As noted, the expectations at my house and across Penguins nation in the 1992-93 season was for a threepeat, as the Cup winning team from 1991-92 was returning pretty much intact, and was loaded up front with the likes of Lemieux, Stevens, Tocchet, Jagr, Francis, Mullen, and a young Sean McEachern, who potted 28 goals during this campaign. On the blue line, they had Larry Murphy, who put in 22 goals and 85 points to lead the offensive charge there, and shutdown players such as Ulf and Kjell Samuelsson, Peter Taglianetti, and veteran Mike Ramsay. They had role players like Troy Loney and Bob Errey, and of course great goaltending with Tom Barrasso. I cannot think of a more talented team in franchise history. On top of that, they came into the season sporting a new and modern logo.
I will cut to the chase with the highligts for the Penguins on this season. The Penguins won the President's Trophy as the team with the most points in the league, with 56 wins and 119 points. They set a league record winning 17 straight games. This team had four players with 100 plus points including Lemieux who had 160 points despite missing a quarter of the season, Francis, Tocchet, and Stevens. They also had Jagr with 94 points! They had five players with 30 plus goals including Mario with 66, Stevens with 55, Tocchet with 48( and a team high 252 PIMs), Jagr with 34, and Mullen with 33 goals. McEachern chipped in 28 goals and Larry Murphy added 22 more from the blue line! Can you say firepower?
As noted, the other big story of this team was the season of Mario Lemieux. He came out storming and was in a postion mid-year to challenge Wayne Gretzky's goal record of 92 goals and point total of 215. Then came an announcement that stunned the hockey world. On January 12, 1993 it was announced that Mario had been diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and would have to undergo aggressive radiation therapy. That therapy took two months time, drained Mario of his strength, and his team's play fell off a bit without him. When Mario returned to the ice in March of 1993, he was 12 points behind league leader Pat LaFontaine, yet he flew to Philadelphia on the day of his last treatment to play of Pittsburgh. Mario recieved a rare standing ovation from the Philadelphia crowd for his bravery. In a feat I have never seen repeated, 66 went on a tear, leading his team on a 17 game winning streak, scoring at a feverish pace, and when the season ended, Mario had beaten LaFontaine for the scoring title by 12 points!! All with a radiation ravaged body!
The Penguins entered the playoffs with the intent of finishing a three peat, and seemed primed to do it. They drew the New Jersey Devils in the Patrick Division semi-Finals and made quick work of them, beating them in 5 games. Up next, was a lightly regarded Islanders team, who had lost Pierre Turgeon for the series due to an ugly hit by Capitals' Dale Hunter in their round one showdown. The Penguins seemed primed to advance to their third straight conference Finals. The Islander shocked the Penguins by taking the first game, before Pittsburgh rebounded to win the next two to take a series lead. The teams went back and forth with the Islanders playing a physical game, especially future Penguins player Darius Kasparaitis who repeatedly went after Lemieux. Ultimately, it came down to a Game 7 which occurred on May 14,1993. The game took on an ominous tone when Richard Pilon collided with power forward Kevin Stevens, who landed face first on the ice, essentially destroying his face. This injury required a total facial reconstruction, that included more than 4 hours of surgery, and well more than 100 stitches!
The two teams fought to a 3-3 tie in regulation, and I was sure that my team would overcome this adversity in OT to advance to the conference finals. Alas, it was not meant to be. David Volek ended our dreams of a three peat when an unobstructed blast from the left circle beat Tom Barrasso to give the Islanders the win. I also lost a phone in the process! As a drove to a company golf event the next day at Nemacolin, I listened to the audio tape on cassette of the prior runs to glory and bemoaned the fact that the best I ever cheered for was going home. Montreal wound up winning the Cup that year, a year so glorious until May. On another note, this went to show hard it is to get the holy grail of hockey, as it took the Pens sixteen long years to get their next one!
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