The Pittsburgh Penguins. National Hockey League
During the 2009-10 season, Crosby scored 109 points (51 goals and 58 assists) in 81 games, How thieves stole a Toronto condo in ‘total title fraud’, selling it for $970,000 winning the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL season’s leading goalscorer. The Penguins, seeded fourth in the East, began their title defense, defeating the Ottawa Senators in six games. The teams swapped wins in the series en route to the decisive Game 7, which the Penguins lost 5-2, ending their season and their tenure at Mellon Arena. In the next round, the Penguins faced the Montreal Canadiens.
The circle encompassing the logo was later removed. The change was not without controversy, as the Boston Bruins protested by claiming to own the rights to the black and gold colors. The powder blue was changed to royal blue in 1973 but returned in 1977. The team adopted the current black and gold color scheme in 1980 to unify the colors of the city’s professional sports teams although, like the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Steelers, the shade of gold more closely resembled yellow. However, the Penguins cited the colors worn by the now-defunct NHL team the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1920s, as well as black and gold being the official colors of the City of Pittsburgh and its namesake, and obtained permission to use the black and gold colors. The team’s colors were originally powder blue, navy blue, and white.
In the 1970-71 season, the Penguins finished five games out of the playoffs with a 21-37-20 record, the fourth-worst record in the league. Except for a handful of players like Ken Schinkel, Pronovost, Syl Apps Jr., Keith McCreary, agitator Bryan Watson and goaltender Les Binkley, talent was thin, but enough for the Penguins to reach the playoffs in both 1970 and 1972. The Penguins battled the California Golden Seals for the division cellar in 1974, when Riley was fired as general manager and replaced by Jack Button. Pittsburgh achieved a playoff berth in 1972, only to be swept by the Chicago Black Hawks in the first round.
A contest was held where 700 of 26,000 entries picked “Penguins” as the team’s nickname, sharing its nickname with the athletic department of the newly named Youngstown State University in nearby Youngstown, Ohio. September 13, 1967, playing the franchise’s first exhibition match in Brantford against the Philadelphia Flyers on September 23, 1967. Restrictive rules which kept most major talent with the existing “Original Six” teams hampered the Pens, along with the rest of the expansion teams. Beyond aging sniper Andy Bathgate, all-star defenseman Leo Boivin (who had begun his professional career with the Hornets) and New York Rangers’ veteran Earl Ingarfield, a cast of former minor leaguers largely manned the first Penguins’ team.
