An in-depth look at Penguins’ decade

By Joe Starkey, Rob Rossi and Josh Yohe, TRIBUNE REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Saturday, December 26, 2009

Sports writers Joe Starkey, Rob Rossi and Josh Yohe break down the best and worst moments of the decade for the Penguins:

FIVE SIGNATURE MOMENTS

1. Dec. 7, 2000: Word leaks that team owner and Hockey Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux will end his 3 1/2 -year retirement and rejoin the Penguins.

2. June 12, 2009: Penguins defeat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1, in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, becoming the first pro sports team since the 1979 Pirates to win a championship Game 7 on the road.

3. July 27, 2005: Penguins win the draft lottery — on a 6.25-percent chance — and the right to select Canadian phenom Sidney Crosby.

4. July 11, 2001: GM Craig Patrick trades five-time NHL scoring champion and team captain Jaromir Jagr, in the prime of his career, to the Washington Capitals for three prospects and cash.

5. March 13, 2007: Before a game against Buffalo, Mario Lemieux addresses a sellout crowd, which erupts in cheers as he drops the final curtain on decade-long arena saga, saying, "Tonight, I am proud to announce that your Pittsburgh Penguins will remain right here in Pittsburgh, where they belong."

TEAM OF THE DECADE

Forward — Sidney Crosby (2005-present): Youngest captain ever to win the Stanley Cup

Forward — Evgeni Malkin (2006-present): Reigning Art Ross and Conn Smythe winner.

Forward — Mario Lemieux (2000-05): Two top seasons netted 167 points in 110 games.

Defense — Sergei Gonchar (2005-present): That $25 million contract worth its weight in silver.

Defense — Brooks Orpik (2003-present): Heart-and-soul hitter had one of great shifts in team history (ask Daniel Cleary).

Goalie — Marc-Andre Fleury (2003-present): Former No. 1 overall pick became a savior after all (ask Nick Lidstrom and Alex Ovechkin).

BEST PLAY

Marc-Andre Fleury stones Nicklas Lidstrom: Fleury lunged to his right to reject the future Hall-of-Famer in the final seconds of Game 7 of the Cup Final. "I was scared they'd shoot again," Fleury said, "but then I saw (Jordan Staal) throwing his gloves up, and I thought, 'OK, I can do it too.'"

BEST PLAYER

Sidney Crosby — How do you choose between Crosby and Malkin? Maybe Malkin noted the key: "Sid is our leader."

BEST GAME

Penguins beat Red Wings, 2-1, in Game 6 of 2009 Stanley Cup Final — No, it didn't go three overtimes, like Game 5 the year before, but it was an epic battle that began with the crowd chanting "Fleury! Fleury!" — goalie Marc-Andre Fleury had been pulled from a lopsided loss in Game 5 — and ended with defenseman Rob Scuderi's incredible goal-line stand.

BEST PLAYOFF SERIES

Penguins-Capitals, '09 — Crosby, Ovechkin finally meet for higher stakes, combine for 27 points in Pens' 7-game win.

CULT HEROES

1. Johan Hedberg

2. Gary Roberts (at right w/ Maxime Talbot)

3. Jeff Jimmerson

4. The "Genos"

5. Colby Armstrong

ALMOST OWNERS

1. William "Boots" Del Biaggio III

2. Sam Fingold

3. Jim Balsillie

HEARTBREAKS

1. Losing '04 draft lottery and Alex Ovechkin (didn't turn out so bad)

2. Losing casino license in December of '06 (didn't turn out so bad)

3 Losing Game 6 of '08 Final (turned out real bad, when the Wings raised the Cup on Mellon Arena ice).

PUNCHES TO THE GUT

1. Hossa leaves — for Detroit, no less

2. Jagr asks to be traded — twice, no less

3. Mario swaps a season for Olympics — and beats U.S. for gold medal, no less

BEST MOVES

1. Trading up to draft Marc-Andre Fleury

2. Hiring Ray Shero as GM

3. Signing Sergei Gonchar

4. Drafting Jordan Staal

5. Hiring Dan Bylsma as coach

MIRACLES ON ICE

1. Max Talbot ties Game 5 of '08 Cup Final with 34.3 seconds left in regulation.

2. Darius Kasparaitis beats future Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek in overtime to win Game 7 of '01 East semifinal.

3. Mario Lemieux converts a gift-from-the-hockey-gods pop-up to tie Game 6 of East semifinal vs. Sabres in final seconds.

NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D SEE

1. Craig Patrick, Hall of Fame GM, fired.

2. Ryan Malone, Pittsburgh native, skating for anyone but the Penguins.

3. Jaromir Jagr in a Capitals jersey.

4. John LeClair in a Penguins jersey.

5. Penguins among biggest spenders in NHL.

EXPERIMENTS GONE BAD

1. Ziggy Palffy

2. Eddie Olczyk

3. Alexandre Daigle

4. Brooks Orpik, left wing

5. Sidney Crosby, playoff beard

NAMES WE FORGOT RIGHT QUICK

1. Konstantin Koltsov

2. Richard Lintner

3. Nils Ekman

4. Milan Kraft

5. Michel Therrien (at right w/ Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby)

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?

1. Marian Hossa saying, "I felt like I would have a little better of a chance to win the Cup in Detroit" upon leaving Pittsburgh.

2. Billy Tibbetts cross-checking Mario Lemieux — yeah, the team owner — in the back during a training-camp scrimmage in 2001.

3. Craig Patrick hiring a coach (Ivan Hlinka) who couldn't speak English.

4. Fans booing Sergei Gonchar upon his arrival in Pittsburgh.

5. NBC not allowing the Penguins to show games on outdoor video screen during '09 playoffs.

WELCOME RETURNS

1. Mario Lemieux

2. Skating penguin

3. Stanley Cup

FIVE FLYER MOMENTS

1. Broken teeth and all (thanks, Derian Hatcher), rookie Sidney Crosby beats the Flyers in overtime and rekindles a dormant rivalry.

2. Max Talbot picks a fight with ex-Penguin Daniel Carcillo in Game 6 of '09 series, then "Shhhhh's" the crowd.

3. Penguins humiliate visiting Flyers, 6-0, to win East final in '08

4. Gary Roberts, 41, buries Flyers "tough guy" Ben Eager with a barrage of left hands.

5. Crosby scores six points in 8-4 victory on Dec. 14, 2006, vaulting to a spot he would not relinquish — No. 1 in NHL scoring race.

SAD GOODBYES

Herb Brooks, Ivan Hlinka both killed in auto accidents, leaving behind incredible legacies — Brooks in the U.S., Hlinka in the Czech Republic.

DECADE DATES

Dec. 16, 2005: Mario Lemieux records his last NHL point in his final game, a 4-3 overtime loss to visiting Buffalo, which also marks Michel Therrien's first game behind the Penguins' bench.

Nov. 10, 2005: Sidney Crosby roofs a backhander to beat the Montreal Canadiens and give the Penguins their first-ever shootout win; Mario Lemieux scores his final NHL goal.

Oct. 18, 2006: Evgeni Malkin scores in his first NHL game, beating future all-time wins leader Martin Brodeur.

Feb. 10, 2003: Penguins ship Alexei Kovalev to the New York Rangers, further dismantling a one-time Cup contender.

May 4, 2008: Ex-Penguins star Jaromir Jagr plays his final NHL game, as Rangers lose in Pittsburgh in Game 5 of Eastern Conference semis (Marian Hossa's overtime goal wins it).

April 17, 2006: Standing-room-only crowd of 17,048 roars in season-finale for bad team, as Sidney Crosby scores three points to become youngest player in NHL history to record 100 in a season.

DECADE DIGITS

1 — Sellouts at Mellon Arena in 2003-04, the season before Sidney Crosby arrived.

136 — Penguins' current consecutive-sellout streak

6 — Men with Penguins ties inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame (Craig Patrick, Larry Murphy, Ron Francis, Herb Brooks, Paul Coffey, Joe Mullen)
46 — Saves for Marc-Andre Fleury in his NHL debut, a 3-0 loss to the L.A. Kings on Oct. 10, 2003.

55 — Fleury saves against Detroit in Game 5 of '08 Cup Final; Pens win in third overtime on Petr Sykora goal.

3 — Game 7 wins on the road for the Penguins this decade

18 — Games without victory in '04, a streak that finally ended in Phoenix.

WE WROTE IT

"Evgeni Malkin sits back in the lobby of his luxury beachfront hotel overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He couldn't be farther from the life he left behind earlier last week, escaping from his Russian team and life in the tiny, Siberian industrial town of Magnitogorsk. He also couldn't be farther from his family, friends and culture. "Definitely, I never expected anything like that to ever happen to me," Malkin said, "but life is full of surprises, good and bad, and this is one of those times." — Penguins writer Karen Price, on Malkin fleeing his Russian team to join the Penguins.

THEY SAID IT (OR TEXTED IT)

"This is a chance of a lifetime to realize your childhood dream to win a Stanley Cup. Play without fear and you will be successful! See you at center ice." — Text message Mario Lemieux left on players' phones on morning of Game 7 of '09 Cup Final in Detroit.

"I'm really starting to believe their goal is to be the worst defensive squad in the league. And they're doing such a great job at being the worst." — Coach Michel Therrien, after a 3-1 loss to Edmonton in his 11th game as coach.

"Add to the Pittsburgh lineup, No. 66, Mario Lemieux." — Penguins P.A. man John Barbero, announcing to the crowd the return of un-retired star Mario Lemieux on Dec. 27, 2000.

"We got great value in this deal. Time will show us that. But I can't convince people of that right now. All three of these guys are going to be big contributors here for a long time." — Then-GM Craig Patrick, on the players he acquired for Jaromir Jagr — Ross Lupaschuk, Kris Beech and Michal Sivek, none of whom is in the NHL.

CATCHING UP WITH ... STEVE McKENNA

If ever a hockey player could be called for traveling, it would be 6-foot-8 enforcer/comedian Steve McKenna. Since leaving the Penguins in 2004, McKenna has played and coached in Australia, England, China, South Korea and his latest stop, Russia, where he is a player-coach with the "Soviet Sports Club of the Air Force Samara" team in the Russian Supreme League.

During the NHL lockout in 2004, McKenna got an invitation from a friend — now his wife — to visit in Australia. He stayed and wound up playing for a local team called the Adelaide Avalanche. Next thing he knew, he was coaching the Australian national team (yes, there is such a thing.)

"There's a shortage of rinks there," McKenna said. "But they're really passionate about the sport."

McKenna hopes to return to the states and coach college hockey. The NHL game he'll never forget occurred Feb. 8, 2003, in Boston, when he skated on a line with Alex Kovalev and Mario Lemieux.

"I tell people about that one," McKenna said, laughing. "The Bruins pushed Kovalev around the previous game. We wanted to make sure it wasn't going to happen again, and I end up getting two goals!"

It was the only two-goal game of McKenna's 373-game NHL career.

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