Frozen In Time - Pittsburgh Penguins: The Stanley Cup Years

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• published: 08 Mar 2013
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The team had the league's worst record in both the 1983 and 1984 seasons, and with the team suffering financial problems, it again looked as though the Penguins would fold. Mario Lemieux, one of the most highly touted NHL draft picks in history, was due to be drafted in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. In 1989, Pittsburgh finally broke through the barrier and made the playoffs, on the back of Lemieux leading the league in goals, assists and points. On December 31, 1988, Lemieux became the only player in history to score a goal in all five possible game situations in the same game (even strength, shorthanded, penalty shot, power play, and empty net). The Pens shocked the New York Rangers in a four game sweep in the first round, however their run was halted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round. The seven game defeat featured Mario Lemieux scoring five goals in the fifth game. A herniated disc in Lemieux's back cut short his 1989--90 NHL season, although he still amassed 123 points. However this was not enough and the Pens slipped out of the playoff picture. The Penguins opted to strengthen their roster and support Lemieux in the 1990 offseason. Free agent signings (Bryan Trottier) and talents acquired via trade (Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy, Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson) played a major part of this. The signings culminated in the Penguins winning their first Stanley Cup by defeating the Minnesota North Stars in the Stanley Cup finals in six games, punctuated by a 8--0 victory in the deciding game, the largest margin of victory in a final Cup game in over 80 years. After the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals, the Penguins met with President George H. W. Bush, the first NHL team to ever visit the White House. The following season, the team lost coach Bob Johnson to cancer, and Scotty Bowman took over as coach. Under Bowman, they swept the Chicago Blackhawks to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in 1991--92. Cancer revisited the Penguins in 1993, when Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Only two months after the diagnosis, missing 24 out of 84 games, he came back to win his fourth Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion with 160 points, edging out Pat LaFontaine and Adam Oates. Despite the off-ice difficulties, Pittsburgh finished with a 56--21--7 record -- the franchise's best regular season ever -- winning the franchise's first (and, as of 2012, only) Presidents' Trophy. After Lemieux's return, the team played better than it ever had before, winning an NHL-record 17 consecutive games. Despite all of this success, they were eliminated in the second round by the New York Islanders in overtime of Game 7. The Penguins continued to be a formidable team throughout the 1990s. The stars of the Stanley Cup years were followed by the likes of forwards Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka, Aleksey Morozov, Robert Lang and Petr Nedved, and defensemen Sergei Zubov, Darius Kasparaitis and Kevin Hatcher. The Pens would use this talent to reach the first round of the playoffs in 1994, the second round in 1995, seven game into the conference finals in 1996, until the success was halted a five-game first round exit to the Philadelphia Flyers in 1997. After a season ending Lockout in 2005 the Penguins holding the first overall pick for the second time in three years. The Penguins chose highly touted junior league player Sidney Crosby from the Rimouski Océanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, who had been training with Lemieux over the course of that summer. In the 2008--09 season, Malkin won the Art Ross by narrowly defeating rival Ovechkin in the points race and was a candidate for the Hart Memorial Trophy for MVP. Crosby finished third in league scoring with 33 goals and 70 assists for 103 points despite missing 5 games. The Penguins' record dipped mid-season but lifted after head coach Michel Therrien was replaced by Dan Bylsma and defenseman Sergei Gonchar returned from injury. The effect was almost instantaneous and the Penguins recovered enough to secure home ice advantage in their first round matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers, whom the Penguins defeated in six games. The next series, against Washington, took all seven games for the Penguins to win, sending them to the Eastern Conference Finals where they beat the Carolina Hurricanes in four games. After defeating the Hurricanes, the Penguins earned their second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings, to whom they had lost the previous. After losing Games 1 and 2 in Detroit, just like the previous years, the Penguins won Games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh. Each team won on home ice in Games 5 and 6. In Game 7 in Detroit, Max Talbot scored two goals and the Penguins won 2--1 to earn their third Stanley Cup. Malkin's dominant playoff performance was rewarded by the Conn Smythe trophy.