The Missing Rings: The 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins
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ZeroPucksGiven
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- Feb 28, 2017
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I almost don't want to open this because it's pretty painful.
That season was a run of bad luck: they change to the stupid robo pigeon, Mario got his cancer scare thing, then I'm sure he wasn't 100% during the Isles series (Kasper threw him off his game for sure). Then Artie busts his face and that was it.
Oh and Glenn Healy went bananas for a couple games too.
Could have been the best team ever if they won the Cup. Damn you Howard Baldwin!
That season was a run of bad luck: they change to the stupid robo pigeon, Mario got his cancer scare thing, then I'm sure he wasn't 100% during the Isles series (Kasper threw him off his game for sure). Then Artie busts his face and that was it.
Oh and Glenn Healy went bananas for a couple games too.
Could have been the best team ever if they won the Cup. Damn you Howard Baldwin!
Gurglesons
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tom_servo
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JimmyTwoTimes
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- Apr 13, 2010
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Avs were a much tougher opponent in those finals. Likely beat us even if we get past the Rats.
But Lemieux beating Gretzky and us having a 3peat? Of course you'd be the oddball in this thread voting another year tho lol.
tom_servo
Registered User
It is definitely 1993 for me.
At least winning game 7 at home against a pesky team missing their best player for the entire series would've guaranteed a conference series against Patrick Roy's Canadiens, the eventual champions. We're talking crisp HNIC footage against the likes of Roy, Damphousse, Leclair, Desjardins, Carbonneau. Lemieux carrying threepeat expectations into Montreal. And if they win that series, they play Wayne Gretzky/Barry Melrose in the Finals. Magic Johnson-Larry Bird status in sports headlines.
The 1993 team was cool. Celebrity status as repeat champions. Lemieux writes his most amazing chapter. Rick Tocchet and Kevin Stevens. Ron Francis, nice and neat 100 points. Jagr clears 90 points. Cup vets are still around, but Shawn McEachern breaks through as a young bluechip center, and Marty Straka flashes over half a season. Barrasso was the Vezina runner-up. Won a still standing record of 17 games to finish the regular season. They won their only President's Trophy. Lemieux wins every individual award possible. Nothing
could go wrong.
To lose that series to that team in that time is a real tragedy. That season is like my hockey field of dreams. Just want them to play it over. One more win and I think hockey justice is served even if they lose to Montreal. Potentially, they go down as one of the greatest teams of all time. It really sucked. And because of that loss I can't ever claim '96 was ever as painful. I had no real hope against the Avs. They started to beat the Pens a lot as the Nordiques, then added Patrick Roy further up in their trajectory.
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Gurglesons
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tom_servo
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Gurglesons
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Meh. I’m taking the above and the 70s Habs over the Pens regardless.
93 was a real series. 96 was just frustrating BS.
tom_servo
Registered User
We're talking a threepeat season with all the fixin's. Team greatness. Individual greatness. Hockey narrative greatness. Coaching. Goaltending. Team balance. Young talent. f***in sucked to have that Penguin Utopia trashed.
Big McLargehuge
Fragile Traveler
On a personal level, 95-96 crushed me a thousand times more.
A combination of me being young and my parents actively discouraging me from hockey meant 93 was forgotten fairly quickly. I know I was watching, but it didn't leave painful memories.
1996, on the other hand, I was in ****ing traction for those playoffs. I watched every single hockey game that was televised that spring and will never be into anything as I was into that Penguins team because of circumstance and age...to this day I hate every single aspect of Florida that isn't theme parks. I've lost count of how many times I've blamed those rats for ruining my childhood.
Removing personal bias from the situation, though, and 92-93 was way worse historically. I also would take the '93 team against the field over the '96 team against just that Colorado team. For as fun as that '96 team was, that roster had some fatal flaws that an elitely talented team like Colorado could exploit. Murder by boredom wasn't the way that team deserved to go down, though.
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Yeah, and I think they beat us with a healthy Francis too in 1996.
1993 stung because nobody thought it could happen. As big an upset as you'll see. I mean, I remember reading at the time that Montreal was busy game planning for the Pens . . . that's how sure Demers was that the Pens would pull out the series.
93 was just devastating. The Isles was a **** team(sorry, isles fan). Great teams win game 7s....
Just stupid to lose such a series when the team was in fantastic form, repeat champions. You knew the isles would be out pretty fast anyway. In 93 we had a team to go all the way, no ifs and buts.
The Avs in 96 would win no matter what. We did not have as strong of a team as in 93. 96 run was a pleasant surprise that ended in disappointment, 93 was a run that never came to be and a loss that should never had been. Disgusted to this day that they threw it away against a **** team.
Just stupid to lose such a series when the team was in fantastic form, repeat champions. You knew the isles would be out pretty fast anyway. In 93 we had a team to go all the way, no ifs and buts.
The Avs in 96 would win no matter what. We did not have as strong of a team as in 93. 96 run was a pleasant surprise that ended in disappointment, 93 was a run that never came to be and a loss that should never had been. Disgusted to this day that they threw it away against a **** team.
Coastal Kev
There will be "I told you so's" Bet on it
Both were side tracked by injury (Francis in 96 & Stevens in 93), REFS and crazy above normal performance goaltending.
That '96 team was basically one incredible line. Agree about the Avs, but I think the Pens gut out the ECF if Francis didn't break his ankle in the series clincher against the Rangers.
'93 was just devastating. The team was a machine. Lemieux with 160 in 60 (still the greatest individual season for me). Just ... f*** Volek and Healy.
tom_servo
Registered User
Stevens didn't get injured until game 7. The Isles were missing Turgeon the entire series.
Stevens is another reason that loss sucked. He was a decent player but never the same after that injury.
Coastal Kev
There will be "I told you so's" Bet on it
They were dominating that game early up until Stevens got injured. A collective pall came over the building and team after he went down in an ugly fashion. Even if they win that game, ARTY was so huge in the lockroom I'm not sure they ever recover.
Don'tcry4mejanhrdina
Registered User
I remember '96 very vividly but I know Colorado would have won regardless. That Pens team was perhaps the last true run and gun team. Florida making it to the Finals was the beginning of the dead puck era.
'93 was a much worse upset though. I don't even like thinking about it.
'93 was a much worse upset though. I don't even like thinking about it.
SHOOTANDSCORE
Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
- Sep 25, 2005
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‘93 sucked but I still have the stuffed Penguin I bought for my then unborn son at Game 1 (which they lost). So there’s that.
‘75 was pretty crappy for those of us around then, although the team wasn’t good enough to go further. Still remember the last game with Westphal beating Gary Inness. Losing 4 in a row to a still mediocre isles team put the Pens in a terrible financial and performance tail spin saved only by EJ’s tank 9 years later.
‘75 was pretty crappy for those of us around then, although the team wasn’t good enough to go further. Still remember the last game with Westphal beating Gary Inness. Losing 4 in a row to a still mediocre isles team put the Pens in a terrible financial and performance tail spin saved only by EJ’s tank 9 years later.
gopens66
Hop in the Cordoba, Baby, we're goin' bowlin!
1996 sucked on several levels, but '93 was frootloopin brutal for all the reasons already mentioned.
Stevens breaking everything in his face was gutwrenching. When time ticked away we just sat silently for a few moments before the yelling and throwing stuff phase began. Volek's goal broke things in my neighbor's apartment. Several items were never to be seen again.
Stevens breaking everything in his face was gutwrenching. When time ticked away we just sat silently for a few moments before the yelling and throwing stuff phase began. Volek's goal broke things in my neighbor's apartment. Several items were never to be seen again.
I'm sure the experts may have a different, more accurate story, but the Devils series before the Isles series, IMO, ushered in the DPE. The Pens expected to roll the Devils, and the Devils had no choice but to clutch, grab, and attempt to trap the Pens. The Pens weren't ready for it, and the Refs let them get away with it. I just remember feeling there was a really weird (in a bad way) vibe to the Devils series. The Isles merely continued the Devils playbook.
tom_servo
Registered User
Maybe you remember better than me, but the Penguins won in 5, taking the first three games by a combined score of 17-6. Lemaire wasn't even their coach yet. It was Herb Brooks.
The 1995 suffocating of the Pens was a much different story.
Agreed about '96. And, again, losing Francis in the Rangers series was killer.
BUT, '93 was as big an upset as you'll get. The Pens had no business losing that series. Giving up 20 goals in losing 3 of the last 4. And then that game 7 . . .
