Pens drop tight one in black and gold debut

Peter Lee shows off the Penguins new
black and gold uniforms against the St. Louis Blues. 

To align themselves with the other Pittsburgh pro sports teams sporting black and gold uniforms, the Penguins switched to the colour scheme in January, 1980. Until then, the Pens had worn various combinations of blues (navy, Columbia, powder) and white. But with the Steelers and Pirates winning championships, it made sense to mimic at least one aspect of those teams.

After some uncertainty as to when the Penguins would debut their new duds, the date was set: January 30 at home vs. St. Louis. Although at the time home teams traditionally wore white versions of their jerseys at home, an arrangement was made with the Blues so that they would wear white and the Penguins would wear the black-based version of their new uniforms.

Things didn't get off to a great start, with goalie Rob Holland letting in a pair of weak first period goals, including a 30-foot wrist shot that slipped between his legs with two seconds left. That performance earned him a seat on the bench, replaced by Greg Millen. Between the two Blues goals, Rick Kehoe had the honour of tallying the Pens' first black and gold goal at 14:50.

...and in colour.

Pittsburgh surged into the lead in the second on goals by Rod Schutt and Ron Stackhouse, but they couldn't hold it. Bernie Federko hammered the winning goal into an empty net at 5:18 of the third after a nice play by Brian Sutter to draw Millen out of position. The Pens fired a whopping 18 shots at goalie Mike Liut in the third but couldn't find the mesh.

See the full game report from the January 31, 1980 edition of the Post-Gazette.

The new colour scheme did not bring much good fortune to the Penguins early on. They would lose their first six games in them, not claiming a victory until beating Toronto 4-2 at the Igloo on February 13.

The 1977-78 Penguins: An in-depth review

Penguins News Archive begins an in-depth review of the 1977-78 Penguins. It was a season of more downs than ups and resulted in yet another spring out of the playoffs. Nevertheless, a cast of colourful characters and exciting games makes it a season worth documenting. There's a personal interest for me, too, with this season being the one where I started following the game and the Penguins. So, here goes...

The Penguins get off to a winning, if not pretty, start to the season with a 4-2 win over the Blues at the Igloo, thanks to some clutch goaltending from Dennis Herron. This win gave the Penguins their seventh straight season-opening victory - one of the few NHL records the 10-year-old club held.

In this Post-Gazette article, Herron talks about how his teammates helped him get through a difficult preseason.

And the Beaver County Times game review briefly mentions the Penguins' new uniforms for 1977-78, which this blog author still thinks are the nicest unis the team has ever donned! Do you agree?