Pittsburgh Penguins

Before the Penguins, Pittsburgh had been the home of the NHL's 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 H. J. Heinz Company heir H. J. Heinz III, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney, and the Mellon family's Richard Mellon 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 Rooney to petition votes from James D. Norris, owner of the Chicago Black Hawks, and his brother Bruce Norris, owner of the Detroit Red Wings.

The effort was successful, and on February 8, 1966, the NHL awarded an expansion team to Pittsburgh for the 1967–68 season. 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, who held the rights to the Pittsburgh Hornets. The investor group named McGregor president and chief executive officer, 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.

Beginning in the mid-seventies, Pittsburgh iced some powerful offensive clubs, led by the likes of the "Century Line" of 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, the Penguins 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.

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. However, the team spent four more years out of the playoffs after his arrival.

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. Also, the team at last acquired a top-flight goaltender with the acquisition of Tom Barrasso from Buffalo. The Pens made the playoffs, but lost in the second round to their trans-Pennsylvania rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. Though amassing 123 points, Lemieux missed 21 games in 1989–90 due to a herniated disk in his back, and the Pens slipped out of the playoff picture.

In 1990–91, the Penguins reached the top of the standings. They drafted Czech right-winger Jaromir Jagr in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, the first player from his country to attend an NHL draft without having to defect, and then paired him with Lemieux to form the league's biggest one-two scoring threat since Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri on the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s. Mark Recchi arrived from the minors, Bryan Trottier signed on as a free agent, and Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy, Ron Francis, and Ulf Samuelsson landed in Pittsburgh via trades. The Penguins finally became the league's best team, defeating the Minnesota North Stars in the Stanley Cup finals in six games. After the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals, the Penguins visited the White House to meet President George H. W. Bush. They were the first NHL team to ever visit the White House. The following season, the team lost coach Bob Johnson to cancer, and Scotty Bowman took over as coach. Under Bowman, they swept the Chicago Blackhawks to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in 1991-92.

Cancer nearly dealt the Penguins a double whammy in 1993. Not only were they reeling from Johnson's death, but Lemieux was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Only two months after the diagnosis, his comeback was one of the league's great "feel-good" stories of all time, missing 24 out of 84 games, but winning his fourth Art Ross Trophy as scoring champion with 160 points scored, edging out Pat LaFontaine and Adam Oates for the award. Despite the off-ice difficulties, Pittsburgh finished with a 56-21-7 record, winning the franchise's first (and still only) Presidents' Trophy as the team with the most points in the regular season; the 119 points earned that year is still a franchise record. After Lemieux's return, the team played better than it ever had before, winning an NHL-record 17 consecutive games before tying the New Jersey Devils in the final game of the season. Despite all of this success, they were still eliminated in the second round by the New York Islanders in overtime of Game 7.

The Penguins continued to be a formidable team throughout the 1990s. The stars of the Stanley Cup years were followed by the likes of forwards Alexei Kovalev, Martin Straka, Aleksey Morozov, Robert Lang and Petr Nedved, and defensemen Sergei Zubov, Darius Kasparaitis and Kevin Hatcher.

Lemieux later shocked the hockey world by deciding to come back as a player who was also the owner of the team he played for. He returned to the ice on December 27, 2000, becoming the first player-owner in NHL history. Lemieux helped lead the Penguins deep into the 2001 playoffs, highlighted by an overtime victory against the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7 of the second round. Kasparaitis scored the series-clinching goal to advance the Penguins to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost in 5 games to the New Jersey Devils.

The Penguins won an unprecedented draft lottery - where owing to their poor performance over the last few seasons they were given highest possible weighting out of all thirty teams - on July 22, 2005, for the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. The Penguins chose highly touted junior league player Sidney Crosby from the Rimouski Océanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

After a mediocre start to the 2007–08 season, Crosby and starting goaltender Fleury were both injured long-term due to high right ankle sprains. In their absence, the Penguins flourished due to the play and leadership of center Evgeni Malkin and backup goaltender Ty Conklin. The Penguins markedly improved in January, and fell no lower than the third seed in the East from that point onward. On February 26, the Penguins would acquire Atlanta star right winger Marian Hossa and forward Pascal Dupuis at the NHL trade deadline, relinquishing Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, Angelo Esposito, and a first round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. The Penguins also acquired defensemen Hal Gill from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a second round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and a fifth round pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

On April 2, 2008, the Penguins clinched the Atlantic Division title—their first division title in 10 years—with a 4-2 win against rivals the Philadelphia Flyers. However, they closed the season with a loss to the Flyers on the next night, relegating them to the second seed in the East behind the Montreal Canadiens. The Pens had spent most of the second half going back and forth with the Habs for first place in the East. Evgeni Malkin finished the season with 106 points for second place in the league just behind Washington's Alexander Ovechkin and become a finalist for the Hart Memorial Trophy. The team launched into their first extended playoff run in many years, beating Ottawa 4-0, defeating the New York Rangers 4-1 and then defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 to clinch the Prince of Wales Trophy. Pittsburgh went on to lose the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals to the Detroit Red Wings in six games, finishing the playoffs with a 14-6 record. Sidney Crosby finished the playoffs with 27 points (6g, 21a in 20 games), tying Conn Smythe-winner Henrik Zetterberg (13g, 14a in 22 games) for the playoff scoring lead.

In the 2008-09 season, Malkin had won the Art Ross by narrowly defeating rival Ovechkin in the points race and a candidate for the Hart Memorial Trophy for MVP. Crosby finished third in league scoring with 33 goals and 70 assists for 103 points despite missing 5 games. The Penguins' record dipped mid-season but lifted after head coach Michel Therrien was replaced by Dan Bylsma. The effect was almost instantaneous and the Penguins recovered enough to secure home ice advantage in their first round matchup against the Philadelphia Flyers, who the Penguins defeated in six games. The next round was highly publicized due to the presence of Crosby, Ovechkin, and Malkin. The series took all seven games for the Penguins to win, sending them to the Eastern Conference Finals where they beat the Carolina Hurricanes in four games. After defeating the Hurricanes, the Penguins earned their second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Detroit Red Wings, to whom they had lost the previous year. After losing Games 1 and 2 in Detroit, the Penguins won Games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh. Each team won on home ice in Games 5 and 6. In Game 7 in Detroit, Max Talbot scored two goals and the Penguins won 2–1 to earn their third Stanley Cup.

With such a great history, its easy to see why there are so many rabid and devout Penguins fans. So have a seat and choose your favorite Pittsburgh Penguins furniture collection from MultipleScoregasm.com today!