Canuck keeper loses cool in Pens 1976 drubbing

Further to the last post about the Seals, here's another report from that Western road trip in February 1976, this time from Vancouver, detailing a 7-3 win against the Canucks. There's a great story about Gary "Suitcase" Smith, the Canuck keeper who some might have referred to as "Nutcase" for the type of strange behaviour described here.

Pens-Seals, 1976

Playing NHL 10 recently, I realized that one of the uniforms you can choose if playing the Dallas Stars is the California Golden Seals. It got me thinking of that old team, so I looked up some reports of their games against the Pens. The Seals did not last too long, coming in with the Penguins in 1967 and suffering through nine mostly dreadful seasons. The franchise was moved to Cleveland in 1976, lasting there only two seasons as the Barons before merging with the struggling Minnesota North Stars.

Here's a report on the Penguins' final visit to Oakland, which involved some last-minute heroics from Pens captain Ron Schock. The Penguins would win the final battle back in Pittsburgh the following month, to end with a 27-16-16 all-time record.

Blueline blues: 1974

We got the news today about Sergei Gonchar being out for 4-6 weeks - certainly a blow to the Pens, even if the team is playing spectacularly in the early going of this season. Thirty-five years ago, the Penguins were facing a similar situation on their blueline, with two regulars on the sidelines. Here's a P-G article describing the predicament. There's a good picture of a young Colin Campbell, now the NHL's head disciplinarian, who was brought up to fill in.

The main tidbit that really jumped out at me in this article, though, was the reference to a pre-season game the Penguins had played against the WHA's Cleveland Crusaders. I did not know that there was any kind of inter-league play between these two circuits, and perhaps illustrates that their leaders weren't quite at each others' throats as we might suspect.

Igloo's swan song = great reading

With the Penguins now into their final season at the Igloo, there are a lot of fine reads coming out on the history of the arena and Penguin memories. The P-G's Empty Netters blog is featuring some interviews with notable Pens from the past. Here's one with original GM Jack Riley.

My first game: Penguins-Canadiens, 1977

This is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's report from the first live hockey game I ever saw, which was played on Nov. 29, 1977 at the Montreal Forum between the Canadiens and Penguins. I was all of 8 years old and already a huge Penguins fan. One of my uncles had some connections and often got tickets to Habs games - highly prized commodities for any Montrealer, but even moreso for a young boy who lived, breathed and dreamed nothing but hockey and his favourite team, the Pittsburgh Penguins.

A few hours before game time the tickets arrived via courier and my mother informed me of what was going on. I still remember seeing the grey delivery truck pulling up outside our house while I played street hockey in the light of overhead street lamps, and thinking it was strange that such a truck was stopping here. My uncle remembered that I was a Penguins fan, and when he realized he couldn't go that night, decided to give them to me. I would head to the Forum with my older brother.

I hurriedly gulped down my dinner, bursting with energy and elation at this immense stroke of good fortune that had just befallen me. Not only was I going to see my first game ever, but I was going to see the PENGUINS!! Unfathomable, and it was all happening so quickly.

I remember having pretty decent seats, about halfway up, on one of the bluelines. The things I remember most about the game included marvelling at the Pens' great blue uniforms while the starters stood on the blueline during the anthems; buying a Penguins pennant at the souvenir stand (one I'm happy to say I still own and which is in pretty decent shape); Guy Lafleur's hair blowing behind him as he skated in the warmup; and the electric excitement in the air. The Forum was the epicentre of Montreal in those days, and seeing any game - even one in November that turned out to be a mismatch - was cause for excitement for anyone in attendance.

I always seemed to think that the Penguins had lost 7-1, until I looked up a Montreal Gazette article from the day after on microfiche years later and discovered that it was even worse - 9-1! I don't remember being bothered in the least that they got shellacked, though. I was just so excited to be there and to see them live. You have to remember, back then, we only got one game a week, so it was an event if you got to see the Penguins at all, let alone in person.

Another interesting note about this game is that it took place the day the Penguins traded Pierre Larouche to the Habs for Pete Mahovlich and Peter Lee, among others. Larouche had a big game, and I don't believe Mahovlich played that night - but I'm still looking for confirmation of that. Here's another P-G piece that discusses Larouche's happiness with the deal.

Michel Briere and Co. battle the Leafs, 1969

I had the pleasure of watching a game between the Penguins and Maple Leafs from Dec. 6, 1969, which was aired here in the Toronto area on Leafs TV. It was easily the oldest game I had ever seen the Pens play, and was a great glimpse into what the team was like in these early expansion years of the franchise. The only negative was that the good guys got trounced, 5-0!

Read the pre-game article that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the day of the game.

Despite some impressive goaltending from Al Smith, the Penguins found themselves in a 2-0 hole after one, thanks to some slow-footed defence play that allowed the Leafs to break in on a number of odd-man rushes. As noted by the legendary Foster Hewitt after the game, one of the strongest performances from the Penguins was turned in by rookie Michel Briere. It was easy to see why Pittsburgh hockey fans were excited about the future of this potential star player - he was often whizzing around the ice and seemed to be in the middle of most of the team's scoring chances. Playing with Jean Pronovost on his right side didn't hurt his game either.

Despite the result, this DVD will sit proudly amongst my collection, seeing as how rare a chance it was to see Briere playing in his lone NHL season, before his car accident in May 1970 and his death the following year after being in a coma.

This game was the first of a home-and-home weekend series against the Leafs. Apparently the loss didn't sit well with the young Briere - he tallied two goals the next night in Pittsburgh, the difference in a 3-2 Penguin triumph. Here's the report on that game from the Post-Gazette.

Pens-Wings: The first game ever

Here's a report of the very first game the Penguins played against the Red Wings on November 10, 1967, at the old Detroit Olympia. Like most of the new "Next 6" clubs going up against the "Original 6" teams in that first season of expansion, the Pens came out on the losing end of things.
There are several funny and quirky elements in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story. First, there's an exclamation mark in the headline, which you never see these days; the Pens are identified as the "Pengs" in the headline over the summary, a monicker that obviously (and mercifully) never took hold; the author, Jimmy Jordan, appears to have just shifted over from the Pittsburgh crime beat, with his frequent use of burglary-related terms; and, as a bit of evidence that NHL hockey was still a relatively new thing in the 'Burgh, Jordan closes the piece by informing readers that the Penguins' next game will be on Saturday night at home against the "St. Louis Flyers".

It's so much fun reading these old stories...

(You'll unfortunately have to scroll up the page a bit from the story that the link goes to; Google Archives doesn't have the actual Pens story indexed yet.)