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.
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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.
[1]
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),
[2] a logo was chosen that had a penguin in front of a triangle, which symbolized the "
Golden Triangle" of downtown Pittsburgh."
[3]
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, 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 with
Mario Lemieux as the league's biggest one-two scoring threat since
Wayne Gretzky and
Jari Kurri on the
Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s.
Mark Recchi arrived from the minors, and
Bryan Trottier signed as a free agent.
Joe Mullen in a minor trade all set up these major trades that brought
Larry Murphy,
Ron Francis, and
Ulf Samuelsson to Pittsburgh. 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 Stanley Cup Champions Penguins visited the White House to meet President
George H. W. Bush. They were the first NHL team to ever visit the
White House.
[4] 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.
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.
Jaromir Jagr era: 1997–2001
Lemieux retired in 1997. Because of Lemieux's achievements over the course of his career, the
Hockey Hall of Fame waived its three-year waiting period and inducted him as an Honored Member in the same year he retired.
The captaincy was passed to Jagr and for the next 4 seasons, Jagr won 4 consecutive Art Ross Trophies. However, the Penguins were unable to match Jagr's individual success with a sustained playoff appearance, with a first round exit in 1998 despite being the second seeded team in the east followed by a second round exit in 1999 this time from eighth seed. In 2000 the Penguins stunned the highly touted Washington capitals 4-1 in the first round only to fall to their rivals the
Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 in the second round.
Off the ice, the Penguins were in the midst of a battle for their survival. Their free-spending ways earlier in the decade came with a price; owners
Howard Baldwin and
Morris Belzberg (who bought the Penguins after their first Cup win) had asked the players to defer their salaries. When they finally came due, combined with other financial pressures, the Penguins were forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 1998—the second such filing in franchise history. Just when it appeared that the Pittsburgh franchise was about to either move or fold, the retired Lemieux proposed to recover his millions of dollars of deferred salary by converting it into equity and buying the team. The court agreed, and Lemieux assumed control on September 3, 1999.
The return of Mario Lemieux
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.
Still, the Penguins needed to cut costs, especially now that the huge salary of Lemieux had been added. Controversially, Jagr, their stalwart for the last four years, was traded to the
Washington Capitals along with
Frantisek Kucera for prospects
Kris Beech,
Michal Sivek, and
Ross Lupaschuk, and $4.9 million in the summer of 2001. The absence of Jagr proved devastating to the Penguins, and in
2002 they missed the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. Further financial difficulties saw them trade fan favorite
Alexei Kovalev to the
New York Rangers the next season, quickly followed by the departure of Lang in free agency. The Penguins slumped to last place, where they remained for several years despite the acquisition of top draft picks.
In the
2003 NHL Entry Draft, the Penguins picked with their first-overall selection goaltender
Marc-Andre Fleury. However, given that the 2004 Draft contained the likes of
Alexander Ovechkin, the
2003–04 was expected to be a rebuilding year for the Penguins. The highly rated Fleury did not play most of the season for the Penguins for this reason. The Penguins signed new head coach (and former Penguin and commentator)
Eddie Olczyk. Lemieux suffered a hip injury early in the season, and he sat out the rest of the season to recover. The Pens then traded Straka away to the
Los Angeles Kings. The Penguins finished with the worst NHL record having won just 23 games, but were unable to secure the first overall draft pick as they lost the draft lottery for the
2004 NHL Entry Draft to the
Washington Capitals.
Alexander Ovechkin went to Washington, but the Penguins did select
Evgeni Malkin with the second overall pick, a pick that would propel them back to a competitive level in future years.
The Penguins have suffered small-market syndrome for most of their existence, and cost-cutting prevented another collapse into insolvency. Financially, the team was one of the better-managed NHL franchises between its 1998 bankruptcy and the
2004–05 NHL lockout. Thanks to significant post-season runs, the Penguins broke even in 2000 and turned a small profit in 2001. Failure to make the playoffs in the next three seasons hurt the team's bottom line, but the shedding of contracts (such as Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka) kept the team afloat as other franchises, like the
Ottawa Senators, faced significant losses or declared bankruptcy. In the 2003–04 season, they had the lowest average attendance of any team, with just 11,877 fans per game.
However, by 2005, the Penguins had paid off all of their creditors, both secured and unsecured. In fact, the court approved Lemieux's plan largely because it was intended to pay everyone the team owed.
With the
2004–05 NHL season canceled due to the NHL lockout, several Penguins signed with the club's
American Hockey League affiliate
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, while experienced players like
Aleksey Morozov and
Milan Kraft honed their talents in the elite European leagues. Morozov and Kraft would stay in the elite European leagues after the 2004–05 NHL lockout.
After the lockout: 2005–present
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.
With a new Collective Bargaining Agreement signed by the owners and players to end the
2004–05 NHL lockout, the Penguins began rebuilding the team under a salary cap. They signed big-name free agents
Sergei Gonchar,
John LeClair, and
Zigmund Palffy, and traded for goaltender
Jocelyn Thibault. However,
Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins'
2004 NHL Entry Draft selection with their 2nd overall pick, could not come to Pittsburgh immediately due to a dispute with his Russian league.
The team began the season with a long winless skid that resulted in a coaching change from Olczyk to
Michel Therrien. Palffy announced his retirement due to a lingering shoulder injury while the team's second-leading scorer. Then on January 24, 2006, Lemieux announced his second retirement, this time for good, after developing an
irregular heart beat. He finished as the NHL's seventh all-time scorer (1,723), eighth in goals (690) and tenth in assists (1,033), but also with the second highest career points per game average (1.88), which is second to
Wayne Gretzky's 1.92.
[5] [6] [7]
As the poor season continued, Crosby had a highly productive rookie season. On the Penguins' final game of the season, Crosby scored a goal and an assist to become the top scoring rookie in Penguins history with 102 points (eclipsing Lemieux who previously held the record), despite losing the rookie scoring race to Russian superstar
Alexander Ovechkin, who had, unlike Malkin who was also set to debut this season, been able to make his way to the NHL. The Penguins posted the worst record of the Eastern Conference and the highest goals-against in the league. They received the second overall draft pick after losing the lottery in the
2006 NHL Draft and picked
Jordan Staal, the third of four Staal brothers in hockey.
The team announced on April 20 that the contract for General Manager
Craig Patrick would not be renewed. Patrick had been GM since December 1989. On May 25,
Ray Shero signed a five-year contract as General Manager.
The real change for the Penguins came next season when on October 18, 2006, young
Russian superstar
Evgeni Malkin played his first NHL game : scoring a goal. He went on to set the modern NHL record with a goal in each of his first six games. On February 27, 2007, the Penguins acquired
Gary Roberts from
Florida and
Georges Laraque from
Phoenix. Malkin continued scoring points as the Penguins earned points in sixteen straight games with 14 wins and 2 overtime losses in early 2007. The streak ended on February 19 with a last-minute loss to the
New York Islanders.
[8] It was the second longest point streak in club history.
The Penguins finished the 2006–07 season in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 47-24-11, totaling 105 points, only two points behind the division winner,
New Jersey Devils. It was the franchise's first 100-point season in 11 years, and represented a healthy 47-point leap from the previous season. In the first round of the
2007 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Penguins were defeated 4-1, by Stanley Cup runners-up, the
Ottawa Senators. At the season's end, rookies Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal were finalists for the
Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the Rookie of the Year, which Malkin won.
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. In the offseason, the Penguins notably lost
Marian Hossa who rejected a large contract from the Penguins to accept a contract in Detroit.
In the
2008-09 season, Malkin again starred for the Penguins, taking the Art Ross by narrowly defeating rival Ovechkin in the points race and a candidate for the Hart Memorial Trophy for MVP. 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 inconsistent Flyers. In the first round, the Penguins dominated the first game at home before the Flyers almost took the second away, it took a huge toe save by Fleury and a late third period goal by Malkin to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead. The Flyers dominated games 3, 4 and 5 on the ice, but crucially Fleury, who was having a dominant series, stopped 44 shots in game 4 to achieve victory. The Penguins were down 3-0 in game six until a Max Talbot fight and a Fedetenko goal spurred a fightback that culminated in a 5-3 victory. The next round was highly publicized due to the presence of Ovechkin, Malkin and Crosby. All three were prolific, as Ovechkin lead the series with 14 points, while Sidney Crosby followed close behind with 13 points. Malkin, who only had three points through the first four games, put up seven points over the final three games for a total of 10 points. The Penguins, who came on top in seven games, went on to the Eastern Conference Finals to beat the
Carolina Hurricanes 4 games to 0, with Malkin notching up a hat-trick and easily leading the series in both points and assists.
[9]
Return to glory
The Penguins returned to the
Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight season with a rematch against the
Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings took the first two games both with a score of 3-1, going back to Pittsburgh for game 3 most people believed that the Penguins would repeat the same as the previous year. However the Penguins held through winning both games in Pittsburgh tieing the series 2-2. It was a different series and many spectators believed Pittsburgh could pull it off until game 5 on
June 9. The Penguins started off strong, out shooting the Red Wings in the first period, however
Dan Cleary scored a goal in the first to put the Wings up 1-0 which may have been the shift of momentum. The Second period was a massacre for the Penguins. The Wings scored 4 goals in the second to put them up 5-0 going into the third. Detroit ended up winning the game 5-0 and taking a 3-2 lead in the series. Going into game 6 the series had the same situation as the previous year, which made many people to believe Detroit could win, Ron Mclean stated on the CBC broadcast after game 5 that Pittsburgh still had a chance, quoting from a junior hockey player "well boys, it's a seven game series were down 2-3, we have to win all of our home games and one road game, so why not win game 7 on the road." Game 6 came and before the game Don Cherry said "Well I said Detroit would take it in six but I think Pittsburgh will win tonight." Cherry's prediction was accurate as the Penguins won game six to a score of 2-1. On
June 12,
2009, the Penguins won their third
Stanley Cup with a score of 2-1 against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Game 7 victory was the first by a road team in the NHL since 1971 and the first in pro sports since 1979. Sidney Crosby became the youngest captain in NHL history to hoist the cup, and Evgeni Malkin won the
Conn Smythe Trophy becoming the first Russian player to do so.
Relocation avoided
The Pittsburgh Penguins have had their tradition and success on the ice tempered with a shaky ownership group from time to time. As early as the mid-1970s, the ownership group experienced cash flow issues and sought to sell the team, even if it meant
relocation. A decade later, a similar financial situation faced the team. As recently as the
2006–07 season, the franchise ownership sought alternatives that would provide a
return on their
investment. Various prospective owners sought to buy the team; however, the Lemieux Group eventually decided to keep ownership rather than move the team to the highest bidder, thus resulting in the Penguins being set to remain in Pittsburgh for at least 30 more years. As in the mid-70s and 80s, the fanbase and local government officials were successful in persuading the ownership that Pittsburgh and the surrounding region were capable of meeting the needs of a modern NHL team. The possible relocation sites about which there was the greatest speculation and discussion were
Houston,
Kansas City and
Oklahoma City. The decision to keep the team in Pittsburgh proved favorable, as the Penguins enjoyed franchise-record home sellouts throughout the
2007–08 NHL season and
2008 Stanley Cup playoffs; in some cases, their home playoff games were sold out in less than 15 minutes.
[10] [11]
New arena agreement
On March 13, 2007, in a joint announcement by
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell,
Allegheny County Chief Dan Onorato,
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, and
Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins ownership group, it was made public that an agreement had been reached between the parties. A new state-of-the-art multi-purpose arena, the
Consol Energy Center, will be built, guaranteeing that the Penguins will remain in Pittsburgh. Following the announcement of this plan, the Lemieux ownership group announced that they no longer have plans to sell the team.
On June 8, 2007, a $325 million
bond was issued and the Penguins signed a 30-year
lease, binding the Penguins to the city of Pittsburgh for the next 30 years, and the lease agreement was signed on September 19. On May 6, 2008, the Pittsburgh planning commission unanimously approved the final design. The arena will include a glass
atrium overlooking downtown Pittsburgh and rooftop lights shining into the sky. The new
$290 million dollar arena is expected to open in time for the 2010–11 NHL season.
[12] On August 14, 2008, the ground breaking ceremony for the new arena was held, thus officially beginning construction on the new facility. On December 15, 2008, it was announced by the Penguins they had entered into an agreement with Consol Energy on a 21 year deal for naming rights to the new arena.
Logos and uniforms
With the exception of the 1992–2001 period, the Penguins have used a variation of the "skating penguin" logo since the team's inception. For their inaugural season, the logo featured a hefty-looking skating penguin wearing a scarf, on a yellow triangle inside a circle reading "Pittsburgh Penguins". The yellow triangle is a reference to the
Golden Triangle in the city of Pittsburgh. General manager Jack Riley felt the team's name and logo were ridiculous, and refused to have either appear on the team's uniforms, which featured only the word "PITTSBURGH" diagonally. A refined version of the logo appeared on a redesigned uniform in the second season, which removed the scarf and gave the penguin a sleeker, "meaner" look. The circle encompassing the logo was removed mid-season in 1971–72.
The team's colors were originally
powder blue,
navy blue and white. The powder blue was changed to
royal blue in 1974, but returned in 1977. The team adopted the current black and gold color scheme in January 1980 (the announcement was made at halftime of
Super Bowl XIV) to unify the colors of the city's professional sports teams, although like the
Pirates and
Steelers, the shade of gold more closely resembled yellow.
This would remain unchanged until the
1992–93 season, when the team unveiled new uniforms and a new logo. The logo featured a modern-looking "flying penguin". Although the logo survived in various forms for 15 years, it received mixed responses from fans and was never as widely accepted as the "skating penguin" logo. Longtime
KDKA anchor
Bill Burns even went as far as calling the penguin in the logo "a
pigeon."
After
Mario Lemieux (a personal fan of the "skating penguin" logo) purchased the team from bankruptcy court in 1999, he announced plans to bring back the "skating penguin" logo. This occurred for the
2000–01 season, when the team revived the logo (albeit with a "Vegas gold" triangle instead of yellow) on the chest of the team's new
alternate jerseys. The following season, the logo became the primary logo, and the "flying penguin" logo (also with a "Vegas gold" triangle instead of yellow) was relegated to secondary status, and only on the shoulders of the team's jerseys, until it was quietly retired in 2007 when the team introduced their version of the
Rbk Edge uniforms.
The uniforms themselves have changed several times over the years. The original jerseys from the team's first season had diagonal text reading "Pittsburgh". Currently, only images of these uniforms survive, although the jersey is available in
NHL Hitz 20-03 as an alternate jersey for the team. The uniforms themselves were discovered nearly thirty years later in a garbage bag by a
Civic Arena employee at the arena. Due to the years of neglect in the bag, the uniforms were damaged beyond repair. The following season, a revised version of the logo was used on a completely redesigned uniform. Player names were first added in 1970.
Until 1977, the team had some minor striping patterns on the jerseys change every few years. But in 1977, the team basically adopted their longest-lasting uniform style to date and a style they would wear for the next 16 seasons, winning the
Stanley Cup twice in the process. When the colors were swapped from blue and white to black and gold in 1980, the uniform patterns themselves remained unchanged. This was likely due to the fact that the change was made in the middle of the season. From the
1981–82 season to the
1984–85 season, the team had a gold
"Sunday" jersey, called as such because the team only worn them on Sundays. This was a rare example of an NHL team having a
third jersey before the rule allowing such jerseys was officially implemented in 1995.
After winning their second
Stanley Cup in 1992, the team completely redesigned their uniforms and introduced the "flying penguin" logo. The team's away uniforms were somewhat of a throwback to the team's first season, as they revived the diagonal "Pittsburgh" script. In 1995, the team introduced their second
alternate jersey, which was a black Penguins jersey with the team's logo and had blue accents, an obvious throwback to the original team colors. This jersey would prove to be so popular that the team adopted it as their away jersey in 1997.
In 2000, the team unveiled yet another
alternate jersey, the aforementioned black jersey featuring the revival of the "skating penguin" logo. This would later prove to be a test to see how the revived logo would do with fans, and the following season became the team's away uniform with a white version as the team's home jersey. When the
Rbk Edge jerseys were unveiled for the
2007–08 season leaguewide, the Penguins made some major striping pattern changes and quietly removed the "flying penguin" logo from the shoulders. They also added a "Pittsburgh 250" gold circular patch to the shoulders to commemorate the 250th birthday of the city of Pittsburgh.
While the Penguins, as with the rest of the NHL, have worn their dark jerseys at home since the league made the initiative to do so starting with the
2003–04 NHL season, the team wore their white jerseys in some home games during the
2007–08 NHL season and at least once during the
2008–09 NHL season, as well as wearing their powder blue, 1968–72
throwbacks against the
Buffalo Sabres in the
AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic. On November 5, 2008, this jersey was introduced as the current third jersey. This will be worn for select home games during the
2008–09 season.
Season-by-season record
This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by the Penguins.
Note:
GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes''
Records as of April 7, 2007. [13] [14]
| Season
| GP
| W
| L
| OTL
| Pts
| GF
| GA
| PIM
| Finish
| Playoffs
|
| 2004–05
| Season cancelled due to 2004–05 NHL lockout
|
| 2005–06
| 82
| 22
| 46
| 14
| 58
| 244
| 316
| 1539
| 5th, Atlantic
| Did not qualify
|
| 2006–07
| 82
| 47
| 24
| 11
| 105
| 277
| 246
| 1211
| 2nd, Atlantic
| Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-4 (Senators)
|
| 2007–08
| 82
| 47
| 27
| 8
| 102
| 247
| 216
| 1155
| 1st, Atlantic
| Lost in Finals
, 2-4 (Red Wings)
|
| 82
| 45
| 28
| 9
| 99
| 264
| 239
| 1114
| 2nd, Atlantic
| Stanley Cup Champions, 4-3 (Red Wings)
|
1 As of the 2005–06 NHL season, all games will have a winner; the OTL column includes SOL (Shootout losses).
Notable players
Current roster
Updated December 18, 2008.
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