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The Streak · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: Hello and welcome to a very losing episode of Pittsburgh Sports Memories.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um I'm your uh co-host, Steve Wirt.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: As usual, I'm joined by not a loser.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: I am winner, Tim Hammond.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's he's he's winning, much like Charlie Sheen or whoever else.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_04: On this episode, we're gonna cover a um, well, it's kind of a dark episode of our a penguins history here.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um there was a losing streak they had in Philadelphia from 1974 to 1989.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_04: So um they actually, believe it or not, Tim, they did not win in Philadelphia for 15 years in hockey.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: Really hard to believe.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, and it's not like you just play like one game there a year, they played a couple games there every year.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: So yes, that's not good.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: Especially against that team.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so this is the you know, obviously the Philadelphia Flyers and the Penguins, and um, you know, it's kind of a tale of two teams.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_04: So both teams, if you know hockey history, um, this the NHL was founded, and for a long time it was just the original six.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: Can you name the original six, Tim?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't know if I can.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, it's Rangers, Red Wings, Blackhawks, Maple Leafs, Canadians, and Bruins.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_04: So it was just believe it or not, that was it.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_04: That was all the hockey teams you had until 1967.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_04: And at that point, they decided to expand.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_04: And can you name the next six teams that came into the league with and I'll give you the penguins, obviously.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and the and the Flyers.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the Blues.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: The uh Oakland Seals.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: Oh man, you got the hard one.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um the oh man.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: Capitals?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_03: No, that was a few years later.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I can't, I can't name the other ones.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh man, you were I can't believe you got the seals because I thought for sure you wouldn't get the seals.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_04: Now it's the Kings and the North Stars.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, wow.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_04: You remember the Kings' old uniforms?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_04: They were like ridiculously looking back.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: They were like they were purple, weren't they?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was weird.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_04: So the Kings and the North Stars and the Seals are not the Kings, North Stars, Blues, Flyers, Penguins, believe it or not, all of those teams have won Stanley Cups.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_04: And obviously the SEALs went out of went moved to Cleveland and became defunct.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_04: They are no longer existing, so they and they never won a Stanley Cup, so they never can win a Stanley Cup unless Cleveland decides to get a hockey team.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_04: But I have to do that.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then I'm sure they won't win anything because it's Cleveland.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, maybe they can put LeBron on ice skates and they'll they'll you know be really happy.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I'll start with the Flyers.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the Flyers definitely come out of the gate and have a lot more success early in their history than the Penguins did for a long time.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um in the early 70s, um, which uh we'll start with there.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um they are dubbed the Broad Street Bullies because the I guess this they always played at the spectrum, and the spectrum was on Broad Street in Philadelphia, I guess.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: And um, and they're star players, you know, they had a goalie named Bernie Parent, and he shared he actually won a Ves in a trophy, but he had to share it with Phil Epizito, who I believe played for the Blackhawks.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and they ended up winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 73 and 74 and 74 and 75, and they had they were well attended.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_04: Like even this game that I'm gonna talk that these talk about, they they were getting 17,000 people in the spectrum.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_04: So they were selling out the spectrum, and the penguins were definitely not selling out the arena back then.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, by contrast, the team on the other side of the state had a rough start.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_04: They had poor attendance, they really weren't making the playoffs.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, the their players in this game in 74 when the streak, when the losing streak starts, was um called the century line.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: And they had a guy named Seal Epps who played center, and he had 85 points in that season in 74.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: He had a guy named Lowell McDowell, he was a left wing and he led the team in goals.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_04: In I can't, I pronovost, I can't I can't ever pronounce it.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, John John Promovost.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_04: He was the right wing and they had 72 points.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_04: And they were called the century line because I guess they had scored a hundred points cumulatively.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: Clever.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um so what's going on in the world in 1974?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_04: Well, besides both Tim and I not existing, um, does anybody remember gas shortages and rationing?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_04: Because Richard Nixon and OPEC and oil people.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, a guy named Milton Shap.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: No one remember he was governor back then.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_04: He was actually from Cleveland, and he somehow decided to become governor in Pennsylvania.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: He had been a businessman.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_04: And I know my dad didn't like him very much because I guess during this time there was big trucker strikes because they were trying to put I guess they were capping their wages or something with the price controls were killing the independent trucker.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: So my dad at that point was driving from Harrisburg to Philadelphia a lot on the turnpike, and he told me a story about like the truckers would at one point block the turnpike, like they parked all their trucks in the middle of the turnpike, and so you couldn't get through.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_04: And of course, my dad being fresh out of Vietnam was not intimidated by that.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_04: And like people would like he said, a trucker tried to run him off the road, and my dad being who he is, pointed his firearm at him, and the trucker thought better of it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: Oh boy.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Well, 19 1974, different time than today, huh?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I mean, you know, this dude had like, you know, he's literally four years review, you know, he just like was literally getting shot at and shelled by the Viet Cong.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: He's not gonna be intimidated by some idiot trucker on the turnpike.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_04: Good luck, you know?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: He's not your average citizen.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: So so you know, the the 70s were wild, like and Milton Shapp was apparently not the greatest governor in the world.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so what was going on in the hockey world was you know, like we talked about the Flyers are really good and they're kind of uh how could I say a they play a physical brand of hockey, Tim?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_04: Is that is that what we we would call it?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if if I mean that's like you know, if if somebody goes out and you know, assaults somebody on the street and takes their wallet and leaves them for dead, and you say, well, that was a pretty physical, you know, guy there.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: And like did I I I don't know, I talked about Bobby Clark, you know, he actually he was one of their star players, and he had actually won a Masterson trophy, which I guess is for hockey excellence in hockey or sticking with it.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_04: And um Bobby Clark in 1974 was most famous for doing what 1972?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: The the Canadians played the Russians, who had, you know, back then they it was the Cold War.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_04: So the Russians had this really great hockey team, but none of the players would ever play in the NHL because of Cold War stuff.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_04: And so there's this guy, Valerie Kollermoff, who was like absolutely the Canadians couldn't stop him.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_04: So Bobby Clark did what all good goons do.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: He slashed and broke his ankle.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_04: So that was the end of Valerie Collermoff for the summit series in '72.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_04: So that kind of gives you a picture of who Bobby Clark is.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: But he was a good hockey player, he could score goals.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_04: He wasn't just a goon.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: He was like that, it was kind of like the Flyers.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: They were they would definitely fight you, and they were tough, but they they had talented players too.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_04: Another guy was a guy named Dave Schultz who played, and um, his nickname was and is a great nickname for a hockey player, the hammer.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_04: And um, believe it or not, he had a career penalty minutes of 2,292, and he still holds the NHL record of 472 penalty minutes in a year.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, and and I wonder, you know, this is pre-Wayne Gretzky.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: So hockey probably, and if you figure, like if Gordy Howe is kind of like the greatest player of that pre-Gretzky era, and Gordy Howe was a guy that got into a lot of fights and took a lot of penalties.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: I I I don't know that you had a lot of um athletic types.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean, playing this game.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was probably just a really tough game.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh the NFL was kind of like that, probably at the around the same time to a degree, right?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: You just had to be kind of made of of a lot of toughness, and that carried you a long way.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: You didn't have the necessarily the the the kind of the gifted athletes maybe you would have years later.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for um for sure.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_04: And too, you gotta remember like there was a lot of restrictions on teams that on players you could draft.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: That's why the Canadians were like amazing, because I think it was a rule, and I don't know for how long this was a rule, you could not draft players that were from Canada, like in the first round, like something insane like that.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_04: Like they had to be drafted by Canadian teams or like original six teams.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_04: What what a ridiculous rule.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, you wonder, you know, I guess eventually they got rid of that rule because obviously Bobby Clark and Jave Schultz are Canadians and Pronovost, and you know, but I think at least in the expansion draft, they weren't allowed to take Canadian players, which is just insane.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: Interesting.
• 10:27
  unknown: Yeah.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_04: Sounds like a great deal to no wonder Montreal built a you know, Montreal just like had an uh Montreal was the best team of this decade when they win five, six Stanley Cups in the 70s.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I think this is still the deck, the era of was or was that the 80s where like remember before the game, the Flyers, that was in a Stanley Cup final, wasn't it?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: Where the Flyers and the Canadians got in a fight before the game even started.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that sounds that sounds on brand.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's insane.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, that happened.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um so before this, on January 20th, 1974, the Penguins actually win five to three in Philadelphia, and John Pronovo scores in the win at the spectrum.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_04: So January 20th, 1974.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_04: That would be the last time the Penguins would win for a long time.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: And um, what had happened before, now on February 7th, this is actually when the losing streak starts.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um the day before the the February 7th game, um, intern general manager Jack Burton fires head coach Ken Schenkel in what Jack Burton called a unilateral decision.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he was actually replaced by a gentleman named Mark Beaulier, and I I apologize if I'm butchering the names here.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um and Mark Beaulier actually was fired in 1976 in that season after going 15 and 23.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_04: He did last a couple years.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: And Ken Schenkel, just uh you know, the circle of coaches, was actually coach again for the Penguins after Mark Beaulier in 1977.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: So they went back to Ken Schenkel.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, Ken Schenkel ends up sticking with the Penguins for a very long time in their front office.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: So I think he was more of a front office guy than kind of like a Craig Patrick.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the Penguins were known to do that for a lot of years.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_03: Kind of Yeah, they wouldn't necessarily like fire fire somebody.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, or they would, but then they would sort of recycle them back to some degree.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, and actually Ken Schenkel had some success.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and he the pens made the playoffs and lost to the Maple Leaves in the late 70s, and then he went back to the front office, of course, in 84 and oversaw some of the drafting of Mario and such.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so obviously February 7th, 1974, a date that will live in infany.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um the it's actually a back and forth game.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Fred Shiro is the coach of the Flyers at that point.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there are 17,000 fans in Philadelphia for this game, for a regular season game in February.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_04: So that's pretty impressive.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the paper actually said that Dave Schultz, who's called the hammer, the guy with all the penalty myths, said he stopped bullying long enough to score two goals.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_04: Bobby Clark scores a goal.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_04: That's of course after he's done slashing people.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh and uh I it was six minutes left in the third period.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um Terry Crisp Cripps uh scores the game-winning goal for Philadelphia, and um believe it or not, uh McDonald and Pronovost both scored the goals, scored goals for the Penguins.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's a I do believe I think it was the final score, it was like five to four.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um the Flyers had 51 penalty minutes to the Penguins 19, but the Penguins only had three power plays, so I'm not quite sure how that worked.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_04: Math doesn't check out there, but that's according to NHL.com.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't know.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: Was it like a five on nothing power play?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_04: But there was a lot, a lot of fighting going on, so I mean, so literally from that point on, the penguins do not win.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, Tim, that that's hard to believe.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: And obviously, we weren't around for this game, and I just remember growing up, like my dad was a much bigger hockey fan than he was pro football, and he liked college football, but I would say hockey was probably his second well behind baseball, but he he he would like always talk about well, I can't believe they can't win in Philadelphia, you know.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: And it was just like kind of became like a running joke, like in the 80s.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_04: So obviously in 1984, the Penguins get some guy named uh Mario Lemieux, and even in '84, like from 84 to 89, they still cannot win.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_04: There's a couple ties in there, but they do not win in Philadelphia.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_04: So finally, yeah, I mean any comments down there.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: That's just so hard to believe to your point earlier about this isn't you know, this isn't like a team that you play like the the Steelers have a long streak of not winning in Philadelphia also, but they don't play the Eagles in Philadelphia very often.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's once every maybe seven or eight years.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: And and here you have two teams in the same division playing each other often.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: And and it's just a hockey game.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like hockey games go there's there's eighty-two of them in a season.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I think they're both I think at times, uh but I think in the eighties they were in the Patrick division.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_04: Now before that, I'm not sure what division they were in.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: Because the Penguins were in the Norris division for a while, so maybe that's why.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_04: But but still but then even in the 80s, they were in the like you said, they were in the pat, and it was years they did not win.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: And you said there were ties, so that means that there there were several times where they were in overtime.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: They just needed one goal.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: And they couldn't get that.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: That that's yeah, it's it's really stunning to this day that it went on that long.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_04: So and it actually went, believe it or not, to 19 February 2nd, 1989.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, just to you know update this the the Penguins they finally break the streak, and the Flyers players were the coach was Paul Holmgrim.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: I don't remember that guy at all.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_04: I do remember this guy, Tim Kerr.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_04: Do you remember Tim Kerr?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I remember Tim Kerr.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_04: He just like kind of stand in front of the net and nobody could move.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: So uh another guy I will remember more, maybe more finely, was Rick Talkett.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_04: He was another big standing tough guy standing in front of the net.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: Like the Flyers had the same team they always had.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the Flyers at that point were still in their streak of making the playoffs 18 years, 18 seasons in a row.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_04: So the Flyers like were a very successful team.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, they're not like terrible now, but they've kind of sunk into mediocrity, but they were a very good team.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um he he was a penguin killer too.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_04: Rick would Rick Tockett scored some goals against the Penguins.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: It was got another one of those.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: Well, if we sign them our team, he can't score against us, right?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and they were a good team.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: They had been to the Stanley Cup finals twice.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: I want to say 85 and 87.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_04: They just had lost to Edmonton.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_04: Like the god of that.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I think even in the um one series that they lost, they they even had the con Smythe winner.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh um, their goaltender, who you're probably gonna talk about at some point.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: So they they they even played a pretty good series against Edmonton, but they just weren't the Edmonton Wilers.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_04: Ron Hextahl?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_04: I was just about to mention he was one of the he actually Ron Hextahl was the first goalie to actually score a goal.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_04: Now they credit Billy Smith, but it it's like an own goal by the other team.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_04: Remember the the rule in the NHL used to be like if you scored an own goal, it would be credited to the last offensive player to touch it or something like that.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, so somebody scored an own goal, but Billy Smith was the last guy to touch it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so he didn't actually shoot the puck.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_04: Ron Hexall was the first guy to actually like there was an obviously an open net and he shot it.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: Remember Flurry?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: Has Flurry done that?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_04: Like he always tries it, but he's so bad at handling the puck he can.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: No, Jari Jari did it.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: Jari was the only penguin goalie to ever do it.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: Goalie to ever do it.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh um, I don't I don't know if Flurry ever did it with another team, but I know he never did it with the penguins.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: He would always try it.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like when there's an MDA, you knew he was gonna score a goal.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um so Rod Hexta obviously was general manager for a couple years, didn't work out the greatest.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_04: He's actually from Pittsburgh, he's from Green Tree, believe it or not.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_04: And um, yeah, poor, poor Ron Ron.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh he he um you know has a kind of a things go a little differently for the playoffs in '89 for him, but we'll talk about that a little later in the aftermath section.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um now another goalie who's another interesting, and this is the weird Pittsburgh, Philadelphia tie here, is Ken Reggett played on this 89 team.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_04: And Ken Reggett was pretty good.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: And he actually ended up playing for the uh Penguins.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_04: And uh he he ended up uh helping you know relieving Ron Hextahl in that playoff series that we'll talk about later.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_04: But and also Shell Samuelson.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't really shell Samuelson.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_04: That guy was just like eight feet tall.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_04: He was like Zidano Charo before Zedano Charo.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, what just like like like what the heck?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: Like the the Flyers basically put a football team on ice, it's pretty hard.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: I guess yeah, and when the when the penguins m made that trade for Pocket, they also got Shells and Reggett.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_03: That was all part of the same deal.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_04: So for the Penguins players, do you remember Coach Gene Ubiraco?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_03: I do remember Gene Ubriaco.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_04: He coached for like what, a year and a half, maybe?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I I remember He was pretty terrible.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there were two coaches, depends on.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: Pierre Kramer was the guy before Ubiraco.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: And Yubriako, and I just remember Mario didn't get along with either of them.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: And that was that was really what did them both in, was that Mario just didn't like them.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: It happens.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_04: Happens to the best of us, I guess.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: So uh obviously, like we talk about Mario's the legend, he's you know doing all kinds of great things, but the penguins have not made the playoffs at this point since well, yeah, since 1981.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_04: As of this season, and as of this point, they have not made the playoffs.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_04: Which is like they have the best, well, I mean, you could maybe argue him or Gretzky, but they have the second best or the best player in the sport, and they can't even make the playoffs, which you know, these making the playoffs in hockey is like back then how many teams missed the playoffs?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_04: Like two?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: There were twenty one teams and sixteen made the playoffs, so five.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: You had to be one of the five worst teams in the league to not make the playoffs.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: And like you said, Steve, to do that with the with a once in a generation talent like Mario, you really have to try hard to make the rest of the team bad.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: And remember, that was the era where you had all these teams get Getting into the playoffs.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like the Minnesota North Stars that one year were like twelve games under 500.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: But they were in the playoffs because they were a little better than the team, you know, behind them was, I don't know, 16 games under 500.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's all you had to do was just be a little bit better than the really bad teams, and we couldn't do it.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: And you gotta remember, they did have um Barrasso at this point, who's a Vesna winner, and uh they had Wendell Young as his backup, and they had Peter Angelo.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean it's kind of weird, and uh that they weren't couldn't even make the playoffs.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_04: And uh Rob Brown, another joke about the playoffs, my dad used to say was like just wear a white carnation and you you get in.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_04: And uh pretty much, yeah.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Rob Brown, obviously, um a penguin legend, he scored a lot of goals, um, had a great goalie celebration, as we'll talk about later.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh talk about Wendell Young.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_04: He another connection to Philadelphia, he actually played for the Flyers the year before, believe it or not.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know that.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and um and he actually ends up playing this game, and I remember that the February 2nd game because um uh what's his name?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Barrasso was hurt, uh, had been out for a couple games.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: And uh another guy uh you might recognize, Dave Hannon.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_04: And uh your brother, he was like what, 10 years old, was playing hockey and was a veteran presence on the team.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: No, he was just uh just coincidentally named the same.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: And we loved that when we were kids, my brother and I, because uh he he also spells spelled his name the same way we did, which is with uh H A N N A N.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of times when you see that name, it's spelled H-K A N O N, which seems more logical, right?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like Han on.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: Well Shannon.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_03: You spell that with an O.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: Canon, right?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: Any any word that rhymes with that, you would put an O instead of an A.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: It's not Han An.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: But that's the way that our our name is spelled, and so it was cool to see uh not only a Pittsburgh team with that, you know, but see like that name on the back of a jersey spelled the same way.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: I just remember we thought that was pretty cool when we were we were kids.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_04: Was he what he was like a winger or something, wasn't he?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_04: He was he was like a more of a defensive player, if I remember correctly.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he wasn't he wasn't spectacular, but he had a cool name.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you know, this is like I said, this has become a thing.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_04: The penguins can't win in the um the spectrum or in Philadelphia or against the Flyers.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_04: So they kind of need to get this monkey off the back so they can make it back to the playoffs and have some success in the playoffs, you would think.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so that all kind of comes to a head February 2nd, and actually before the game, there's a radio station in Pittsburgh called WDVE, and they've I are they still I I don't know.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_04: Does anybody listen to radio anymore?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_04: We all listen to Spotify now, or I I don't know.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_04: I think people still listen to radio, right?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure they do.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: I I I mainly listen to podcasts.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but they do.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: But I well I'm not I do.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: I just that's what I listen to all the time.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: I just download a bunch of podcasts.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_04: So well, back then, Tim, there was a radio DJ's named Paulson and Kren, Scott Paulson and Jim Kren.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_04: And they're they're like, that was always tradition, like DV, that station always was kind of the top station in Pittsburgh.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_04: And um, they were the top DJs at the time.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_04: And they actually, do you remember this, Tim?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_04: They dressed up as witch doctors and went out on a spectrum of ice before the game and like performed like a witch doctor ceremony to like cast out the the jinxes of the of Ghost of Spectrum Past.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: I I do remember Scott Thomson and Jim Cranen.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: I did listen to them for years and years.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: I do not remember this though.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: That's pretty yeah, they went out there and like, oh no, no, no, it was pretty funny.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: So to hopefully, I mean, I don't know.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_04: I can't say that definitively broke the curse, but hey, I'll take whatever.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: Didn't hurt.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_04: So, like I said, Groundhog Day 1989.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it is not Groundhog Day.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_04: Bill Murray wakes up and it's not Sonny and Cher on the radio.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so uh the Pens win.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: They they win on a strong performance by Rob Brown and Wendell Young.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Lemieux actually has seven shots, but he didn't score any point, any goals.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um and can you guess?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_04: Uh remember the score in 1974 was five to three.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: Can you guess what the uh score in uh in February 2nd, 1989 was?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm guessing it was five to three.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_04: It was five to three.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, what had changed in those years?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I think the uh fall of communism, you know, there's no more no more Portland Wall, I guess, at that point.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_04: Well, or maybe that summer was coming up in the thus launching the career of David Hasselhoff.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um Hexall was, of course, the losing goaltender.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, the Flyers really cleaned up their act.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, remember how they had 51 penalty minutes in 1974?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_04: Well, they only had 48 in this game.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a that's and what, only two power plays this time?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, there were six power plays, but the penguins only went one for six on the power play.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm sure every Penn fan in the building was yelling, shoot the puck, as they were passing it around the perimeter.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_04: John Cullen was a big player on this team.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: This is before the trade, of course.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, they had a decent team.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_04: It was kind of like shocking that they didn't make the playoffs earlier than this.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_04: So so they win.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember watching this game.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: I because I remember like remember they would sell tapes of the game, like VHS tapes.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: Is any of you what like after the game was over or after the season?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_04: No, like at the end of the game, like KBL, because this was definitely on the KBL channel, the which was the old cable network that the penguins used to be on.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_04: They would be like, Oh, if you want to tape at today's game, you know, write, send a check to you know, P.O.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_04: Box, whatever, and we'll send you a tape.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: I don't remember that.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: So like if you didn't have a VCR, you could go buy the tape.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I guess you need the VCR to play the tape, but yeah, you could get like a professionally made version of that.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: I do not remember that.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_04: I guess they owned the rights completely.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_04: The NHL.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_04: Well, knowing the NHL, they probably weren't smart enough to negotiate those rights.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_04: That's true.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, the so thank goodness at long last our local regional nightmare is over, and we've finally beaten the Flyers in Philadelphia, thank God, huh, Tim?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that was that was around the time.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, people wait, do you think that was the biggest rivalry at the at that time?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think it was.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_04: Well, maybe the um the Rangers, maybe.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, but that was more later, uh, when Adam, what's his name?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: Graves slashed Mario.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and the Capitals hadn't really become a rival yet.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, at that point, people really hated the Flyers.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it was pretty mutual.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think I don't think it was like a Penn State pit thing where you know we hated the Flyers, and the Flyers are like, who's Pittsburgh?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was pretty mutual.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and and you know, carried obviously forward for the next 40 years as well.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: He waits, he throws the pass, and it's intercepted! Gonna pull him out with the 40! 35-30!
• 29:42
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• 29:43
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• 29:46
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• 29:49
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• 29:55
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• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: There were legendary plays like Troy Polomalu's Pick Six and The Immaculate Extension, and there were crazy incidents like Joey Porter chasing Ray Lewis into the parking lot, or the Ravens putting a bounty on Heinz Ward.
• 30:14
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• 30:18
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• 30:23
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• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And thanks for supporting the podcast.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so you know, the Penguins, like I said, uh we'll have to do a whole like podcast on this.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_04: That they they go to the playoffs, they actually make the playoffs the first time since 1981 and that season, 1989.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_04: And they sweep the Rangers in the first round, and then in the second round, like you said, because we're in the Patrick Division, we have to play the Flyers, and they they lose to the Flyers in a wild seven-game series.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_04: If you remember, the Penguins totally owned Ron Hexall that series until they changed to Ken Reggett, and Ken Reggett was able to kind of stabilize the ship and made a lot of great saves and really probably won the series for the Flyers.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_04: And um, yeah, also, yeah, that was their first, that was Mario's first playoff appearance.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the highlight, probably one of the highlights was there was like a game where like the penguins scored seven goals on Ron Hextahl, and Robbie Brown would do that windmill, and Ron Hextahl chased Robbie Brown around the round the ice because he wanted to fight him because he's a Philadelphia flyer, and that's what they do.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_04: But they the Flyers ended up getting the last laugh where they, you know.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I think uh there's an empty netter at the end of that series at Game 7, which I do believe was in Philadelphia.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_04: But the last Game 7 was in Philadelphia, and the turning point, like you said, was a game six here.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_04: Probably winning, you know, game seven in a building that you haven't won a lot, you know.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_04: The the game they needed to win was game six, right?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_04: And they lost at six to two.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, and and that was that's the irony of that's the season they finally broke the curse, and then the season ends.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_04: In the spectrum.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean we'll we'll we'll go over that.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_04: Like we'll have to do a whole podcast on that season because that that's that's obviously a pivotal season in penguins history.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um so just uh like I said, the the 42 game winless streak at the spectrum, it went from February 7th to February 2nd, February 7th, 74, February 2nd, 1989.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_04: The Penguins were 039 and 3 at the spectrum.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um from 1967 to 1983, Philadelphia went from 1967 to 1989.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry, Philadelphia went 86, 36, and 19 against Pittsburgh.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_04: You remember ties, Tim, weren't they great?
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: But the fact that not only did they they lose 39 times, they only even tied three.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like you would think maybe you get a few more ties in there at least, but yeah, that that hurt.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: I um my my experience was a little different than yours as a kid.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_03: Your dad was into hockey, my dad wasn't, he was baseball and football.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so I didn't get into hockey really until Mario came along, and then even then it was a few seasons into Mario's career, and and kids in my school started playing hockey, and and I had like a Mario poster in my room.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: So so that's when I it was around this time that I was just starting to dip my feet into being a hockey fan.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I I I kind of came around to the end of that.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_03: But even even then I knew the pain of how long that streak was because they talked about it all the time.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: All the time.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, every time there was a game in Philly, it was like, okay, is this finally going to be the game?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: And then it wouldn't be.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_03: So um, I I just I don't know that you'll ever see something like that again where it goes on that long.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: It definitely um okay, now the last game in the spectrum was 1996.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um surprisingly, Tim, it was a loss four to one.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_04: John LeClaire scored a goal.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_04: What is up with all the penguin flyer connections, huh?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: Ron Hexall, believe it or not, was the winning goalie in 1996.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I guess he got the last laugh again.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um you know, out of the original six teams, do you uh this is an easy question.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_04: Who uh out of those teams, besides obviously Oakland slash Cleveland, never winning a Stanley Cup, do you know who has the most Stanley Cups out of the teams that came into 1967?
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well, let's see.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: We have five.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: Philly has two, LA I think has two.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe three?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_04: No, they have two, the back to backs, that's it, huh?
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: Uh uh St.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: Louis has one.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um Minnesota.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_03: Minnesota has one.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, one.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_04: I thought they had they haven't won one in Dallas.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: Or no?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they did win one in Dallas.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_04: And that's it.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_03: I think.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_04: Is that everybody?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's Pittsburgh, yeah.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_04: So it's kind of a weird, like, I noticed this, it's a weird like switch that happens.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like the Flyers were the model, not I mean, besides the way they played, but that's just how they played.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_04: They were the more successful, let me say this, model franchise in the expansions from you know the 70s all the way to the mid-90s.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they were the team that won the two Stanley Cups, they were the team that didn't have these ridiculous losing streaks.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_04: And then, you know, when Mario comes around and it takes him a few years, and then in the 90s and the 2000s, it kind of flips to where the Penguins are the successful team, and the Flyers are kind of stuck in mediocrity.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_04: And thus, you know, the old Mark Mad line, have you ever seen the Flyers win the cup?
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_04: Because actually, I don't think the Flyers have won a cup in my lifetime, and not in yours, Tim, right?
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: 75, yeah.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: So we have we have had we've been spared that, you know, indignity, I guess.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_03: Or yeah, I've I've actually I've actually asked my brother to have that printed on my tombstone.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_04: Have you ever seen the Flyers win the cup?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_03: Well, just just like uh Tim Hannon died whatever year the Flyers never won a Stanley Cup during his lifetime.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_04: I'm okay with that, huh?
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_03: I think it would be a great way to fool Philadelphia fans and death.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, you're right, it's been that many years.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_03: And and and that's a really good point.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like this 1989, them winning at the spectrum really did flip everything.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_03: And it and it flipped not only the the the path of those two franchises, but you could also argue that it kind of flipped the style of hockey because the Flyers continued for years, and they did have some moderate success.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it wasn't like they stunk after this.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_04: I think they've made the they made the they made the conference finals and lost to us.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_04: They've made did they make the Stanley Cup finals since I think they have.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: They lost one in the nineties to Detroit, they lost in 2010 to Chicago.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_03: So they yeah, I mean it wasn't like they stunk, but they continued, you know, Bobby Clark became their general manager, and then for years and years they tried to replicate the 70s.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_03: Like like like like you said, guys that that that weren't just goons, they had skill, they could score goals, but they were they were goons.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_03: And they that's the type kind of team.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_03: They've kind of gotten away from that the last couple of years.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_04: But for they don't have a goalie, that's been their Achilles hero for years, is they don't really have a goalie.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like Hexall was good, but uh Pelle Lindbergh, who we didn't talk much about, died in a car accident, and that was probably their most promising.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_04: Bernie Parent was I would probably I mean I don't know a ton of flyers history, but I would say Bernie Parent's probably their best goalie ever, right?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_04: I mean he's the one they won the cups with, you know.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_04: And Hextahl would probably be a close two, you know.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: They had Ray Emory.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_04: Remember they had Ray Emery, didn't they make a run with Ray Emory one year?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_04: I mean the late Ray Emery.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean they they you know, getting rid of getting rid of uh Sergei Brobrowski was probably their biggest mistake.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: But he you know, he's another he was like that guy for Washington, Jim Carrey, not the actor, um, who like the penguins just chased him out of the league.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_04: And I think uh for whatever reason, the penguins there are just certain goalies the penguins own, and Broboski is one of them.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, but I think they would have done better, you know.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, yeah.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_03: He won two Venza trophies and and a Stanley Cup.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um ended up being a pretty good goalie.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: So that was that was obviously a mistake.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but yeah, they tried to play with that style of hockey, and then the penguins, you know, era of yeah, finesse the the you know athletic speed scoring, all that kind of stuff.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_03: And and it wasn't like the penguins it wasn't like the whole league flipped because the penguins started playing that way in 1989.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I would say the Oilers obviously probably started that trend long before the Penguins did, but but still, that really does kind of it is like you said, Steve, a line in the sand of um of where things just completely flipped.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: And and you're right, ever since then, the penguins have won five Stanley Cups since that day in 1989, and the Flyers have won.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_03: But hang on, let me just check my notes again.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: Zero.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_04: Well, as far as Pittsburgh Stewart, I think we kind of mentioned some of these all-time streaks in Pittsburgh sports of like ineptitude, the pirates losing streak of 20 years.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: We did a whole podcast on that if you want to relive that misery.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh I would say Pitt not beating Miami football much, although they are three and seven in the last 10 matchups, and two of those wins were in Miami.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, like you mentioned, uh the Steelers have not won in Philadelphia since 1965.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: And Bobby Lane was not the quarterback in that game.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_04: I looked it up because I was bored.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_04: But um, I mean, and that was literally in 1965, that was one of the Steelers' two wins that season.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_04: So, but that's like you said, like they don't play Phil, although it seems like they've played Philadelphia more regularly lately.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like they play them every year.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like like it would be like if the Steelers started losing, like how Cleveland lost to us for years and years, how Ben had a winning record in Cleveland better than their own quarterbacks.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: It would be kind of akin to that, I I think.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, and Cleveland had that losing streak of three of our stadium for uh 16 years.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_03: You're right, it's probably more comparable to that.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_03: The the the the Steelers and Eagles, the the way the NFL scheduling works is you play the AFC, you play an NFC team once every four years.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_04: Is that still a thing now with the 17-game schedule?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_03: See, I wasn't sure if that's what that's what I was just that's what I was just gonna say.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: So so it's still a thing.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: So we only play the Eagles every four years, and you would play them home and home, yeah home and home.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_03: So you really only play their stadium once every eight years, but when they added that 17th game, now every year you play uh one team from a select division that finished in the same spot as you did.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_03: So if the Steelers and Eagles both finished in, say, second place, and they the NFC East and the AFC North are playing each other next year for that 17th game, then they would play each other, and that's why you've seen the Steelers play at Philadelphia more than once in the last eight years because of that kind of stuff.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_03: But other than that, it's still it's it still has to take a lot for that to work out that way.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: So you're right, it's it's not it's not akin to that.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_03: It is more akin to like Cleveland not winning here for 16 years because it was every year they played here, and then even that's not a good comparison because it wasn't just that the penguins played one game a year in Philly, right?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know how many they played, but I would guess three, three, four a year.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, because you normally pay like play like what?
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I don't know, the schedule in the NHL has always been a little goofy, but I would guess that on average they probably played five to six games every year against the Flyers.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and and the NFL is a is a you know, you have every game is you have a 17-game season, every game is meaningful.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_03: Hockey, it's like you win and lose games all the time, right?
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_03: You could be playing this last place team in March and they they could easily win because it's just a long season and stuff happens, and and you played back-to-back nights on the road, and you had you had one of your guys.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_04: You're Wendell Young playing Goldner that night because you're other yeah.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I mean, just to lose that many games in a row is just yeah, that's a that's a real level of ineptitude that that you you'll like I said, you'll probably never see again.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_04: And um hopefully not.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_03: Hopefully not.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, at least not for the penguins.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_04: I mean and to have the best player at the same time, like that that was the craziest thing was like they had Mary that's how bad the penguins were managed.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, who was I think was Ep Ep Zito, I think was their GM there during that little run.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_04: And so they really didn't have success until Craig Patrick came in and kind of cleaned things up.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_04: And uh that's when the things started to change for that that team's fortune.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_04: So like I said, 1989 was a pivotal year in penguins hockey, and we'll definitely have to do a deep dive on on that.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um just want to say thanks for tuning in.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um, this this podcast doesn't have any losing streaks, does it, Tim?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_04: Never.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_04: Never.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_03: They're all winners.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_04: They're all winners.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thanks for listening, and thanks for uh checking in on the uh Facebook pages and our website at Portsburg Sports Memories Weekly.com and the whole nine yards.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um we appreciate your listenership.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_04: Check out uh the book, the Raven Steelers book when you get a chance.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it makes a great gift and great reading.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_04: People really enjoy it.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_04: Leave a comment, tell your friends, and uh thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.