The Debate Continues: Which Championship Is The Penguins' Greatest -- Installment II

Well, boys and girls, it's time to continue the debate on which Stanley Cup is the Penguins' greatest.

Last week, I wrote about the franchise's first championship, and the 1990/1991 team that brought it to Pittsburgh.

This week, it's time to break down that team's successor -- the 1991/1992 entry that won the 2nd of back-to-back titles.

That Penguins' team had mostly the same starring cast for a majority of the year. Lemieux. Francis. Stevens. Jagr. Mullen. Recchi. Coffey. Murphy. Barrasso. The difference came at the trading deadline when Jagr's continued improvement in year 2 of his career permitted then-GM Craig Patrick to change the makeup of his team significantly for a 2nd season in a row.

This time, Recchi went packing to the Flyers, Coffey went packing to the Kings, and in came rugged scorer Rick Tocchet, defensive stalwart Kjell Samuelsson and backup netminder Ken Wregget.

Tocchet immediately joined Lemieux's line and, with Kevin Stevens, helped form perhaps the NHL's most fearless line down the stretch, into the postseason and even into the following year.

Despite their offense, the Penguins actually took a step back in '91/'92, finishing 3rd in the division. Lemieux's absence for 16 games was a part of that, and the team struggled a bit to get adjusted after The Badger passed away in November of that season. Nevertheless, their 3rd place finish landed them a first round playoff matchup with the arch-rival Washington Capitals.

In what was only a prelude of matchups between these teams for years to come, the Penguins lost the first 2 games on the road and ultimatley went down 3-1 in the series. Facing elimination in game 5 and struggling to get in a groove, Lemieux and others went to then-interim coach and former Director of Scouting legend Scotty Bowman and proposed that the team implement a 1-4 delay forecheck to confuse the Capitals, stifle them offensively and perhaps create some turnovers and take advantage of them.

Their plan worked to a charm. The Capitals' were stunned and had no answer for the Penguins' new style of play. Pittsburgh rolled over Washington in the next 3 games -- including games 5 and 7 on the road -- to come back from the 3-1 deficit and take the series.

More adversity awaited for the Penguins in Round 2, where they met another one of their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, that year's President's Trophy winner as the league's best team.

As if any series of consecutive games against the blueshirts wouldn't have been intense, the series temperature went up about 100 degrees in game 2 when forever-Penguin villian Adam Graves slashed Lemieux on the hand and broke his wrist.

That injury shelved #66 for the rest of that series and, after losing game 3 in OT, the Penguins were in a 2-1 series hole.

In game 4 at the then Civic Arena, without Lemieux and also without Mullen -- who, like #66, was injured in game 2 -- Pittsburgh faced a precarious set of circumstances. They were down 4-2 in the 3rd period and had to kill a 5-minute major penalty.

Make no mistake -- the Penguins were staring hard at going down 3 to 1 in a series for the second time in a row.

At that moment, the Penguins' entire post-season --- their entire year, essentially -- turned around thanks to one man.

Ron Francis.

Francis had already scored earlier in the game. He helped the Penguins completely shut down New York's power play, then just seconds after the power play ended, scored the goal that changed everything --- a 65 foot slapshot from outside the blueline that handcuffed and somehow eluded Rangers' netminder Mike Richter, bringing the Penguins to within a goal with about 9 minutes to go in the game.

About one minute later, Troy Loney scored to tie the game.

Then, about 90 seconds into overtime, with Pittsburgh on a power play, icon Mark Messier tried to skate out of from behind his net with the puck, only to be stripped by Murphy. Murphy spun around and put a quick shot on goal which was deflected in behind the stunned Richter replacement -- John Vanbiesbrouck -- for the hat trick by Francis, finishing off one of the most memorable games in franchise history.

Highlights of that game can be enjoyed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkBetCrJTZw

I'll never forget that contest, because I was there in person to see it. Sure, I was up in the rafters sitting in obstructed view seating, but I can tell you that even though I was nearly farther from the ice than anyone in the buliding, I sure celebrated after the win like the players on it.

With such a big momentum swing, the Penguins went on to eliminate the Rangers by winning the next 2 games -- a close one in New York and a blowout back in Pittsburgh in game 6 -- setting themselves up for a conference final series against the Boston Bruins for the 2nd straight season.

Unlike in the 1990/1991 year, however, the Bruins were no match for Pittsburgh this time. Even without Lemieux for most of the series, the Penguins' capitalized on all the mojo their series' win over the Rangers gave them and romped over Boston in a 4-game sweep to send them to the Stanley Cup Finals for the 2nd straight season.

In 1991/1992, they matched up against a team from the then-Norris Division, although this time it wasn't the Minnesota North Stars. It was the Chicago Blackhawks -- a team that had won a then-NHL record 11 straight playoff games coming into the finals. They hadn't lost in more than a month, dating back to early in round 1 and came riding high on the heels of Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios and Ed Belfour.

With the Penguins' having won 7 straight of their own, that series shaped up as a clash of the titans.

Or so everyone thought.

Game 1 set the tone for that series and, for the first half of the game, the Penguins actually did themselves worse than they did in game 4 against New York at the Civic Arena.

This time they were down 3 goals, not 2, looking at a 4-1 deficit. Not to be deterred, however, the Penguins stormed back in the latter part of the 2nd period, ignited by Jaromir Jagr, who scored a goal by singlehandedly stickhandling around 3 blackhawk players to the slot from the near boards -- including one of the better defensive players in the league at the time, Brent Sutter, who Jagr left on the parkway headed to the airport -- before backhanding a shot past Belfour.

Ah, the memories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6u1f1F5xAU

While that goal by Jagr helped the Penguins get back in the game and was one of the best goals ever scored at the old Igloo, he was topped by perhaps the only player in the game with a greater flair for the dramatic.

Mario Lemieux.

After Tocchet rallied the Penguins to a 4-4 tie with a goal with 5 minutes to play in the 3rd, it looked like overtime was looming. Even a power play the Penguins were awarded with about 11 seconds left in the game wouldn't have seemed to give them a chance to win until the extra frame.

So much for that theory. As almost every Penguin fan knows, words don't do justice to describe what happened next. Just watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9STr-jICqQ

In my 26 years of following hockey, I don't know that I've ever seen the Igloo get that loud. I honestly thought the roof was going to blow off. Simply incredible.

The best part is that Lemieux's goal there came off a set play that worked -- but barely. It was premised off a clean faceoff win and a shot on goal by Murphy. In that situation, Lemieux was going to go to the net and look for a rebound. But Francis didn't win the draw cleanly. And in the second or two it took for him to get the puck back to #55, Lemieux hesitated going to the net. Even Murphy hesitated as Francis tried to get the puck back to him. But #10 did, Murphy pinched a stride or two -- just enough to get a low shot off designed for a rebound -- and Lemieux went for gold at just the right moment.

If there's a play that should be freeze framed, that was it. I can only wonder what Belfour was thinking as he realized he kicked the puck right out to Lemieux's blade with only seconds to play and a gaping hole in the net to his right.

How about, "Oh F----"????

Ha.

You know, if Francis and Murhpy lose that puck, a Blackhawks' player -- I think it was Steve Larmer -- would have gone the other way on a clean breakaway. Let's face it. Lemieux was cheating a little looking for the chance to end it and, while Larmer blew it because he, too, shouldn't have been cheating and instead should have stuck with #66, the fact is that the play could have disasterously gone against Pittsburgh the other way.

Again, another momentum stealer for Pittsburgh. Of course, we all know they swept through the rest of the Final after that, including a 6-5 win and a 1-0 win, on the way to their own 11 straight playoff victories and 2nd straight Stanley Cup, culminated by Mike Lange's greatest call of all time:

"Oh Lord Stanley, Lord Stanley .... Get Me The Brandy"

Little did I know that game 4 of the Rangers series -- that one I attended -- would be the Penguins' first of 11 straight. To think they didn't lose another game the rest of the postseason. It still amazes me.

The Penguins' had quite a run that year. They again faced adversity -- although more in the form of individual game deficits (4-2 against NY in game 4; 4-1 against Chicago in game 1) and injuries (Lemieux, Mullen) than series adversity.

But the Penguins' 2nd championship has to be defined for its overall dominance more than anything else. Those 11 consecutive playoff wins still stands as an NHL record and no other team has done that since. Moreover, I don't expect any other team to do that again anytime soon. That's like just about sweeping 3 rounds in a row. With the parity that exists in today's game, you just aren't going to see that.

In considering which title is better, you can't argue with the demonstrated dominance that defined the Penguins' 2nd championship team.

Like the first Cup run the year prior, the 1991/1992 team also faced a 7-game series (and not one but two short ones, as already mentioned). And while scoring in bunches was again their trademark, they had the same degree of character and grit they had the prior year. In both seasons, the Penguins put out a well-balanced club.

In my final installment -- I'll weave in this past year's Stanley Cup championship into the equation. I won't break it down like I did the first two because the title from this past season is fresh in everyone's mind. Instead, I'll make comparisons between all 3 and, in the end, offer my opinion on which of the three is the franchise's greatest.

Until then ....