1991-92 Pittsburgh Penguins Mario Lemieux Jersey

Prior to the start of the 1991-92 season, Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Bob Johnson was diagnosed with brain cancer, forcing him to step down as coach. Five time Stanley Cup winning coach Scotty Bowman took over the head coaching duties in Johnson's absence, and Johnson subsequently passed away on November 26th, 1991.

"It's a great day for hockey" - Bob Johnson

The Penguins started their season as defending champions with a 22-14-4 record, but when Mario Lemieux missed some time due to injury, the slumped, going 5-15-4 to give them a .500 record. Some trades saw Paul Coffey and Mark Recchi leave the team, but Rick Tocchet, Kjell Samuelsson and Ken Wregget would arrive. The Penguins would finish the year strong, with a 12-5-1 record, giving them 3rd place in their division and a playoff berth.

Despite missing 16 games due to injury, Lemieux would lead not only the team, but the entire NHL with 44 goals and 87 assists for 131 points and the Art Ross Trophy. Kevin Stevens actually led the team in goals with 54 and was second in league scoring with 123 points, a record for point by an American born player.

The Penguins started the playoffs on a down note, losing their first two games to the Washington Capitals, who finished the season with 11 more points than Pittsburgh. They traded games 3 & 4, before the Penguins would kick it into gear, taking the last three games of the series to come from down 3-1 to win it in seven.

The Rangers had 18 more points than the Penguins, but that didn't stop the Penguins from eliminating them 4-2, earning the chance to play the Boston Bruins, who they swept in four, giving them a seven game unbeaten streak heading into the finals, where they would meet the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Penguins would win the first two at home by scores of 5-4 and 3-1, before moving onto Chicago, where they would win two close ones, 1-0 and 6-5, to sweep the Blackhawks, run their unbeaten streak to 11, win the Stanley Cup and defend their title.Lemieux would be awarded his second straight Conn Smythe Trophy on the basis of scoring 34 points despite being limited to only 15 of the Penguins 21 games played.

Today's jersey is a 1991-92 PIttsburgh Penguins Mario Lemieux jersey featuring the 1992 Stanley Cup Finals patch, as worn on June 1st, 1992 when the Penguins won the cup. Today's jersey also features the Pittsburgh Penguins 25th Anniversary patch, worn during the regular season, and the Badger Bob Johnson memorial patch, added to the jerseys after the passing of their former coach.

The addition of the captain's "C" to this Lemieux jersey makes it one of the most decorated NHL jerseys of all time, as a "three patch" jersey is a rarity in the NHL, and unfortunately usually involves a memorial patch of some kind.

This reissue of the older Penguins jerseys is one of our favorites. The newer version has a very large, well constructed crest, probably 50% larger than the crests originally put on the replica jerseys back when the Penguins originally won the cup.

This jersey was purchased blank and is nicely customized with the proper font for the sleeve numbers in particular, as the ones sold by CCM with the name and numbers already on them used an incorrect, tall and narrow font for the sleeve numbers rather than the Penguins squat, nearly square shaped numbers.

This would be the final time they would ever wear this jersey, as the next season saw the debut of their new modern logo and brand new jersey set.

Dasherboard: The Red Wings held serve at home last night by putting in a strong, workman like performance in shutting down the Penguins for the second game in a row. The Penguins have scored just two goals in two games now and must hope that having last change on home ice will allow them the opportunity to dictate more favorable matchups for Crosby and Malkin in Games 3 & 4.

The Red Wings depth has been on display as their third and fourth liners have been contributing offensively in the absence of leading scorer Pavel Datsyuk while other top regular season scorers Zetterberg, Hossa, Lidstrom, Rafalski all have yet to score a goal.

Perhaps the emotion seen at the end of last night's game will ignite a fire within the Penguins and they can climb back into the series before finding themselves in a hole they cannot climb out of.