Penguins Update: What If?

It’s a Wonderful Life is one of my all-time favorite movies. As the story unfolds, the main character George Bailey (played to perfection by Jimmy Stewart) discovers how the lives of his family and friends would’ve been affected had he never been born.

It got me to thinking about some “what ifs” in Penguins history. Turning points, good and bad, that altered the course of the franchise.

What if Michel Briere hadn’t been mortally injured in a car accident?

A prolific scorer in junior hockey, Briere was passed over during the first two rounds of the 1969 Amateur Draft because scouts feared he was too small. The lone exception was Penguins scout Dick Coss, who pleaded with GM Jack Riley to take the will-o-the-wisp center. Riley finally relented, selecting Briere in the third round.

In an era when few players made the jump from junior hockey to the NHL, Michel flourished, pacing the 1969-70 Pens in assists and finishing third in points. Improving as the season progressed, he tallied 11 points over his final nine regular-season games. Unprecedented production for an expansion-era rookie.

Following a quiet start to the playoffs, Briere tallied five goals and three assists over his final seven postseason contests, including three game winners.

Shifty, clever and determined, the sky seemed the limit for the Pens’ young star. However, on May 15, 1970, fate delivered a crushing blow when Briere was critically injured in a car accident. After lapsing into a coma, he passed away on April 4, 1971.

Had the accident never occurred? There’s little doubt Briere would’ve blossomed into the Pens’ first superstar.

“This guy was the type of player you could maybe build your team around,” said teammate Ken Schinkel. “He would have been a star in the league for a long time.”

How would the Pens have progressed? Would we have become a consistent playoff team with Briere leading the way? Would we still have been in a position to draft Pierre Larouche, who might’ve combined with Michel to give to give us a lethal one-two punch down the middle?

Questions that will forever remain unanswered.

What if we’d beaten the Islanders in the 1975 playoffs?

After missing the playoffs in three out of four seasons in the early 1970s, the Pens emerged as a dark horse Cup contender in 1974-75. GM Jack Button, who’d taken over from Riley following a long apprenticeship, remade the team in remarkably short order with a savvy series of moves and trades.

Boasting “the Century Line” of Syl Apps, Jean Pronovost and Lowell MacDonald and 30-goal men Larouche, Vic Hadfield and Rick Kehoe (the latter trio Button additions), the team was an offensive juggernaut featuring nine 20-plus goal scorers. While not as accomplished on defense, Dave Burrows and Ron Stackhouse were All-Star caliber performers.

The Pens were tough, too. Bob “Battleship” Kelly, Colin “Soupy” Campbell, Dennis Owchar and Bob Paradise provided backbone and thump.

A near-perfect blend of youth and experience, toughness and skill.

However, owner Tad Potter was skating on thin ice financially. The team needed to make it to the Semi-Finals for Potter and his Penguins Partners to remain afloat.

When the Pens steamed past St. Louis in the Preliminary Round and bolted to a 3-games-to-0 lead over the Islanders in the Quarter-Finals, it appeared Potter would get the miracle he so desperately needed. Then the roof caved in. The Pens lost four straight, in the process sending the team reeling into receivership.

Mercifully, a white-knight triumvirate headed by Al Savill purchased the Pens soon after, but with a pronounced catch. One of the new owners, Wren Blair, replaced Button as GM. Nudging aside one of the most capable executives in club history.

Known for building “the Over the Hill Gang” in Minnesota, Blair almost immediately reversed Button’s course and began swapping out younger players for veterans. A promising young team aged overnight and soon slid into mediocrity.

Had the Pens beaten the Islanders, what would their future have looked like? Button most certainly would have built on the promising core he’d assembled. Perhaps Larouche wouldn’t have curdled, forcing a trade to Montreal.

It begs the question. Would the Pens have been in a position to draft Mario Lemieux ten years later?

What if we’d drafted Kirk Muller instead of Mario Lemieux?

Following an extended stretch of mediocrity dating back to the mid-1970s, the bottom fell out on the black and gold in ‘82-83. A club thought to be only a few players away instead collapsed, tying Hartford for the fewest points in the league.

Attendance shriveled to match the team’s sorry on-ice performance. Fans who did attend wore paper bags over their heads.

Newly minted GM Eddie Johnston knew full well the only way for the franchise to survive was to draft Lemieux, a once-in-a-lifetime Quebec League phenom who shattered Larouche’s scoring record with an astounding 282 points in ’83-84.

To that end, Johnston parted with the team’s few respectable talents and replaced them with a motley collection of too-green kids, has-beens and never-weres. All the while scheming with coach Lou Angotti to lose as often as possible.

However, the Pens had company in “the Mario Derby.” The equally putrid Devils were plummeting toward the nether regions of the standings as well. They, too, cast their eyes on the prize.

Johnston pulled out all stops. In a deal that stirred tons of controversy, he traded former Norris Trophy winner Randy Carlyle and received no immediate help in return. Then he recalled minor-leaguer and part-time truck driver Vincent Tremblay and watched as the overmatched goalie yielded 24 goals in four games.

The Devils cried foul. But EJ had his man.

What if the unthinkable occurred? What if the Devils had finished last and drafted Lemieux? Leaving the Pens to pick Kirk Muller, very good but no Mario.

It’s very likely we kiss our five Stanley Cups goodbye. Maybe our hockey team, too.

Or as Johnston so succinctly put it. “If I didn’t take Mario with that first pick, believe me, there would be no hockey here now. This (the Civic Arena) would be a parking lot, I guarantee it.”

Which, ironically it is today, albeit for very different reasons.

What if we didn’t win the 2005 draft lottery and the right to draft Sidney Crosby?

In the early 2000s history was repeating itself…and in a most unfortunate way. With the back-to-back Stanley Cups of the early ‘90s but a distant memory, yet another bankruptcy and related financial woes had forced GM Craig Patrick to peddle megastars Jaromir Jagr, Alex Kovalev, Robert Lang and Martin Straka. The fire sale left a burned-out shell, bereft of talent, in its wake.

Although Mario and his group had purchased the team to give it some stability, once again it appeared the Pens might move to another city if a new arena wasn’t built…and pronto.

We’d lost out on Russian stud Alex Ovechkin at the 2004 Entry Draft. Although countryman Evgeni Malkin was hardly a booby prize and considered by many to be the more complete player, the Pens needed more help. A lot more.

Coming out of the ’04-05 lockout, the NHL decreed that every team would have a shot at the No. 1 overall pick. A shoe-in to be Rimouski phenom Sidney Crosby, touted by many as the best player to come out of junior since Mario himself.

Perhaps it was the four-leaf clover Patrick clutched in his hand, or the prayer he offered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Or maybe the hockey gods (or the dear Lord himself) smiled down on lottery day. One of the three balls adorned with the skating Penguin logo entered the vacuum tube.

The rest, as they say, is history.

But what if things had worked out differently? What if we didn’t win the right to draft Sid? What if we’d taken Bobby Ryan or Benoit Pouliot or Sid’s buddy and future Pen Jack Johnson, all top-five picks, instead?

While a team with a core of Malkin, Kris Letang, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Staal would’ve been plenty good, would it have been Cup worthy?

Fortunately, we never had to find out.

By the Numbers

A little Penguins trivia I’ve always found fascinating. Add the uniform numbers of Briere (21) and Lemieux (66) and you get Crosby’s 87.

Eerier still? Two Steel City sports stars who wore No. 21, Briere and Pirates great Roberto Clemente, died under tragic circumstances in the early 1970s.

And what about former coach Marc Boileau, who guided the Pens to 66 regular-season victories. He passed away from a heart attack on December 27, 2000…the night of Mario’s historic comeback.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?