Cap carnage in 1975

As the Pens and Caps gear up for the Winter Classic, let's look back on one of the first battles between these rivals: March 15, 1975. The high-powered Pens put a licking on the expansion Capitals that night at the Igloo, firing 65 shots at the hapless Cap 'keepers en route to a 12-1 demolition.

This Post-Gazette article recaps the carnage, as well as another thrashing doled out the following night to the Kansas City Scouts, another expansion "sacrifice", as writer Bob Whitley described them. There's a nice pic of the KC goalie being beaten by Ron Schock, too.

And here's a report on the weekend goal-fest from the Beaver County Times, with comments from Rick Kehoe about his recent split with the Maple Leafs which brought him to Pittsburgh to begin a long relationship with the team.

There's also another nice pic from the Kansas City game, but why the paper's editors chose to display one of the Pens getting scored on during a weekend in which they scored 18 goals is beyond me!

Aside: 10 Greatest Games video

Let's be clear: the 10 games chosen for the DVD package, Pittsburgh Penguins Greatest Games, are NOT the best in franchise history. Perhaps they're the best of the games that were captured with presentable audio and video, but not of the whole franchise.

I got to thinking recently about what games should truly be on there if the techincal end of things was not a factor. Here are a few:

- Pens defeat Oakland in Game Four of 1970 playoff series on Michele Briere's OT goal, giving Pittsburgh its first-ever playoff series win
- George Ferguson scores series-clinching OT goal vs. Buffalo in 1979 playoffs
- Pens OT victory over Montreal in April 1993 to set new NHL record for longest winning streak
- Game 4 of 1982 preliminary round vs. Islanders in which surprising Pens force defending Stanley Cup champs to the brink of elimination
- 12-0 win vs. Washington in 1976, Pens' biggest margin of victory
- Penguins first win

Any others?

Mario's first game

I had actually never looked this article up, but finally managed to tonight: the Pittsburgh Press's report on Mario Lemieux's first-ever game, played at Boston Garden on October 11, 1984. As all Penguins fans undoubtedly know by now, #66 scored on his first shift and his first shot, a beautiful goal in which he made future Hall of Famer Ray Bourque look like a pimple-faced junior before swooping in on goalie Pete Peters, deking the 'B' right off his jersey and depositing the disc in the net. Unfortunately, the Pens ended up blowing a 3-1 lead and lost 4-3.

I like the fact that Dennis Herron, the Penguins primary goalie from the pre-Lemieux era of the 70s, was in goal for Mario's debut - sort of a passing of the Penguins torch, even though it might not have been too brightly lit at the time. (Rick Kehoe was also on the ice to help Le Magnifique celebrate his first tally.

Understatement of the night goes to the aforementioned Mr. Bourque: "I think (Lemieux) is going to be a big help to that club."

Here's The First Goal in all its glory:

Game 5: No 'Miracle on Ice' for 1980 Pens

It looked like Game 4 all over again. And that was unfortunate for the Pens, whose dream of upsetting one of the NHL's top teams in the first round of the 1980 playoffs turned into a Boston Garden nightmare.

The Bruins, perhaps stung by these pesky Penguins taking them to the brink of elimination, once again roared out of the gate and took control of the game, amassing leads of 2-0 after 1 and 4-0 after 2. This article from the Post-Gazette the day after focuses on goalie Greg Millen's surprisingly positive reaction to the loss. The column beneath it by the paper's sports editor speculates on coach Johnny Wilson's future in Pittsburgh, which wouldn't be bright - he was soon fired, making way for none other than Eddie Johnston.

The two pieces on this page of the Beaver County Times offer the views of two fans who were chosen to write columns for the paper.

And this article from the Eugene Register-Guard nicely outlines the impact rookie Ray Bourque had on the series.

This loss would represent the first of three heartbreaking, deciding Game 5 losses the Pens would endure over the next three seasons.

Game 4: "It was a long game"

The worst period in Penguins playoff history deflates the "pumped up" Pittsburghers and contributes to an 8-3 Bruin whitewashing.

Youngsters Ray Bourque and "Greg" MacTavish lead the assault and help force a deciding fifth game back in the Hub. Here are all the gorey details in an AP wire story.

Game 3: Lonsberry, Pens stun Bruins

The Pens' 1980 Preliminary Round series against the Bruins moved back to the Igloo, after Pittsburgh emerged from Boston with a split. The Penguins proved that their spirited Game 1 win was no fluke, outplaying the B's for the first two periods and amassing a 3-0 lead. From there, they played a tight third and, thanks to three points each from forwards Ross Lonsberry and George Ferguson, found themselves on the precipice of the young 1980 Playoffs' biggest upset.

In this article from the April 13 Beaver County Times, Penguins coach Johnny Wilson credited the hometown fans for playing a part in the big win.

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Coach Wilson under attack!

The day of Game 3 in Pittsburgh, this analysis piece of the series thus far by Post-Gazette Pens beat writer Bob Whitley strongly called into question the coaching tactics of Pittsburgh bench boss Johnny Wilson. In a scathing attack, the scribe took Wilson to task for supposedly not unleashing a fleet-footed offense on the Bruins, among other errors. This despite the Penguins pulling off one of the playoffs' early surprises by coming out of the tough Boston Garden with a split.

They never said being a coach was easy!

Game 2: Pens can't "bar the door" vs. Bruins

After their surprising victory against the mighty Bruins in Game One, the Penguins came out trying to play the same style that got them that impressive win two nights earlier: play tight defense, try to capitalize on the odd offensive chance, and - most of all - pray that goalie Greg Millen can keep standing on his head.

Well, it worked OK for the first period, but not much longer, as the Beantowners evened things up rather easily, skating off with a 4-1 win and a 1-1 series tie in their best-of-five 1980 preliminary series round.

Here's a wire article with some reaction from Pens D-man Ron Stackhouse and Bruin goalkeeper Gerry Cheevers.

Penguins-Bruins 1980: Game 1

In Game One, the Penguins shocked the Bruins and the mere 9,725 Boston spectators who came out to see what was supposed to be a ho-hum drubbing of the visitors. The rejuvinated Pens, coming off a disappointing end to a disappointing regular season, withstood a 38-shot Bruin barrage to claim a 4-2 victory.

Goalie Greg Millen, in his first-ever playoff action, stood on his head, stopping enough of Boston's 20 third-period howitzers to give the underdog Pens an inconceivable 1-0 series lead.

This article from the April 9, 1980 Post-Gazette summarizes the tilt, while the others around it contain some nice quotes from the victors' locker room deep in the bowels of the old Boston Garden.

This game was also the playoff debut of Raymond Bourque, the future Hall of Famer. He fired an incredible nine shots on Millen - who stopped them all.

1980 Playoffs: Penguins-Bruins

Over the next few posts I'm going to look at the Penguins 1980 Preliminary Round battle with the Boston Bruins, which turned out to be anything but what most fans expected it to be: a quick Bruin whitewashing.

This article from the April 7, 1980 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, written on the eve of the series opener, looks at the state of the Igloo-dwellers at the end of a disappointing regular season that saw them finish seven games below the .500 mark. The team could hardly have felt great about itself after finishing the campaign with a 9-1 abomination at home against the Buffalo Sabres.

Add in the fact that the Big Bad Bruins had: a) finished a whopping 32 points better than the Pens; b) swept Pittsburgh four-straight in the playoffs the year before; and c) had gone deep into the playoffs the previous two seasons (Finals and Semi-Finals), and the Penguins' fate seemed sealed.

But, as all sports fans know, anything can happen. And something close to "anything" was about to...