For the first time in 57 years, the pasts of the franchises playing for Lord Stanley`s Cup cannot be measured by banners in the rafters or
championship rings on the fingers.
Still, that doesn`t mean the Minnesota North Stars or the Pittsburgh Penguins aren`t carrying their unique legacies into Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals Saturday night in Bloomington, Minn. The Penguins have a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers and Edmonton Oilers all are rich in history, right? So are the Stars and Penguins. It`s just that many of their fans have spent lifetimes trying to forget most of it.
Start with each team`s inception in 1967 and you will find two timelines textured with sparse audiences, tragic deaths, colorful characters, hard times, unwise trades and draft choices, undependable owners and just enough slivers of good fortune to keep the faith of the few who endured lean years believing they would someday witness a championship parade.
There`s but one slight difference. The North Stars and their fans have been through this once before, for a joyful ride in 1981.
”We`ve suffered a lot longer,” said William Wardall, a Pittsburgh contractor and a Penguins season-ticket holder since the team`s inception.
Both franchises have seen their tragedies: North Stars center Bill Masterton died that first season from head injuries suffered in a game. In 1971, Michel Briere, a promising Penguins defenseman, died 11 months after a car crash. Twelve years later, General Manager Baz Bastien also died in a car wreck.
Both franchises have seen days when the team appeared headed for Hamilton, Saskatoon, San Jose or extinction.
Penguins employees remember the staff meeting in June, 1975. The message: The team was bankrupt, everyone immediately was a free agent and the IRS was coming to padlock the arena. Coach Marc Boileau was one of those who lined up for unemployment benefits.
Three years later, the NHL merged the unhealthy Cleveland Barons to save the unhealthy Stars.
The uncertain days continued into the 1980s. Just before Mario Lemieux arrived as franchise savior in 1984, owner Edward J. DeBartolo threatened to move the team unless $15 million in improvements were made to the Civic Arena. Sound familiar? A year ago, Stars owners Gordon and George Gund did likewise, starting an ownership circus sideshow that resulted in first Howard Baldwin and then Norman Green buying the club.
The mention that North Stars fans have suffered tough times brings either a chuckle or a scoff from diehard Pittsburgh fans. Until this season, the Penguins have been among the league leaders in misfortune.
Start way back in 1968, when the Penguins decided they needed a mascot. They found Pete, a small, real-life penguin from Ecuador. There was one problem: Penguins from Ecuador aren`t your average Antarctic penguins.
Pete caught a cold from being on the ice. The cold turned to pneumonia. Pete died.
That was only the beginning.
In 1969, the Penguins used their first pick in the draft to select Rick Kessell. Two picks later, Philadelphia took center Bobby Clarke. A year later, Pittsburgh selected Greg Polis and Toronto took Darryl Sittler with the next pick.
In `73, the Penguins took Blaine Stoughton, who lasted one season in Pittsburgh. The Canadiens followed by selecting Bob Gainey, who played 16 seasons and now coaches the North Stars.
Then there was the 1974-75 season. Ask Penguin fans if they remember that one.
”We`ll never, ever forget,” said Al Sipes, a security man who has worked at the Civic Arena since it opened in 1961. ”You don`t forget it when your heart gets broken.”
The Penguins had the NHL`s sixth-best team that season and they had a 3-0 series lead over the Islanders in the 1975 quarterfinals. They lost that lead and the series by losing four straight games.
Those Penguins and the 1942 Detroit Red Wings are the only teams to lose a seven-game series after starting 3-0.
There are many observers who believe that series helped define two franchises. The Islanders went on to win four Stanley Cups.
The Penguins, well, remained the Penguins. What other franchise has had a defenseman (Tom Edur) quit to become a Jehovah`s Witness? What other franchise has fired its new public relations director because, in the press release announcing his hiring, he lied, claiming to have played minor-league baseball? The NFL`s Steelers ruled Pittsburgh during the 1970s, but the Penguins, lovable because of their hard luck and quirkiness, had developed a cult following. That parade had started the team`s second season when the Pens traded a first-round pick to the Stars for Bob Woytowich. Soon, Woytowich`s Polish Army had formed in the upper section of the arena they call the Igloo. Later, the Penguins acquired players such as Bob ”Battleship” Kelly, Steve Durbano and Bryan ”Bugsy” Watson. The franchise was modeling itself after those Cup-winning Broad Street Bullies across the state in Philadelphia. Trouble was, the Penguins` characters didn`t have enough character.
Their adventures, however, inspired countless jokes. One popular one asked, ”What do you get when you cross a penguin with a groundhog?” The answer: Six more weeks of bad hockey.
When the 7,000 or so loyal Penguins fans tired of watching the players, they were watching each other. One enthusiastic fan, who looked like he had been locked in a bakery for a month, carried the proverbial torch.
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The man they called ”Harry the Whale” became an Igloo institution for a couple of seasons. Another Pittsburgh institution, organist Vince Lascheid, used to play music from the ”Gong Show” (Gene, Gene, the Dancin` Machine`s theme) and Harry would get up and dance.
”He was a big, fat oversized kid, and the fans would go wild,” Lascheid said. ”They`d throw beer at him. They`d throw nachos.”
The fans should have saved their arsenal for the Penguins` general managers. The Pens traded away their first-round pick five times in seven seasons starting in 1977. Among the gems was a deal that sent their 1979 pick to Washington for someone named Hartland Monahan, who played for six NHL teams in his seven-season career.
Stars General Manager Lou Nanne thought he had committed comparable larceny when he dealt Ron Meighan and Anders Hakansson in 1982 for the Penguins` 1983 pick, which became the first selection in the draft. You could almost hear Nanne chuckling for weeks after that one.
But a funny thing happened: the Stars used the pick on Brian Lawton, who faded into a bust. A year later, new Penguins GM Eddie Johnston quickly traded Hakansson for the rights to Kevin Stevens, now one of the Penguins` biggest stars.
”We robbed the hell out of `em, didn`t we?” longtime Penguins radio announcer Mike Lange said, his tongue firmly in his cheek.
One trade does not a franchise make. And in 1982, the Penguins still were light years from the Cup finals and two years away from their savior, Mr. Lemieux.
Meanwhile, the misfortune continued: In the playoffs that year, the Penguins were the only team in the Islanders` four-season reign to take the champions to a series-deciding game. On the road in Game 5, Pittsburgh was leading 3-1 with five minutes to go. The Penguins lost 4-3 in overtime.
”That was an unbelievable heartbreaker,” Lange said.
The Penguins finally found their light in the franchise`s darkest days. Fittingly, they won the right to draft Lemieux in Penguinesque fashion: by losing a franchise-record 58 games in 1983-84. For years, scouts had been suggesting Lemieux would be the next Wayne Gretzky and the Penguins, stuck in a battle with New Jersey for the league`s worst record, were about to lose this contest.
If ever the NHL had reason to adopt a lottery system similar to the NBA`s, this was the moment. At the March trading deadline, the Penguins traded star defenseman Randy Carlyle to Winnipeg for future considerations.
When goalie Roberto Romano foolishly won two straight games late in the season, he was demoted to the minors and Vincent Tremblay was recalled. Johnston said the Penguins wanted to see what Tremblay could do, but they already knew what he couldn`t do: stop pucks.
The Penguins finished one loss worse than New Jersey. They got Lemieux. The Devils got Kirk Muller. And the rest is history, right? Not quite.
Fast forward to April, 1988. The last day of the season, at Washington. The Penguins need a victory to make the playoffs.
Everyone knew that, except coach Pierre Creamer, who was playing for the tie late in overtime. Lemieux had the puck in the final minute and while players were frantically waving the goalie off the ice, Creamer was motioning him back to the net.
”That`s scary, but it`s a true story,” said Stars defenseman Jim Johnson, a member of that Penguins team.
Creamer was fired 12 days later.
Two coaching changes later, Lemieux and the Penguins are playing in May for the first time. The faithful fans who have survived the bad years are much like those who have endured in Minnesota.
”It`s great, but one thing ticks me off,” Lascheid said. ”The people who never paid any attention all those years suddenly are yelling and cheering and saying what big hockey fans they are. Where were they all those years?
We`ve been waiting for a miracle to happen for years, so I guess you can expect everyone to want in on it.”