Who is this guy?? Why do I care? Part One

If you are a personal friend or a long time reader of Mazmania some of this may sound redundant and boring, so feel free to skip it.  However, some newer readers, particularly as a result of my opportunity with Pens Report have asked who are you? how did you end up this crazy about hockey and the Pens in particular?  If you know me, you know that asking me a question about one of my passions is a mistake unless you truly want DETAIL!  So the LONG answer to the above is as follows: 

I am a  blue collar kid from Munhall PA, who knew NOTHING about hockey at all and did not care for the first 15 years of my life.  As is typical of a blue collar Pittsburgh kid from that era, the Steelers were my passion.  My room was adorned with photos of Mean Joe, Jack Splat, Franco Harris, and Ernie Holmes.  I loved the Pitt Panthers second, then the Pirates.  I had no clue about the game of hockey.  Then came the 1980 Olympics, and by the end of those games, I was shooting hockey balls for hours against the side of the house, and playing in a street hockey league.  I began to follow the Penguins, and as you you know, those were some lean years, but all in all it was a fun game to watch and inexpensive to attend.  The first real hope came with the drafting of Lemieux, though success was not overnight by any stretch. I had no idea how much the Penguins would matter over the course of my life at that point, as I was a fan, but not a fanatic.  My first glimpse of fanaticism came during the 1988-89 season, memorialized by the "There's a team in the building" VHS tape.  I had just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, and immediately got into a serious relationship with a girl who would become my wife of now 23 years.  The wedding occurred  not much more than a year after we started dating. Lisa was a fan of the Penguins, and worked for an insurance company who was the recipient of a lot of complimentary tickets from law firms and other vendors, so I had the benefit of not only a girl I was falling fast for, but one with great Pens tickets all the time!  There were several news worthy moments that year including taking my future nephew to the game on New Years Eve where Mario scored 5 goals 5 ways on the way to an 8-6 win, to a noteworthy night I have talked about recently with Tony Granato.  I was engaged to be married on Saturday night January 14th. 1989  at the LeMont, and as part of the weekend, we were staying at the hotel across from the arena.  As we were checking in that day, I wound up in the elevator with a young Tony Granato, and the Rangers enforcer at the time Rudy Poeschek.  I will leave it with this.  Words were exchanged, threats were made, and a cocky young Pittsburgher is probably fortunate that Poeschek did not kill him prior to his engagement!  Lisa and I were married on October 21, 1989 and the Pens lost to the Sabres that day. The day remains a highlight of my life despite the good guys losing to Buffalo!    After missing the playoffs the following year, we got to witness the Penguins transform themselves into two time Stanley Cup Champions, attending most of the home games along the way. We were even lucky enough to be behind the goal that Mario Lemieux scored with 12 seconds left to complete a great come from behind game one win in the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals!  I will never forget that feeling, or the sound of Old Lady Mellon at that point for as long as I live!  In the interest of brevity, I will move quickly through some highlights of the nineties.  I was in my room in our first home in Munhall as a couple, packing for a golf outing the next day when Volek beat Barrasso to help the Islanders upset Pittsburgh, ending our dreams of a three peat in a season in which the Penguins tore the league to shreds and seemed destined to win their third straight Cup.  I was speechless for two days. I also remember in April of 1997 watching a Penguins/Flyers playoff game with buddies in a bar in Philadelphia wearing a Penguins jersey against the advice of everyone.  However, I threw those Philadelphians a curve they could not handle.  I wore a Rick Tocchet Penguins jersey!  Their looks of hatred, turned to confusion, and ultimately turned into me making some pretty good friends for a night in enemy territory.  Some other interesting footnotes of the middle nineties include the following. My wife went into labor while we were watching the Pens v Capitals playoff game on 5/6/95, and my first daughter Alison was born the next day!  A night and day that forever changed my/our lives for the good, and despite the 5-4 loss, those two days are amongst the best days of my life as they brought me my first child, who, along with her sister became the focal point of our live. Despite the temporary change it brought to my family, nothing means more to me than being the husband and father in my family.   Just about the time we thought we MIGHT be getting used to having one daughter, we found out that Lisa was pregnant with our second daughter, Krista.  My second wonderful child was born on 12/30/96, again forever changing our lives for the better, and in an odd twist of fate, my favorite team was playing.....you guessed it, the Capitals, winning 5-3 this time. My wedding, and the birth of my two kids remain the three best days of my life, and oddly there was a Penguins connection to all three!  The next stretch of years saw less time for our passionate following of the Penguins, as Lisa and I were adjusting to and loving the task of raising two great young girls, and in 1999 I risked everything we had to start my company, Litigation Solutions, which took the remaining time not to devoted to my/our young family.  We followed the Penguins, but two infants/toddlers/young kids AND leaving a VP level job to start a company from scratch did not allow for a fanatical approach to fandom for us.  By the early 2000's that may have been a blessing since the Penguins were in financial trouble and basically giving away stars such as Jagr and Kovalev,while falling to the bottom of the pack in anticipation of the lockout.  The year leading up to the lockout, the lockout itself, and the year post lockout did three things for me/us.  First, it was part of a stretch starting in 2003 and ending in 2006 where the first round picks of Pittsburgh were Fleury, Malkin, Crosby, and Staal! It was tough to not be REALLY excited about a possible second "golden age" of Penguins hockey.  Second, my kids were getting older, my wife and I were thriving, and after some lean early years, my business was beginning to stabilize, then thrive, which allowed us more casual time and time to reconnect with a mutual passion.  Finally, the lockout itself was a smack in the mouth that made me/us realize just how much we loved this game!  I was overjoyed when the lockout ended, and on 8/4/2005, even more excited to learn that my favorite team had signed Caps defenseman Sergei Gonchar to a 5 year 25 million dollar deal!  Gonch, who scored two goals against the Penguins, the night my wife was about to give birth to Alison, and who was one of the best offensive defensemen in the game, was coming to Pittsburgh to support the young guns already in place! Anyway, the Penguins were not very good that year, but fun to watch, and we went to as many games as we could.  You could see Crosby's talent, AND my kids seemed to enjoy the game. And for the first time in my life, I could afford season tickets, and bought them for the 2006-07 season, A-28, seats 1-4, Row F, right on top of the entrance of the visiting team!!  The next several years, the Penguins would be a big part of the lives of my entire family, just as they had been for Lisa and I.  We went to just about every home game, some away games, built an addition on our home meant to be a Penguins party place that has been featured on local news, and on the NHL network, got a Penguins sleeve tattooed on my arm, and became the focal point of a Root Sports commercial for the Penguins.  Along the way, we had a lot of great moments with rival players and Penguins players, as indeed the second golden age of Penguins hockey was upon us!  I will chronicle as much of that as I can in Part Two of this post.