1995-1996 Penguins

[lakai17]

1996 was crazy for the Penguins.

Lemieux with 161 points in 70gp(69 goals)
Jagr with 149 points.
Francis with 119 points.
Nedved with 99 points.
Zubov in his prime at a point per game pace as well.

Fascinating.

Click to read more...

 

[Paxton Fettel]

Impressive stats for sure.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Moved to the history forum for obvious reason.

 

[NeedleInTheHay]

You’re selling Jagr short, he had 149.

 

[TheAngryHank]

Just give em the Cup already!

 

[Jim MacDonald]

Would this team have led the league in goals for per game? Or would that belong to my beloved Red Wings? Also, did Super Mario and Jagr play on the same line in 95-96?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Would this team have led the league in goals for per game? Or would that belong to my beloved Red Wings? Also, did Super Mario and Jagr play on the same line in 95-96?

Goals that season:

Pittsburgh 362
Colorado 326
Detroit 325
Next highest teams were Philly and Boston at... 282

 

[GordieHowsUrBreath]

they would've won the cup if not for refs allowing all that goonery

garage league

 

[Passchendaele]

They had high-end talent, but little depth. Their 3rd and 4th line were basically AHL-caliber.

 

[blood gin]

They weren't some indestructible regular season machine though (also on top of the OP's stats you had

Tomas Sandstrom - 70 points in 58 games
Brian Smolinski - 64 points in 81 games
Markus Naslund - 52 points in 66 games

But they lost 29 regular season games in regulation. Wregget and Barrasso had below average regular seasons and they were a soft defensive team

 

[frisco]

Would've been nice to see a Penguins-Avs final. I think Pittsburgh wins that series if Francis comes back (missed the Florida series loss).

Actually, Pittsburgh had good scoring depth Sandstrom (35g in 58 games) and both Smolinski and Naslund around 20 goals along with Glen Murray with 14. Not a great D-core, though to say the least.

Coach: Eddie Johnston. Probably the weak spot of the team.

My Best-Carey

 

[double5son10]

They had high-end talent, but little depth. Their 3rd and 4th line were basically AHL-caliber.

And their D after Zubov was suspect as well. Pens were 20th of 26 teams in GA. Of playoff teams that year only Winnipeg, who had a losing season, were worse. People forget that they surrendered 61 shots in a regulation loss in game 3 of the series against the Panthers. 61!

 

[blood gin]

And their D after Zubov was suspect as well. Pens were 20th of 26 teams in GA. Of playoff teams that year only Winnipeg, who had a losing season, were worse. People forget that they surrendered 61 shots in a regulation loss in game 3 of the series against the Panthers. 61!

They had some bizarre losses that year too. 10-8 to the miserable Sharks. 6-2 to the terrible now Fishstick adorned Islanders. 7-3 to the below average Flames. Jocelyn Thibault somehow shut them out

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

The last true run and gun team imo. All offense with almost no regard for defense. They were out of place in 1996 amidst Detroit, Colorado, NJ etc. Would've been an entertaining final against the Avs (played to a 6-6 tie earlier in the season) but Pittsburgh would've lost imo.

 

[KingsFan7824]

They had high-end talent, but little depth. Their 3rd and 4th line were basically AHL-caliber.

To that end, you add the loss of Francis against Florida, and the severely decreased production in the playoffs from Sandstrom, to the overall lack of depth, and it's not the same Penguins team. They still ended up in Game 7 at home though.

 

[grentthealien]

If only they kept Naslund that season or at all really.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Nedved was much better than people give him credit for. Even at age of 44 he was really good when playing for czech republic in wc and og. he had a underated physical game aswell.

 

[The Panther]

As everyone said, team had a superior higher end but was too soft and easy to score against. (In the East, only the Islanders and Ottawa were worse defensively.) They were a bit like the L.A. Kings c.1991-1994.

Zubov did well. Possibly a guy they should have held onto.

Overall goals-for vs. against, Lemieux was +84 and Jagr +103. Lemieux 79 points on the power-play (in 70 games), Jagr 51. That's half of Lemieux's points and nearly a third of Jagr's. Maybe they were a bit overly reliant on the power-play for goals? And, as we know, in 90s'-era NHL the refs often put those whistles away in the playoffs.

(Checks.) Indeed, the stats show that the Pens scored about half a goal per game more than the average team because of their awesome power-play. I would guess in the playoffs that advantage was taken away.

They were also trending downward as that season progressed. On January 5th, they beat the 1st-overall Red Wings and their record was 26-10-3 (.705). The rest of the season, they went 23-19-1 (.547).

 

[lakai17]

Francis and Lemieux were tied for the league in assists with 92.

That is crazy itself but #3 was Jagr with 87.

Lemieux 6th in the league with shots and missing over 10 games.

Lemieux with 8 shorties and 6 hat tricks.

Lemieux had a 28 game point streak as well.

 

[alko]

That was the last real offensive season in NHL.

 

[ecemleafs]

why didnt they trade for a dman at the deadline? that d-core is laughably bad.

 

[Passchendaele]

Nedved was much better than people give him credit for. Even at age of 44 he was really good when playing for czech republic in wc and og. he had a underated physical game aswell.

I don't think anybody is denying Nedved's talent. He has lots of it.

His nonchalant attitude towards hockey is not helping his image, though.

 

[Jim MacDonald]

If it's cool to ask this type of question (not violating the OP), even with Francis being out for the Florida series....shouldn't the Penguins have one this series fairly handily given their offensive firepower? Were there other key injuries? Someone on the Panthers get hot etc? Don't know too much about this series.

 

[Big Phil]

I loved this team, I really did. They are one of those nostalgic teams that you always remember. Seeing them lose to Florida just threw a wrench in what would have been such a great Cup final.

I'll agree, their defense was suspect at best. Zubov was excellent though. It took until Mike Green in 2009 before a defenseman had above a point per game in the NHL again in a season. The funny thing is, the 1988 Oilers scored 363 goals, the 1996 Pens scored 362. So that tells a lot right there. No one has scored that many goals since them and in the last 30 years only 5 other teams have.

This really could have been a good thing for hockey to see a Pens/Avs skillfest in the final. Instead we didn't and hockey took a very different direction. How long did it take us to finally get skill back in the game? A long time.

I'll admit, there was a sharp drop off after their 7th scorer, Smolinski. He had 64 points and Naslund was 8th with 52 but was traded. After that you are definitely looking at a huge drop off. That being said, here are the teams in NHL history that had 4 100 point scorers, the 1996 Pens were one point away from that:

1971 Bruins
1983 Oilers
1984 Oilers
1986 Oilers
1993 Penguins

Not bad company. Basically you either won the Cup or you got a big upset against you.

 

[Big Phil]

If it's cool to ask this type of question (not violating the OP), even with Francis being out for the Florida series....shouldn't the Penguins have one this series fairly handily given their offensive firepower? Were there other key injuries? Someone on the Panthers get hot etc? Don't know too much about this series.

Yes, I still think they should have. It was a combination of the Pens not having very good depth after their top two lines and then losing Francis. Also the goaltending of Beezer and the style the Panthers played hurt them too. A terrible goal allowed by Barrasso in Game 7 contributed also.