up and raised their arms, and you're watching it on TV and you just hear cling and everybody jumps up in front of the camera, and your heart just like sinks because it's a goal.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's a goal.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody jumped up clinging.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure Doc didn't get excited.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that that moment, I like I felt like I came out of my body in that moment.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I just it it it probably took years off of my life.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_01: I just hit the floor.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, Doc, yeah, Doc Emerson, ah, hit the crossbar.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I just it's like, ha, ha.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and that was that was the moment I remember as just being like, okay, okay, let's all take a breath.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then of course, at the end, you went to the cloud.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Flurry rubbed the rubbed the uh crossbar thanking it, which has become like I guess his tradition now because Fleurry's kind of a goo a character and a goofball, but yeah, I mean I guess you have to be to play goalie in that that league.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that was that was fun.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and the the save, you know, with I think well was there five seconds left and they had a face-off.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have to be to the left.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it was Stahl.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was Stahl.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_00: They were the best face-off guy.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember saying, just we were just just sit on them.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just tackle them.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't even don't even try and win the puck.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_00: Just tackle.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_00: But they were.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: Detroit got the puck.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: Detroit won the draw.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe clean.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: Clean, yes.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it was on the right side, so they passed it to the left, and it went right to Lindstrom, their best one of their best defensive player, and a pretty good offensive player, I think.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, arguably the best defenseman in the history of the league.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, top three, definitely.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he is the whole side of the net to work with, with like two seconds left to send it into overtime and you know continue this great run Detroit's had trying to go back to back.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Flurry makes, you know, one of those moments that should be probably like, remember there used to be a mural of like Pittsburgh, they tore the building down, but like you know, Mazarowski and it was, you know, from the they should remake that with that.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_00: That would be one of the modern moments.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_00: Flurry slides across and makes an unbelievable save and becomes an absolute Pittsburgh legend at that moment, and the puck goes to the corner and time runs out, and the Penguins are Stanley Cup champions, and probably one of the more improbable not just runs to even make the playoffs, but improbable finals run.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, to be like you said, to be down so many times with your backs against the wall.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh it was unreal.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was unreal.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and it was a great save.
• 1:06:27
  SPEAKER_00: And boy, boy, Flurry, what what a what a player and couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was uh in Detroit, like and from Detroit's perspective, to be that close to like to repeat.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they were that close to repeating.
• 1:06:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, unbelieving literally a game seven in your building.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was a special season, I think, uh, because of what had transpired, not only the previous season, but all the stuff that led up to that, all the bad times.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then HOSA, everybody was yeah, all happy with HOSA sitting on the bench all sad, you know.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_01: Losing HOSA and then watching him, yeah.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I so I never uh I know a lot of people in Pittsburgh hold ill will towards HOSA.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_01: I really don't.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I'll have to I have to admit, that shot of him on the bench, it was satisfying.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he he was just had his head down and watching the Penguins raise the Stanley Cup, realizing that he could have been part of that and he chose he chose poorly.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and so um the Penguins waste the cup, Sidney Crosby is 21 years old, and he's already brought the Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um just an amazing turnaround for the franchise, for the city.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, th this this it was a great team.
• 1:07:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh like we said, a bunch of great role players.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_01: Mark Eaton, Delaware.
• 1:07:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I forgot I forgot about Mark Eaton, yeah.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_01: Mark Eaton, uh Miroslav Slatan, uh we you know, even like Philippe Boucher had a big goal in the Carolina series.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, guys that you know you'd never really remember, but guys that were really key.
• 1:08:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Craig Adams was another one.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_01: Just a lot of great role players.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and to me, like I remember thinking, you know, that was that was June of 2009 and February of 2009, the Steelers had beaten the Cardinals in Super Bowl 43 on the last second touchdown.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so within four months of each other, you know, my two favorite pro sports teams had won championships in dramatic fashion.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I just thought it this is the pinnacle.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like it like I don't know in the rest of my lifetime if it will ever get better.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think that I think the Phillies won the World Series that year, too.
• 1:08:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you get all three in Pennsylvania.
• 1:08:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I and I just thought it'll never get better than this.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like what what can you how could you possibly beat that than than having them defending uh Well I remember Malcolm after the game and say it's up to you pirates.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which they promptly did not respond to.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, that was that was that was a really great time, a great season, uh memorable in so many ways.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and you thought you thought it would be the start of Moore, which it really really ended up not being.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they kind of fell apart after that.
• 1:09:04
  SPEAKER_00: Balsma just could never there were a lot of like you said, Crosby was hurt for a couple years.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_00: Balsma had a pretty good year the one year he didn't have Crosby and uh Malkin and they still made the playoffs, but he just kind of felt they even fell short that year.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: But um no, they just never um never were able to recapture that until uh recently when they changed coaches again.
• 1:09:25
  SPEAKER_01: And general managers.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:09:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that whole era kind of shifted into a new regime and new players.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so you're right, that was kind of the the last gasp for that for that.
• 1:09:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was the high water mark of uh Ray Shiro and Dan Balsmo, really.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean Balsmo really I don't he's not even coaching anymore.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, but but he'll I think he'll always have a special place in Penguins history because Well, even Terry and stayed in Pittsburgh after that, and you know, he kind of still I think has a soft spot for Pittsburgh, and you know, he coached a lot of them players and uh a fun fact about the Penguins is they they won five Stanley Cups, and three of them, the ninety-two, two thousand nine, two thousand sixteen, all three of those cups were won with interim head coaches.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So Well, one was kind of under extenuating circumstances.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_01: He was still Bowman was still in it, he was not the head coach that year.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's like getting Bill Belichick as your inter coach.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_00: You do realize that I got that fact remains.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_01: All three were interim head coach.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go get a hall of fame coach.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what other sport could you just let's go get a hall of fame coach.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's available.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_01: So so yeah, so they won with an interim head coach, but yeah, Bosma, like you said, got rewarded with a long-term deal after the season.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh never was able to match that, but still has that in his back pocket that he's a Stanley Cup winning coach.
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and a memorable time for the team.
• 1:10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Any other thoughts on this one, Steve, before we wrap it up?
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh fun one to watch.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh always fun to see Detroit lose, I guess.
• 1:10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't know why that team rubbed me the wrong way, the Red Wings.
• 1:10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I just felt they had no skill.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I it just it just drove me nuts that their whole offense was sitting in front of a goalie.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they were yeah, I mean they were.
• 1:11:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean they had play is it like Zetterberg and Datsuk are good players.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_00: It just I don't I don't know why I don't know.
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then Babcock.
• 1:11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, their coach was not like a bold Mike Babcock.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he had that perfect hair.
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he just yeah, it was a team that you're gonna be.
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was a fun villain.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_00: They were a fun villain.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and um it was great to see the penguins uh kind of win.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I wish they would have you know been able to replicate that a little earlier than they did, but um good win for the penguins against all odds.
• 1:11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And uh what what a great season and uh for them.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if I'm looking back on it.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's all for this episode.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for listening.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh please leave us a review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast from.
• 1:11:49
  SPEAKER_01: You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram at Pittsburgh Sports Memories.
• 1:11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks everybody and we'll talk to you next time.