Penguins Cup Chronicles: Gordie Roberts

Gordie Roberts, a veteran of 839 NHL games, found himself in Peoria, Ill., with the farm club of the St. Louis Blues, at the beginning of the 1990-91 season.

The 33-year-old had a poor season the year before – with life after hockey on his mind a little bit too much.

“I knew if I wanted to continue on at the NHL level,” Roberts said recently, “I had to commit myself more to hockey and worry about business when my career was over.”

Scotty Bowman, the Penguins' director of player personnel, scouted Roberts in Peoria, and the defenseman was soon on his way to Pittsburgh, where he proved a calming influence on the blue line. Mostly paired with Larry Murphy (after his arrival in December), Roberts prided himself on being a steady, move-the-puck defensive player. Roberts ended up leading the Penguins at plus-18.

“I think I became kind of a top-six guy and played a lot more minutes than probably what I thought when I first went there,” he said, “and I couldn't ask for a better situation.”

In the playoffs, Roberts was the only Penguins defenseman to play in all 24 postseason games.

The Stanley Cup Finals proved to be special to Roberts, who had played eight seasons with the North Stars – including a trip to the Finals in 1981 — and lived in Minnesota during the offseason.

The first five games in the Finals had been close, until Game 6 when the Penguins' offense hit a new level.

“I almost felt sorry for the North Stars about halfway through the game when the floodgates opened up,” Roberts said, “and it was an embarrassing loss for the team and the franchise.

“Feeling sorry maybe only lasted so long, and obviously you enjoyed the win.”

Quoting Gordie Roberts

On his reaction to being traded to Pittsburgh:

Well, obviously, it was real positive. I knew Bob Johnson from playing in the Canada Cup on the U.S. team with him, being a U.S. player. (Penguins general manager) Craig Patrick had a connection to U.S. Hockey, too. Just like anything in life, I think having someone that you know and a little bit of a history with gave me the opportunity.

On Scotty Bowman's scouting trip to Peoria:

Bob Plager was the head coach at Peoria, and Scotty had coached him in St. Louis at one time. I'm sure he had done his background with Bob to see how I'm playing and what my attitude was and what kind of shape I was in and so on. He heard probably good things from Bob and then he came down and watched me play and scouted me for a couple games and talked to me. Basically, he was doing his homework, trying to see where I was at. I think I was 33 at the time, and I think I passed the first test.

On joining the Penguins?

I'll never forget, when I did come there, it's always a number game. It's great me coming in, but I always remember the guy whose spot I took initially was Jim Paek. Jim had just kind of made the Penguins, I'm sure, through hard work and worked his way up from the minors. I always thought it was real classy of Bob, one of the first practices, he had kind of brought everybody together and kind of made a nice little talk about Jimmy, how much he contributed, how (he was a) hard worker and good guy. He wanted everybody to slap their sticks and give a “Good luck, Jimmy”-type thing, and that he'll be back and contribute, which he ended up doing later on and being a big part of our team. At the same time, it wasn't like a rookie took his bag and went out the back door and you never heard from him again. He made Jim feel real good and then it's just another little sideline note that Bob cared about people more than just numbers.

On his role with the Penguins:

I played for another coach in St. Louis; their system was around the boards, off the glass and keep it real basic. Bob knew me from the past and one of the first things he said to me was, ‘Gordie, you're a good passer, you move the puck. I want to see tape-to-tape passes. We have a lot of great forwards here. If we can start them out of our zone with the puck on their stick, that's what our system is.' It was nice going into Pittsburgh that he was looking at my strengths instead of making me play to my weaknesses and playing a boring, off the glass, around the boards type of game.

On leading the Penguins at plus-18:

It's one of those deals you don't really pay that much attention to through the course of the year, but I guess at the end when you are in that position as just a steady-type player, it's something you feel good about, that's for sure.

On the Penguins' playoff potential:

As long as Mario (Lemieux) was healthy and the way he elevated his game, he set the tone being the best player on the team. There were a couple games in the playoffs when his back was bothering him and you didn't know sometimes, I'm sure it was always a little bit of a week-to-week thing with his back and different injuries. It was fun to watch just the way his superstar game elevated through the course of the playoffs, especially in the last round against Minnesota.

On what it takes to win the Stanley Cup:

It was a good balance of older guys and young players and guys in the middle of their careers in their prime. I think I ended up playing close to 150 playoff games through the years. You know, I really think it's just really question of elevating, you have to play through injuries and different things that happen through four rounds of advancing in the playoffs. It's kind of like running a marathon. You don't really appreciate it until you're sitting in your chair and you look back at that day of running 26 miles and it's worth it. When you're running it, it's probably not as much fun.

On being the only Penguins defenseman to play in all 24 playoff games:

I think we're all beat down and tired, but I think that's part of the long summer conditioning and training and the coaches doing a good job of knowing when to push and when to give you rest. I don't think we had too many practices during the two months of the playoffs, but as long as your legs and your ankles and things like that are feeling good, that's the key. You've got to be able to skate and move out there, especially when you're 33, you don't want to have a minor leg injury or something. There's a lot of guys that look slower in the playoffs because of injuries that fans never see, but I felt pretty good. I was fortunate to stay away from any leg injuries in the playoffs.

On resting the older guys:

(Bob Johnson) always treated the older players right, knowing that you might get the odd day off. I think the whole key to a good coach is knowing that you've got 20 different situations, backgrounds, personalities. The bottom line is what they do at 7:30 at game time, and it's a question of whether it's rest or preparation and all the different practices and the long season you go through, but at the end, it's getting the most out of each player.

On Game 6 vs. Minnesota:

I had my dad there and family, my wife, and friends that came down afterwards. For me to win in Minnesota was, if we couldn't win in Pittsburgh, it was the second best place to win a Cup. It worked out really well.

On enjoying the end of Game 6:

I think with a lead like that, knowing that you're going to win, I think you could soak it up and just look around and just see, especially playing in that building eight years as a member of the other team, I remember being able to enjoy the whole moment process of it because you knew you were going to win and it wasn't like the next year in Chicago, even though we won four straight, that last game was a back-and-forth ending where you never knew until the final minute who was going to win, which creates a lot more drama. Winning in Minnesota, you're able to enjoy it a little more.

On lifting the Cup:

It's definitely a special moment, you see it on TV all the time and you see other guys do it. It's the epitome of the team sport, me being one of 20 guys out there that was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time. The Cup was passed to me. I didn't realize how heavy the Cup was, No. 1. I'd hate to have a shoulder injury trying to raise it over your shoulder. Just to see the smiles and jubilation of each guy, it's such a great tradition being able to each guy to have that minute with the Cup is kind of a special moment.

On his day with the Cup, 14 years later:

They never really had what they call a day with the Cup back then. I don't think that came until a few years later. Certain guys got the Cup. I wasn't around Pittsburgh at all much that summer. I didn't own a home there. Our home was back in Minnesota then. We had the Cup around the first week after we won. I never really had the chance to have the Cup until whenever Tampa won it (2004). It came through Minnesota, and I ended up calling the NHL office and somehow they ended up having a window of time where someone else in Minnesota through Tampa had the Cup and I had called in saying, ‘You know, I never had the chance to have the Cup for a day. Is there any way that I could spend a half a day with it or something before it leaves the state of Minnesota?' We had it over at our house and about 10 years later got to enjoy it that day.

Any other memories that stand out 20 years later:

I just remember in Minnesota when the Twins won in ‘87 going into the final game and then seeing the whole city kind of go crazy afterwards. Sometimes as a player, when you finish on a .500 team, you don't really see what a pro sports team means to a city because you're going through ups and downs and you don't win a championship, but when you do win a championship like we did the first year and you come back and see the airport with 25,000 people and you see the parade and the whole excitement of the city, it really is a feeling of pride for the whole city and the team. It's kind of a nice moment to be part of something that, you know the old saying in sports is that no one remembers the runner-ups but they remember the winners.

On being remembered in Pittsburgh:

It's pretty neat. I still get a ton, out of the Pittsburgh area, there's still a lot of fans that send their hockey cards and little notes about being part of that team. I definitely get more hockey cards to sign out of the Pittsburgh area than I do out of St. Louis.