The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL) and are the defending Stanley Cup champions. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the first expansion teams during the league's original expansion from six to twelve teams. The Penguins have played in Mellon Arena since their first season, and will move into their new arena, Consol Energy Center, in time for the 2010–11 NHL season. They have won three Stanley Cup championships in their history, in 1990–91, 1991–92, and 2008–09. The team has a long-standing rivalry with fellow Pennsylvania team the Philadelphia Flyers.
Franchise history
Expansion years: 1967–69
Before the Penguins, Pittsburgh was the home of the early NHL incarnation of the Pirates, during the 1920s, and the successful Hornets (AHL) franchise from the 1930s through the 1960s. In the spring of 1965, Jack McGregor, a state senator from Kittaning, devised a plan to bring an NHL franchise back to Pittsburgh. McGregor's plan involved lobbying some of his campaign contributors who were avid sports fans, and community leaders. The group focused on leveraging the NHL as an urban renewal tool for Pittsburgh. The senator formed a group of local investors for the Pittsburgh franchise that included, HJ Heinz III, Art Rooney, and Richard Scaife. The 1967 NHL Expansion depended on securing votes from the then-current NHL owners. To ensure that Pittsburgh would be selected for expansion, McGregor enlisted the help of Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney, to petition votes from Jim Norris, owner of the Chicago Black Hawks, and Bruce Norris, owner of the Detroit Red Wings.
The effort was successful, and on February 8, 1966, the National Hockey League awarded an expansion team to Pittsburgh for the 1967–68, . The Penguins paid $2.5 million for their entry in to the NHL and $750,000 more for start-up costs. The Civic Arena's capacity was then boosted from 10,732 to 12,500 to meet the NHL requirements for expansion. The Pens also paid an indemnification bill to settle with the Detroit Red Wings that held the rights to Pittsburgh Hornets. McGregor was named president and chief executive officer by the investor group, and he represented Pittsburgh on the NHL’s Board of Governors.
After deciding on the "Penguin" nickname (which was inspired by the fact that the team was to play in the "Igloo", the nickname of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena), a logo was chosen that had a penguin in front of a triangle, which symbolized the "Golden Triangle" of downtown Pittsburgh."
The Penguins' first general manager was Jack Riley. His team (along with the other expansion teams) was hampered by restrictive rules that kept most major talent with the "Original Six." Beyond aging sniper Andy Bathgate and tough defenseman Leo Boivin, the first Penguins team was manned by a cast of former minor-leaguers. On October 11, 1967, Clarence Campbell and McGregor jointly dropped the ceremonial first puck of the Penguins opening home game against the Montreal Canadiens. The Penguins would go 27-34-13 that year, missing the playoffs. However the Penguins were a mere six points out of first place in the close-fought West Division. But there was a great moment in their first season which came on October 21, 1967, when they became the first team from the expansion class to beat an Original Six team as they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2.
Though Bathgate led the team in scoring, both he and Boivin were soon gone. Former player George Sullivan was the head coach for the club's first two seasons, until being replaced by Hockey Hall of Famer Red Kelly. With the exception of a handful of decent players such as Ken Schinkel, Keith McCreary, agitator Bryan Watson, and goaltender Les Binkley, talent was otherwise thin. The Penguins missed the playoffs in five of their first seven seasons.
1970s
Tragedy struck the Penguins in 1970 when promising rookie center Michel Briere, who finished third in scoring on the team, was injured in a car crash. Briere died after spending a year in the hospital, and his jersey, number 21, was the first to be retired by the franchise. The Penguins would reach the playoffs for the first time in 1970, advancing to the Western Conference Finals where they lost to the St. Louis Blues. Pittsburgh managed a playoff berth in 1972 but not much beyond that. With the Penguins battling the California Golden Seals near the division cellar in 1973–74, Jack Riley was fired as general manager and replaced with Jack Button. Button traded for Steve Durbano, Ab DeMarco, Jr., Bob "Battleship" Kelly, and Bob Paradise. The personnel moves proved successful, as the team's play improved. The Penguins just barely missed the playoffs in 1974.
Beginning in the mid-seventies, Pittsburgh iced some powerful offensive clubs, led by the likes of the "Century Line" of forwards Syl Apps, Jr., Lowell MacDonald and Jean Pronovost. They came tantalizingly close to reaching the Stanley Cup semifinals in 1975, but were ousted from the playoffs by the New York Islanders in one of only three best-of-seven game series in professional sports history where a team came back from being down three games to none. As the 1970s wore on, they brought in other offensive weapons such as Rick Kehoe, Pierre Larouche, and Ron Schock, along with a couple solid blue-liners such as Ron Stackhouse and Dave Burrows. But the Pens' success beyond the regular season was always neutralized by mediocre team defense. Goaltender Denis Herron was a stalwart in goal, later sharing the Vezina Trophy while with the Montreal Canadiens in 1980–81.
In 1975, the Penguins' creditors demanded payment of back debts, forcing the team into bankruptcy. The doors to the team's offices were padlocked, and it looked like the Penguins were headed for contraction. Through the intervention of a group that included Wren Blair, the team was prevented from folding.
Baz Bastien, a former coach and general manager of the AHL Hornets, later became general manager. The Penguins missed the playoffs in 1977–78 when their offense lagged, and Larouche was traded for Pete Mahovlich and Peter Lee. Bastien traded prime draft choices for several players whose best years were already behind them, such as Orest Kindrachuk, Tom Bladon and Rick MacLeish, and the team would suffer in the early 1980s as a result. The decade closed with a playoff appearance in 1979 and a rousing opening series win over Buffalo before a second round sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
1980s
The Penguins began the decade by changing their team colors. In January 1980, the team switched from wearing blue and white to their present-day scheme of black and gold to honor Pittsburgh's other sports teams, the Pirates and the Steelers, as well as the Flag of Pittsburgh. Both the Pirates and Steelers had worn black and gold for decades, and both were fresh off world championship seasons at that time. The Boston Bruins protested this color change, claiming a monopoly on black and gold. The Penguins defended their choice stating that an early hockey club in Pittsburgh also used black and gold as their team colors. They also argued that black and gold were Pittsburgh's traditional sporting colors. The NHL agreed, and Pittsburgh was allowed to use black and gold, a color scheme since adopted as well by the Anaheim Ducks when that team changed their uniforms in 2006.
On the ice, the Penguins began the 1980s with defenseman Randy Carlyle, and prolific scorers Paul Gardner and Mike Bullard, but little else.
During the early part of the decade, the Penguins made a habit of being a tough draw for higher seeded opponents in the playoffs. In 1980, the 13th seeded Penguins took the Bruins to the limit in their first round playoff series. The following season, as the 15th seed, they lost the decisive game of their first round series in overtime to the heavily favored St. Louis Blues. Then, in the 1982 playoffs, the Penguins held a 3-1 lead late in the fifth and final game of their playoff series against the reigning champions, the New York Islanders. However, the Islanders rallied to force overtime and won the series on a goal by John Tonelli. It would be the Pens' final playoff appearance until 1989.
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. But the reward for the dismal 1983–84 season was the right to draft French Canadian phenomenon Mario Lemieux. Other teams offered substantial trade packages for the draft choice, but the Penguins kept the pick.
The Mario Lemieux era: 1984–1997
With the first overall pick in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft Pittsburgh selected Quebec Major Junior Hockey League superstar Mario Lemieux. He paid dividends right away, scoring on the first shot of his first shift in his first NHL game.
Pittsburgh spent four more years out of the playoffs. In the late 80s, the Penguins finally gave Lemieux a strong supporting cast, trading for superstar defenseman Paul Coffey from the Edmonton Oilers (after the Oilers' 1987 Stanley Cup win), and bringing in young talent such as scorers Kevin Stevens, Rob Brown, and John Cullen from the minors. And they finally acquired a top-flight goaltender with the acquisition of Tom Barrasso from the Buffalo Sabres. The Pens made the playoffs,
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