The Nostalgia Thread: Remembering the "Generation X" Era (2001-2006)

[AquaticBirdman]

Ahhhhh, remember the period that many of us considered to be similar to the "dark ages" of Western Europe? The time where Steve McKenna was our captain (and sometimes PP regular), and guys like Rico Fata, Kris Beech, Aleksey Morozov, Kelly Buchberger (don't ask), and Milan Kraft used to be top 6 regulars?

How about hiring a completely inexperienced head coach in Eddie O., mainly because no other coach in the league was crazy enough to take the job?

Of course, there was "the trade" that saw us gain promising talents Kris Beech, Michal Sivek, and Ross Lupaschuk in return for Jaromir Jagr.

Even more fun that remembering the all-star talent we had on that team, was their surreal win loss record. Allow me to provide a visual for your reading pleasure:

From the 01/02 season till the 05/06 seasons

Wins- 100
Losses- 178
Ties- 22
OT Losses- 6

I dare not mention our goal differentials during those years either.

I just hope that whenever people start to rant and cry about today's version of the Pens, creating threads about "trading Staal", Sid possibly "peaking", or just how "average" our PP is, they can simply refer to this thread as a reminder about how much worse things used to be, and how far this club has come to be the great team they are today.

I do invite everyone else here to share their fondest memories of this era as well, as they always do provide for fun trips down memory lane.

Click to read more...

 

[Michael Scofield]

far out man it happens when a crap team turns elite

 

[AquaticBirdman]

far out man it happens when a crap team turns elite

Never thought it would've happened htat suddenly though. To go from the team we were in 05/06 to the team we were in 06/07 truly was something to see. Usually teams improve gradually over time (Chicago and Montreal for example), but we just went from one extreme to the other within 1 year!

 

[kovy1335]

Is nostalgia supposed to cause deep-rooted pain?

The only rewarding thing about those seasons was watching a few young guys we'd been talking about for a while finally get a shot.

Kraft was starting to look OK just before the lockout.
Morozov looked great for 60% of the season.
Malone's rookie season had me genuinely excited.

I think Sivek surpassed Beech at some point, but then he was gone one day in the middle of the season. Haha... I probably shouldn't laugh. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure he had family matters to attend to.

But your mentions of fata, mckenna, and buchberger make me feel ill. I'm leaving their names lowercased a a visual symbol of my distaste.

 

[necessaryroughness]

It's funny but I'd have never thought we won 100 games during that period. But like I said before we know when to suck only we could be lucky and pick up 2 "greatest in the history of the NHL" type players. Can't complain about it now.

 

[Burgs]

This always makes me feel kind of sad for Edzo.



Then I remember he had no business being there in the first place.

 

[IHWR]

There's a special place in my heart for the Generation X Pens...no wait...that's just angina...

 

[Til the End of Time]

Ahhhhh, remember the period that many of us considered to be similar to the "dark ages" of Western Europe? The time where Steve McKenna was our captain (and sometimes PP regular), and guys like Rico Fata, Kris Beech, Aleksey Morozov, Kelly Buchberger (don't ask), and Milan Kraft used to be top 6 regulars?

How about hiring a completely inexperienced head coach in Eddie O., mainly because no other coach in the league was crazy enough to take the job?

Of course, there was "the trade" that saw us gain promising talents Kris Beech, Michal Sivek, and Ross Lupaschuk in return for Jaromir Jagr.

Even more fun that remembering the all-star talent we had on that team, was their surreal win loss record. Allow me to provide a visual for your reading pleasure:

From the 01/02 season till the 05/06 seasons

Wins- 100
Losses- 178
Ties- 22
OT Losses- 6

I dare not mention our goal differentials during those years either.

I just hope that whenever people start to rant and cry about today's version of the Pens, creating threads about "trading Staal", Sid possibly "peaking", or just how "average" our PP is, they can simply refer to this thread as a reminder about how much worse things used to be, and how far this club has come to be the great team they are today.

I do invite everyone else here to share their fondest memories of this era as well, as they always do provide for fun trips down memory lane.

Hey now.

They hired Edzo because Patrick was an idiot.

 

[Neeeeaaaal]

Hey now.

They hired Edzo because Patrick was an idiot.

But think about it... What else would Edzo have talked about during the Cup Finals if not about how he once coached the almighty Penguins, and their rising "phenom", Sidney Crosby? That's right, he'd probably make more terrible jokes with Mike Emerick. You know, the ones that make your brain bleed. So I guess we can thank Craig Patrick for making our brains bleed.

 

[Snooki Stackhouse]

I'd rather remember the 2000-2001 season. That was magical.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Hey now.

They hired Edzo because Patrick was an idiot.

I think Olczyk could have been a pretty good coach eventually if he'd had time to gain experience as an assistant or in the AHL.

 

[Til the End of Time]

I think Olczyk could have been a pretty good coach eventually if he'd had time to gain experience as an assistant or in the AHL.

Why would you think that?

But even if it that were true, it doesn't change the fact that hiring him then was moronic.

 

[ColePens]

I started watching the Penguins & playing the game of hockey in 1989... and never really had bad years until the X-Gen came along. It was honestly the worst feeling in the world.

My favorite player from the X-Gen years: Toby Peterson

My worst memory: Going to a Thrashers/Penguin game w/ literally 7,000 fans in Mellon Arena. People were selling tickets outside of the arena for 5 dollars.

Those years are paying off now though aye?

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Why would you think that?

But even if it that were true, it doesn't change the fact that hiring him then was moronic.

I have no objective proof or anything, but he's a smart guy who knows hockey, and he always seemed to me like the kind of player who might make a good coach.

I'm not saying it was a great decision, but who else was out there and willing to take the job? With that roster, any coach would inevitably end up getting fired at the end of a losing season, or the beginning of the next one. Then, it might be years before he got another shot.

 

[necessaryroughness]

Why would you think that?

But even if it that were true, it doesn't change the fact that hiring him then was moronic.

He could have had he had more talent i guess. I'd say he got hired b/c he gave a good interview and probably cost the least.

$$$ caused the downfall for this team......had we had some $$ we would have never slipped that badly.

 

[King of the Fall]

I started watching the Penguins & playing the game of hockey in 1989... and never really had bad years until the X-Gen came along. It was honestly the worst feeling in the world.

My favorite player from the X-Gen years: Toby Peterson

My worst memory: Going to a Thrashers/Penguin game w/ literally 7,000 fans in Mellon Arena. People were selling tickets outside of the arena for 5 dollars. Those years are paying off now though aye?

was that the game where someone broke the glass and it took around a half hour to change. in fact the players all skated around to keep the blood flowing.
then kovalchuck put up three goals on us

 

[AquaticBirdman]

I think Olczyk could have been a pretty good coach eventually if he'd had time to gain experience as an assistant or in the AHL.

I agree. The guy was only in his late 30's and hadn't been retired for very long himself when they decided to hire him. On top of that he had no real coaching experience at ANY LEVEL, and then you expect him to excel with a team that probably couldn't even beat a decent AHL team?

 

[gialloneri]

I'd tried to repress the memories, to be honest. I used to stay up to listen to the radio commentaries over the interweb back in the UK - staying up until 3 am for some of the garbage served up was, in retrospect, pretty stupid.

Is it wrong that the memory makes me really appreciate the lock-out? Not only did it probably rescue the franchise, it saved us from another year of Gen. X purgatory.

 

[The Tang]

Remember this pic?

 

[Jrez56]

Remember this pic?

Gah, put it away!

 

[Coach Travis]

Remember this pic?

Good Gawd! It's awful!

 

[SomeDude]

I loved the x-generation. I went to so many games during that time period when I was in high school. The student rush program is what took me from being a fan to a hardcore fan.

 

[louieleftwing]

I was actually just last night looking at the numbers Mario put up after his comeback. That led me to looking over the rosters of those bad teams. I actually remember these seasons based upon the player the high pick netted the Pens.

03-04 (Malkin) was the worst. That's the year Tarnstrom led the team in scoring. And then the Pens "lost" the Ovechkin lottery (though it was well known at the time that Malkin was not far behind).

01-02 (Whitney) was disappointing. That team should not have finished that low. I think this was Straka's broken leg year. Also Lemieux only played like 24 games that year. This year was the injury bug more than plain sucking.

02-03 (Fleury) was a weird year. Lemieux played a lot of the season and dominated. That team started hot and was like 33% on the PP for the first couple of months. Then the bottom dropped out and Kovalev was moved for garbage.

05-06 (Staal) was CP's last chance. He was given a green light to put a winning team around Crosby. I remember being thrilled in signing Gonch and Ziggy. That year, like 01-02, was a lost year and Edzo was canned.

Yeah, but 03-04 was far worse than any of the other ones.

 

[Gold Diamond]

Remember this pic?

I only recognize two players aside from Mario in that pic:

Marc-Andre Fleury and Brooks Orpik

 

[ColePens]

I only recognize two players aside from Mario in that pic:

Marc-Andre Fleury and Brooks Orpik

im pretty sure that is Rodger Federer on the far right...