Option Line explodes vs. Nordiques, Oct. 25/90

Bob Johnson moved the pieces of his top line around and the results were very much to the Penguins' liking. Shifting Mark Recchi over to right wing and John Cullen back to center, the duo, along with left wing Kevin Stevens, led the Pens to their first win on Igloo ice in four games. Stevens netted a hat trick while Cullen, on the strength of two assists, moved ahead of Wayne Gretzky for the NHL scoring lead with 21 points.

The Penguins scored on their first three shots, chasing Quebec goalie John Tanner. His replacement, Ron Tugnutt was welcomed by Stevens only 34 seconds after coming in with another shot that bulged the Nordique twine.

Johnson, however, saw room for improvement. "We've got to get sharper instead of being careless. We still do some things I shake my head at."

#91Pens Record: 3-4-1

Pens crumble late vs. Habs, Oct. 23/90

The Penguins continue to exhibit a good work ethic but the results are once again not the ones they want. Entering the third period trailing Montreal 3-2, Pittsburgh moved ahead late in the third on goals by Zarley Zalapski and Rob Brown, only to give up a pair to the Habs at 17:00 and 17:38.

"We have our breakdowns, and every team does," said Paul Coffey after the game. "It's just that ours come at the wrong time all the time."

- Pens Coach Bob Johnson

It is the Pens' third straight loss at home.

#91Pens Record: 3-5-1

Mullen Bros. Battle goes to Brian & Rangers, Oct. 20/90

It was the battle of the Mullen Brothers , this being the first matchup of the Rangers' Brian and the Pens' Joey in the Patrick Division. The Penguins fall behind 3-0 and don't start to claw back until the third, but claw back they do, with Joey making it 3-1 on the power play early in the third. We don't know what coach Bob Johnson may have said to his troops in the second intermission, but whatever the words were, they were effective.

John Cullen scored 11 seconds later, and Paul Coffey tied it at 12:14. The Igloo was rocking, but brother Brian stopped the party in its tracks with the winner at 16:43, when he deftly backhanded a rebound out of mid-air behind Tom Barrasso. This was the Pens' second loss in a row at home and the first game of the season in which LW Kevin Stevens was held pointless.

Oct. 19/90 – Penguins 4 @ Buffalo 4

The Pens rally from three one-goal deficits and come away with a point against the winless Sabres on the road. After taking a 4-3 lead, they let Mike Foligno slip behind the defense to beat Wendell Young at the side of the net with just under seven minutes to play. Foligno put another one into the Penguins’ cage a little while later but this one was waved off due to an offside call. 

Jaromir Jagr continues to impress, getting a goal and an assist. In a sight that would become quite familiar to Pens fans in the coming years, #68 took a pass just over the opponent’s blueline, flashed a number of dekes and buried a backhander past the goalie, in this case Darren Puppa. Coach Bob Johnson sounded a cautionary note afterwards regarding Jagr, however: “He showed a couple of flashes out there, but remember, he’s only 18. And this is only October.”

Oct. 16/90 – Philadelphia 5 @ Penguins 1

The game was played under a cloud of sorrow, with Flyers’ right winger Tim Kerr learning the day before that his wife had died of complications from childbirth. Kathleen Kerr had given birth to a healthy baby girl on October 6 but later developed a pelvic infection. 

“The best thing for us is to let our emotions get into the game,” said Flyers captain Rob Sutter. And that the Flyers did, rolling up a 4-0 lead through two periods and denying the Penguins on all seven of their powerplay chances. The Penguins held a moment of silence before the game. “Mr. [Craig] Patrick and the Pittsburgh Penguins showed a tremendous amount of class and respect with that they did,” said Sutter.

Oct. 13/90 – Penguins 6 @ NY Islanders 4

Bryan Trottier returns to Long Island as a visiting player and collects an assist in the Penguins’ 6-4 win. The Pens fell behind 2-0 but rallied with the next four goals to take command of the game. Trottier, who received a warm welcome from the crowd of 14,903, had to leave the game in the second period with a bruised toe. Kevin Stevens led the Pens attack with a goal and an assist, giving him a league-leading 14 points.

Oct. 11/90 - Penguins 1 @ Chicago 4

The Blackhawks came out storming with 11 shots to the Penguins’ zero during the game’s first seven minutes. “We knew they’d come out like that…I call it a gang attack,” said Pens coach Bob Johnson. Pretty apt, considering the Stadium’s location on the south side of Chicago. Goalie Tom Barrasso did his best under the barrage, managing to hold the Hawks to a 2-0 lead on goals by Jeremy Roenick. 

Kevin Stevens answered in the second as the Pens settled down defensively. Roenick, however, completed his hat trick at 14:03 of the third period when he batted a puck out of the air behind Barrasso. That was all she wrote for the Penguins on this night. “It’s our job to get better, and we were close tonight. But it’s not going to happen overnight,” said a patient Badger Bob after the game.

Oct. 9/90 – Penguins 3 @ St. Louis 4

With the game tied late in the third, Pens rookie defenseman Paul Stanton made a mistake. “It’s something you learn when you’re five years old., that you don’t make plays like that. I’ll be surprised if I play again.”

The play in question was throwing the  puck up the middle of your own zone. Such clearing attempts more often than not end in disaster, and this one certainly did. Blues center Adam Oates picked off the pass and fed it to Geoff Courtnall, who tipped it into the Penguins’ twine for a 4-3 St. Louis lead with just over five minutes to play.

Oct. 7/90 – New Jersey 4 @ Penguins 7

The scoring parade of the Washington game continued two nights later during the Penguins’ home opener against the Devils, which they won by the same 7-4 count. The sellout crowd of 16,164 rocked the Civic Arena foundations as the Pens put four goals behind Chris Terreri in a span of 2:27 in the third period to pull away and move to 2-0. The forces of young and old were on display, with veteran Bryan Trottier scoring his first two as a Penguin and rookie Jaromir Jagr getting his first.

1990-91 Record: 2-0-0

A Flyer eats his words as Pens demolish Philly

Oct. 30 1990: Pens 6, Flyers 2

The Penguins earn their most lopsided win ever to this point at the Philadelphia Spectrum thanks to a solid, 60-minute team effort. The high compete factor was no doubt influenced by some ill-advised remarks the day before by Flyers’ defenseman Terry Carkner. “If we play the way we’re capable of playing, we should dominate them,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “They’re a lot smaller than us. We should be able to physically keep them down for 60 minutes. It should be an easy game.”

Terry Carkner: Unwise words

The remarks were pinned up in the Penguins dressing room before the game, and they had an effect. “I think everybody took a look at it and it sunk in,” Kevin Stevens told the Pittsburgh Press. “I don’t know why he would pipe up like that.”

Pittsburgh outskated and outhustled the Flyers in the first and emerged with a 2-0 lead on goals by Stevens and Rob Brown. Carkner decided to do some talking with his stick, bringing the Flyers within one early in the second, but Pens big guy Jay Caulfield answered back less than a minute later. That was the end of Philly on this night in a game that turned out to be an easy one…for the Pens, of course.

Dale Tallon's career closes in Pittsbugh

At the 1970 NHL Entry Draft, the league’s two new teams, the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks, participated in a roulette-style spinoff to determine which club would claim the first overall pick. The Sabres won it and took future Hall of Famer Gilbert Perreault. The losing Canucks chose second and went with defenseman Dale Tallon.

It was a fateful spin for both teams. The Sabres were in the Stanley Cup Final within five years, while the Canucks languished in (at best) mediocrity for years. Tallon was no Perreault and lasted only three seasons in Vancouver before being traded to the Chicago Black Hawks, where he enjoyed his most productive days.

Tallon was traded to Pittsburgh in October 1979 for a second round draft pick. "Tallon has a lot of class,” said Pens GM Baz Bastien at the time. “He had some great years in Vancouver and two big years in Chicago,” he said, somewhat overstating the hockey facts.

Talon, who also played center at times, was enjoying a decent season and had settled in well with his new teammates when on March 13, 1979, ironically during a game in Vancouver, he lost his footing while charging to the Canucks net and crashed into the goalpost. Broken leg. Season over.

He wouldn’t make it back to the lineup until late December of the following campaign, but two other smaller ailments sent him back to the sidelines. He’d return to play in the Pens' opening round playoff series against the Boston Bruins, but his tank was empty. Those games would turn out to be his last in the NHL.

A career that started in 1970 with so many huge expectations concluded a decade later, largely unfulfilled, in the black and gold of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

(Happy) Epilogue: Tallon has since gone on to a successful front office career in the NHL and is the current GM of the up-and-coming Florida Panthers.

Greg Enright is a writer, editor and Pens fan since the days of the blue uniforms. Follow him on Twitter @penguinshistory.

Paiement closes career as a Penguin

Wilf Paiement was the second overall pick in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft, taken by the expansion Kansas City Scouts. The 6'4", 210-pound right winger was supposed to be the Scouts' version of Buffalo's Gilbert Perreault, a young superstar around whom the franchise could build.

The Scouts, however, had little else in the way of talent and could barely win a handful of games. After two dismal years in K.C. the team moved to Colorado to become the Rockies, and Paiement went along with them. The scenery changed but the losing continued. Paiement put up some impressive numbers nonetheless, tallying 40 goals in 1976-77 and 87 points the following year. In 1979 he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the infamous deal for Lanny McDonald, and two years later he went to the Quebec Nordiques.

After one-season stops in New York with the Rangers and Buffalo, Paiement's hockey road wound its way to the Penguins, where he was penciled in as Mario Lemieux's right winger on the Pens' top line to start the 1987-88 campaign.

Paiement got off to a solid start, scoring a goal in each of the team's first two games, but after that it was all downhill. He was demoted to the Penguins' farm team in Muskegon in mid-November - his first ever stint in the minors.

"After we took him off the power play he seemed to stop working," said Pens GM Eddie Johnston at the time. "He definitely hasn't played up to expectations."

Paiement did return for six more games in January but with a nagging knee injury and little production (1 assist in those six games) the writing was on the wall. Wilf Paiement played his final NHL game January 10, 1988 wearing a Penguins uniform - a 7-5 loss to the Red Wings in Detroit.

Lemieux bags 8 points vs. Blues

The St. Louis Blues came to Pittsburgh on October 15, 1988 after engaging in an 8-8 war the night before with the Detroit Red Wings. Before a sellout crowd at the Igloo, Mario Lemieux capitalized on the bedraggled Blues and turned in the most productive performance of his career. Le Magnifique bettered his career best one-game total by 2, registering a spectacular 8-point night, with two goals and six assists in a 9-2 Pens victory.

The Blues put up little fight, registering only 22 shots. "After [the Blues'] second goal, I was a spectator. And I had a great seat," said Pens goalie Steve Guenette.

Some of Lemieux's other teammates were getting used to their teammate's heroics, however. Defenseman Zarley Zalapski admitted he wasn't even aware of Number 66's point total, while Rob Brown, who was the happy recipient of Lemieux's passing, scoring his first career hat trick, said "It's Mario Lemieux. You expect  it. If he only gets three or four points, you think he has a broken leg."

For his part, Lemieux was ready to move on. "It was a great game, but tomorrow I have to forget about it."

Oct 5/90: Pens 7, Caps 4

The 1990-91 Penguins opened the season on the road against the Washington Capitals on October 5, minus superstar captain Mario Lemiuex, who was out indefinitely with an inflammation in the disc area of his back.

Despite new coach Bob Johnson’s emphasis on defense in training camp, the game turned into a wild affair with Pittsburgh outgunning the hosts 7-4. Left Wing Keving Stevens and his centerman John Cullen each turned in Mario-like performances, Stevens getting a whopping two goals and four assists, while Cullen tallied five assists.

It was the team’s overall resiliency that brought a smile to Johnson’s face, however. “The ability to come back in their building is the thing that please me,” said the coach.

1990-91 record: 1-0-0

Pittsburgh Pirates: The final uniform

You just never know what surprises are lurking in the old newspaper archives. I came across this stunning shot of Archie Briden, a left winger for Pittsburgh's first entry in the NHL, the Pirates. Briden played for the team during their disastrous fifth and final season, 1929-30, eventually being sold for money by the cash-strapped Corsairs.

In this era, game-action images were rare in newspapers. When there was imagery to go along with a story, it was usually a posed shot such as this one. I've never seen such a clear picture of a member of the Pirates sporting this style of uniform, though. The details really jump out at you.

The Pirates had almost as many uniform styles (three) as they did seasons in the league (five). This one was black and orange and in many respects was way ahead of its time. Notice the diagonal striping, similar to the original Mighty Ducks of Anaheim jerseys, and the pirate logo on the front left pant leg, which to my knowledge wasn't widely used until the 1980s.

For my money, you can't beat the Pirates' original black and gold uniforms, but this shot proves just how much of a winner the final version was - even if the team wasn't.

Chuck Arnason

Poor Chuck Arnason. Although the right winger from Dauphin, Manitoba had a fairly lengthy NHL career spanning eight seasons and  401 regular season games, he only saw action in nine playoff contests. The reason? Arnason toiled for many of the worst clubs of the 1970s, including the second-year Atlanta Flames, Kansas City Scouts, Colorado Rockies, Cleveland Barons, Minnesota North Stars and Washington Capitals. His entire playoff experience came in one year with another, much better, team: the 1974-75 Pittsburgh Penguins. 

Arnason came to the Pens on January 4, 1974 in a trade with the Flames, putting up a respectable 18 points in 41 games. The next year, skating on a line with 31-goal rookie star Pierre Larouche and Bob Kelly, Chuck hit his stride, racking up 26 goals and 58 points. The Penguins were back in the playoffs, and in the first game of the best-of-three first round series against the St. Louis Blues, Arnason turned in perhaps the finest game of his career.

Trailing the Blues 2-1 in the third period, Arnason scored two goals to cue a come-from-behind 4-3 Pittsburgh victory. His second goal, in which he put in his own rebound to tie the game at three, mightily impressed Penguin coach Marc Boileau. "I've never seen a goal like that," he said after the game. "It was some wrist shot."

By early 1976, though, Arnason had fallen out of favour with the Pens brass, who reportedly wanted him to go into the corners more and play better defense. On January 9, 1976, he was shipped to Kansas City along with bad boy Steve Durbano. Thus began a tour of the NHL dregs, although he did have one solid stop in Cleveland, where in 1977-78 he scored 21 goals in 40 games for the Barons.

Those would be the last goals of his NHL career, however. During training camp in 1980, Arnason suffered a serious knee injury. It was time to let the curtain fall on his hockey playing days. 

Arnason's son Tyler also made it to the NHL, playing 487 games with the Blackhawks, Senators and Avalanche from 2001 to 2009. 

Kevin McCarthy, Pens point man

Kevin McCarthy was a high-scoring NHL defenceman of the late 70s and early 80s who began and ended his career with the Philadelphia Flyers, playing for Vancouver and Pittsburgh in between. Drafted 17^th overall in the 1977 amateur draft, McCarthy had an impressive rookie season in 77-78, putting up 17 points in 62 games, while enjoying a plus-29 rating.  

After 22 games and only three points the next year, however, the Flyers gave up on him and shipped him to Vancouver. 

He proved the Flyers wrong. 

Seasons of 45, 53, 45 and 40 points followed. Unfortunately, he broke his ankle just before the Canucks began their memorable run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1982, missing the entire playoffs and watching his team eventually lose to the New York Islanders. 

McCarthy came to the Penguins smack dab in the middle of their worst season ever, traded in January 1984 for a third-round pick in that year’s draft. He hadn't been playing much in Vancouver and welcomed a fresh start in Pittsburgh.  "I'm glad to be with someone who wants me," he said when traded. "It could be a blessing in disguise because (Pens GM) Eddie Johnston said I'd be getting a lot of ice time."

McCarthy proved to be a rare bright spot for the Pens that year, racking up 20 points in 31 games. Typical of most 1983-84 Penguin defencemen, though, he also posted a hideous minus-32 while wearing the black and gold that year. 

McCarthy was back the following season to be a part of Mario Lemieux’s rookie campaign, but the following summer his career went full circle when he was signed by the Flyers as a free agent. After six more games over the next two years, McCarthy’s NHL career was over. 

Since hanging up his skates, McCarthy has enjoyed a successful coaching career, getting his name on the Stanley Cup as an assistant with the 2006 champion Carolina Hurricanes. He is currently an assistant coach with the Nashville Predators.

Greg Polis wins 1973 All-Star MVP

January 30, 1973 was quite a day for former Penguins left winger Greg Polis. He had just welcomed his son Jason into the world the day before and was now in New York City for the NHL All-Star Game. Hoping simply to get a puck to bring back for his new boy as a souvenir to keep forever, Polis instead returned with a new car after taking home the game's MVP honours.

The article below nicely describes the whirlwind 48 hours in the life of the Pens' first pick in the 1970 draft (7th overall). And this piece from 2013 looks at Polis's post-hockey life in British Columbia.

Pens blast Atlanta Flames with 50 shots in January 1975

The Penguins were riding an 11-game home unbeaten streak when the Atlanta Flames paid a visit to the Igloo on January 15, 1975. The Pens firepower was on full display for the 7,554 fans who made it out for the Wednesday night tilt, with a whopping 50 shots flying at goalie Phil Myre. Five of them made their way into the net and Pittsburgh skated off with a 5-3 victory.

“The puck was in Atlanta’s end all night because the forwards were forechecking like mad,” said Pens D-man Barry Wilkins in this game report from the Pittsburgh Press (article on next page). “That takes a lot of pressure off a defense.”

Despite the barrage of rubber at the Flame cage, the two teams were tied midway through the third before Jean Pronovost netted the winner at 11:36, his 21^st of the season.

Pens halt Islanders' record winning streak at 15 in 1982

On February 20, 1982 the New York Islanders beat the Colorado Rockies to earn their 15th straight win, breaking the mark held for 52 years by the Boston Bruins.

The next night they visited the Igloo to take on the Penguins, who had but one win in their last 10 games. Seemed like a mismatch, but lo and behold, the Pens ended up stunning the Isles 4-3 behind the stellar goaltending of Michel Dion to put a kibosh on the rival Islansers' streak. It was just the kind of boost the Pittsburghers needed heading into the season's home stretch.

"Everybody in the league is going to know that it was the Pittsburgh Penguins who stopped their winning streak," said a proud Dion in this game report. "We're back on the map again."

The Isles' record would stand for 11 years when it was broken by - you guessed it - the Penguins, whose mark of 17 straight wins in 1993 still stands.

Leafs oust Pens from 1976 playoffs with easy 4-0 win

The Penguins were given an early opportunity to take charge of the third and deciding game of their 1976 Preliminary Round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs when Toronto’s Dave “Tiger” Williams was sent to the sin bin for a five-minute major penalty less than two minutes in. But the Pens power play stayed dormant, as it had been all series long, and the Leafs fed off the mammoth penalty kill to grab the momentum and hold it until the final buzzer.

“Killing that penalty was the key point of the game,” said Leaf coach Red Kelly in this game report. “After that we took charge of everything.”

Pittsburgh's Vic Hadfield regretted the missed opportunity. “We knew we had five minutes so we took our time, but pretty soon time ran out on us.”

Toronto goalie Wayne Thomas had another great game but long-time Penguin Jean Pronovost saw another reason for his club’s demise. “Thomas robbed us and was a big factor, but as a whole their team worked harder than ours.”

Pens battle back to even 1976 series vs. Leafs

After getting beaten up like a collective rag doll in Game One of their 1976 Preliminary Round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Penguins realized they too were going to have to play it tough if they were to advance out of the short best-of-three series.

This was only one of four career
playoff games for Michel Plasse. 

Back home on Igloo ice for Game Two, coach Ken Schinkel was able to get the line matchups he wanted thanks to having the last change on each shift. That meant that every time Toronto's dangerous Darryl Sittler came out, so too did Ron Schock, who shut the all-star centre down. The toughness was infectious and the entire team played like the mean-looking Penguin on the front of their jerseys, en route to a 2-0 win.

"We did intimidate them a little," coach Schinkel told the Pittsburgh Post in this article. "There were several of their guys backing up."

Goalie Michel Plasse had to stop only 21 Leaf shots to gain the shutout - which would turn out to be the only playoff one of his NHL career. "We played a helluva game as a team," he said. "We simply deserved to win."

The Pens would have to turn in another team effort the very next night back in Maple Leaf Gardens where one team would be moving on to the Quarter-Finals and the other would be heading to the golf course.