Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  “I can’t deny any such intention too strongly. We are in Pittsburgh to stay and have no such plans to move the franchise anywhere. The Braves have bought a minority interest in the club and it is simply that. As an extra protection, our legal documents have been drafted in such a way that only the founding Pittsburgh stockholders have the power to say where the sole location of the Pittsburgh franchise will be…. Another known factor was this: we know Atlanta wants hockey and we want a totally owned and developed minor league team. Now, we can work something out with Atlanta. In fact there is a possibility that Atlanta will be the site of our main farm team next year, provided they get an ice arena.

  “We could have made a big profit,” he continued. “But most of us want to give major league hockey to Pittsburgh. We feel it can be quite successful here and we want to be part of that success.”

  With the pre-season over and a tandem selected featuring Bassen and minor league veteran Les Binkley, Pittsburgh was ready to open the 1967–68 campaign against the Montreal Canadiens. On October 11, 1967, the puck was dropped and, despite their best efforts, the Penguins lost the game by a 2–1 margin. While Bathgate got the team’s first goal, Jean Beliveau of the Canadiens also made history by scoring the 400th of his career.

  Canadiens executive Busher Curry says the reputation of the Habs may have worked against them in the historic clash between old and new teams.

  “In my opinion, the pressure was on Montreal more than it was on Pittsburgh. After all, [the] Canadiens have a big reputation and they were expected to win big. It may have backfired on them in this case. Canadiens were determined to outskate them, but Pittsburgh were skating like mad. The only thing is, Pittsburgh were skating all over the ice, very scrambly, and pretty soon we were doing the same thing. In other words, we played their game.

  “I think we were a bit tense. There was plenty of pre-game publicity in Pittsburgh, which I think is a very good thing for hockey, mind you, but it made the team quite conscious of their image as a top-notch squad. They all wanted to win big and it might’ve tightened them up.”

  Problems arose early in the first game as the fans began to grumble when the team sagged during the second period. In their next home outing, they lost to the visiting St. Louis Blues and there were chants of “Bring Back the Hornets” and “Go Back to the Eastern League.” With their next victory, against the Chicago Black Hawks on October 21, they became the first expansion team to defeat an Original Six club. Their early record against their first-year contemporaries was not good in the early going, and Sullivan addressed the issue.

  “Some of my hockey players feel the NHL’s new division is not quite as good as the old division and they have taken it easy when playing the newer clubs. They haven’t played well at all against the teams in our division, and this is what I’ve been worried about since training camp.”

  It was his opinion that the St. Louis win may also have caused the complacency, but he did not feel his team had an easy schedule, either.

  “You know, none of the other expansion teams started off against the old clubs like we did. We played Montreal right off the bat and then played Chicago and New York within the next seven games. That’s the way I wanted it. I wanted to meet the older teams to show them what we could do…. I know I’m looking forward to a span in our schedule when we meet the new division five or six times in a row. That’s when I’ll find out how good of a hockey team I have. I’ve been saying all along that in order to make hay in this league we’ll have to beat the teams in our division, so we’ll just have to go out there and do it.”

  It was also in the first month of the season that negotiations with the Atlanta group broke down and the Penguins remained in the hands of the original ownership group. The team was proving a mess on home ice and the pressure to win got to the players.

  “We seem too tight at home,” said Bathgate. “Maybe we’re trying too hard to impress our fans. If we can start playing well at home, we’ll be back on top of this league. If we don’t, then I don’t know what will happen.”

  In December, the team’s vice-president, Pete Block, quit under what were called in the press mysterious circumstances. He stepped aside to concentrate on new business opportunities and remained the club’s biggest single shareholder. Attendance also became a major problem, as there was a shortfall of 2,000 fans per game and losses mounted. A big road–losing streak in December and January did nothing to raise their spirits, but the amazing play of Binkley drew raves from anyone who was watching.

  “I don’t know exactly where to pinpoint the trouble, but I know some of these guys aren’t taking their jobs seriously,” said Sullivan. “Some guys aren’t pulling their weight and I’m sick and tired of it. I know I’ve got a good hockey club and that’s what really tees me off. We’ll look good one night and sloppy the next. Some of my guys haven’t come through in recent games; Stratton and McDonald, for instance. They have not been cutting it. I don’t know why, but they’re not skating or checking like I know they can. I don’t want to put the onus on those two alone. They’re just a couple of examples. There are other guys too.”

  Injuries were also a major problem, which was particularly evident when veterans like Earl Ingarfield and All-Star Game participant Ken Schinkel were out of the lineup for extended periods.

  “I think these injuries have hurt us more than most people realize,” said Bathgate at the time. “The other teams can change their men around more often, keeping everyone fresh. We’ve had to skate longer and work harder and thus get tired quicker. Besides, we also can’t get our lines balanced. Every time one line seems set, someone gets hurt and Red has to make another change. You just can’t win consistently when you have to play like that.”

  On the bubble for a playoff spot going into the final month of the season, the Penguins suffered a serious setback when Les Binkley broke his finger in a March 2, 1968, game against Oakland. Over the next three weeks, the team won only twice and, while they had four consecutive wins to end the regular schedule, they finished two points out of fourth place. There was, however, some consolation in that Bathgate led all expansion team players in scoring. Riley summed up his opinions on the year and was not pleased.

  “To say that I’m disappointed is an understatement. We’ve had our injuries and they’ve hurt. But I think our biggest problem has been our failure to win games on our home ice. We’ve been playing .500 at home practically since the season started. And if anyone had told me at the first of the year that we’d just break even at home, I’d have told them they were crazy.

  “I know the fans were disappointed in what we did this season,” he continued. “Red and I were more disappointed than most. I could give a lot of reasons for what happened this year, but I guess most people would think I’m trying to alibi. We had our share of injuries, but that really isn’t any reason to lose. You’ve got to have depth to take up the slack when your regulars get injured and we just simply lacked the depth. We hope to rectify this situation next year by obtaining more players.”

  One of the craziest stories from the first-year Pittsburgh team revolves around a live mascot that was dubbed Penguin Pete.

  On loan from the Pittsburgh Zoo, he was taught to skate and CCM even developed a pair of skates to fit his tiny feet. He debuted in front of the home crowd on February 21, 1968, and made several more appearances before he died from pneumonia in November of that year. Stuffed by a taxidermist soon after, he was on display in the club’s offices for a brief period before he was removed due to objection from the public.

  In 1971–72, a new skating penguin was brought aboard as mascot and was fittingly dubbed Re-Pete.

  The Penguins slid even further in their second season but began to show improvement once Red Kelly was hired as coach. He led them to the playoffs in 1969–70, but their on-ice success was spotty during their first decade. The team went bankrupt in 1975 and the league threatened to relocate or fold them. Luckily, they were able to remain in Pittsburgh
and made the playoffs seven times over an eight-year span.

  Things began to look dark again in the early 1980s when their terrible record was coupled with major financial problems. What saved the team was the selection of Mario Lemieux in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. In 1990–91, they won the first of two consecutive Stanley Cup titles and spent the rest of that decade at the top of the NHL heap.

  Lemieux had a big part in the Penguins’ rise to contention, but after he retired for the first time in 1997, the team began to show signs of financial problems once again. Their free spending caught up with them and they filed for bankruptcy the next year. Sensing an opportunity, Lemieux offered to take his deferred salary that was owed and used it to buy a large part of the team. He later came back as an active player, but the financial realities the Penguins were facing meant that less money was spent on bringing in expensive talent.

  By building through the draft, Pittsburgh put together an incredible nucleus of young players, but they once again had to battle the spectre of relocation. They returned to playoff action with stars such as Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury leading the way and won a third Stanley Cup for the franchise in 2008–09. Now with secure ownership and a new arena, the future is hopeful and bright for hockey in the Steel City.

  Keith McCreary

  Andy Bathgate

  Bathgate was still considered one of the game’s star players at the end of the Original Six era, but he had a rough 1966–67 campaign with Detroit that saw him briefly sent down to the minors for the first time in well over a decade. After he was taken with Pittsburgh’s second-last pick in the expansion draft, casual observers may have felt that he might be at the end of his career, but he still had a lot to prove.

  Bathgate made history on October 11, 1967, by scoring the team’s first goal when they hosted the Montreal Canadiens. The puck popped past Rogie Vachon at the 7:06 mark of the first period. Bathgate recalled the moment today.

  “It was a good, clean goal. It went far side low, but they didn’t have the equipment they use today!”

  Just a week later, he recorded the first hat trick in club history with all three tallies in a 3–3 tie with the North Stars. As the year progressed, he proved himself the top scorer in the West Division and scored the 325th goal of his career against Minnesota on December 23.

  “I forgot about it. I didn’t remember until after they announced it,” he said at the time. “I’d like to get to 350, but I don’t think I’ll ever get there.”

  Coach Red Sullivan was pleased by his comeback and spoke to the press about it at the time.

  “Andy is playing like I knew he could. He may not be skating the way he was four or five years ago, but he’s still got the brains and the shot.”

  Although he had a great year with the Pens, the team was not particularly interested in keeping him for their second season. He was loaned to the WHL’s Vancouver Canucks for two seasons, even though he had been tentatively dealt to the Montreal Canadiens.

  “They wanted me to retire during training camp the next year. I told them that I wouldn’t be retiring. I was going to play no matter what,” he said. “Then they traded me to Montreal and I couldn’t speak French, let alone English! My wife was from Vancouver, so I packed us up and moved out there. I called Sam Pollock and thanked him for the opportunity.”

  When Red Kelly took over as coach later on, Bathgate was convinced to return to Pittsburgh in 1970–71 and he finished his NHL days with 349 goals. He went to Switzerland for a year and came back to coach the WHA’s Vancouver Blazers in 1973–74. The following year, he staged a brief 11-game comeback with that club and scored once to hit the 350-goal mark for his pro career.

  Andy Bathgate

  Ab McDonald

  In the late 1950s and early 1960s, McDonald had some strong years with the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Black Hawks and he began his career with a Stanley Cup victory in each of his first four seasons in the NHL. After a year with Boston, he was dealt away to Detroit before the 1965–66 season. The Red Wings did not use him a lot, however, and he spent some time in the minors for the first time in nearly a decade.

  “I was in Pittsburgh with the Hornets, and Sid Abel called me up to come play in Detroit at the end of the year,” McDonald recalled. “I said no because I wanted to stay there, and we won the Calder Cup. With Detroit, you were always up and down. I had an idea that Pittsburgh wanted to keep me there.”

  That is exactly what happened, too, and the Penguins claimed him in the expansion draft. Named the first captain in franchise history, McDonald was a bit apprehensive about the honour placed on him by coach Red Sullivan.

  “Red was a New Yorker and I always said he was a Phil Watson guy, who wasn’t very popular with his players. Red was a little bit of that style. He picked me as his captain, but it wasn’t a friendship made in heaven.”

  During the season opener, he earned an assist on the first goal by Andy Bathgate. Two nights later, he recorded the first power-play goal in franchise history against the St. Louis Blues. His decent start included a two-assist effort while playing Minnesota on October 18, 1967, and he notched an important game-winner in a battle with the Boston Bruins on November 22. He also had two-goal efforts against Toronto on February 3, 1968, and St. Louis a little more than a month later.

  After the season was over, many fans were shocked to see him traded to the St. Louis Blues for Lou Angotti, but it was not a move that came as a shock to the veteran winger.

  “It wasn’t a surprise,” he recalled. “I kind of had an idea beforehand. I was at a meeting for the NHLPA as a player rep and met with Scotty Bowman, who I had known since my junior days. I had a feeling they were interested in getting me.”

  Ken Schinkel

  After several years with the New York Rangers, Schinkel was sent down to the Baltimore Clippers of the AHL in 1963–64 and spent four seasons there before expansion became a reality. The Rangers probably could have used his offensive skills, however, as he averaged nearly a point per game there. Since his old coach Red Sullivan was helping run the show in Pittsburgh, he had an inkling that he was coming back in the NHL.

  “When I started watching the draft and saw all these New York Rangers going there, I thought there might be a chance I might go there, too.”

  Sullivan was pleased to get one of his former charges on the team and praised him to the press during the early stages of the season.

  “Schinkel is by far the best right wing in our division and he’s not far from the others in the other division. If any kids are coming into this league as right wings, they should watch Schinkel. He’ll show them how this game should be played.”

  When the Penguins met the Chicago Black Hawks for the first time on October 21, 1967, Schinkel scored three times in the 4–2 victory and was named the West Division’s Player of the Week.

  “Anytime you get a hat trick, it’s something good,” he recalled. “They put me out to check, but I don’t remember how I scored them. I guess I outscored Bobby Hull three to one, so that was a feather in my cap!”

  In December, he also scored game-winners against Minnesota and Toronto, and his strong play over the first half made him the first Pittsburgh player to participate in a NHL All-Star Game.

  “I was pretty nervous. It was a great honour for me. I only started playing at 15 and spent so many years in the AHL, so my hard work had paid off,” he recalled.

  Not long after, he suffered a major setback during the January 28, 1968, game with the Boston Bruins as a Bobby Orr slapshot caused a serious injury.

  “I went out to block the shot, killing a penalty, and his shot hit me on the ankle bone. I still played the rest of the game.”

  Schinkel came back in time for the later stages of the season, but the Pens missed out on the playoffs. He remained with the organization for the rest of his playing days and took over as a coach before moving on to scouting.

  Ken Schinkel

  Art Stratton

  An
icon in the minor leagues in the years leading up to NHL expansion, Stratton had briefly seen action with New York, Detroit and Chicago, but he had tremendous success in the AHL and CHL. He was always considered to be on the cusp of making it to the highest level, so there was little doubt he was going to find regular work once the league doubled its membership.

  “At the time, I was hoping to be drafted by St. Louis because I knew the fans and the area,” he said. “St. Louis wanted to take me in the 10th round.”

  The Blues did not end up taking him that early, however, and he was the 12th pick for the Penguins instead. His scoring talent slowly became apparent to Pittsburgh fans, but he scored the first game-winning goal in franchise history on October 13, 1967, and, funnily enough, St. Louis took the loss that day.

  “You know, the biggest thing when you get a chance to play in the NHL, they want you to start off with a bang,” he said to the press at the time. “They figure you’ve got to score now, not after a while. If you can’t do it right off the bat then you’re in trouble. Well, I couldn’t do it right away and I didn’t get too many chances. But I knew I’d be able to do it if given a chance in the first 25 games.”

  As the campaign progressed, he was a top point-producer for the offensively challenged club and he received three All-Star votes during the first half. By January, he began to have problems with Red Sullivan and was benched for what the team considered poor play. Stratton does not have fond memories of the coach and received letters from fans at the time saying that he should get more playing time.