Penguins Cup Chronicles: Jay Caufield

Jay Caufield didn't make it into the lineup that often during the Penguins' run to the Stanley Cup, only dressing for 23 regular-season games.

But 14 of the Penguins' enforcer's appearances came against the heated rivals of the Patrick Division.

”Today you could have a 3-, 4-nothing game, and nothing even happens,” Caufield said this week. “If you're in a 4-nothing game, if it was a 3-nothing game and you were in Philadelphia, you could guarantee that, one way or another, something was going to happen, whether it be Philadelphia starting it or Pittsburgh starting it, something was going to happen one way or another.”

Caufield ended up in six fights — all against divisional foes like Washington's Alan May (twice) and John Kordic (twice in one game), New Jersey's Troy Crowder and the Rangers' Joey Kocur. He recorded 71 penalty minutes — with most coming from his physical style of play.

”When I got a chance to play in that year,” he said, “I understood what my job was and tried to do it whenever called upon.”

Although Caufield often went long stretches without playing, he couldn't let up in practice because he never knew when coach Bob Johnson would put him in the lineup.

”Everybody wants to play in the game,” he said, “so with so many great players, you had to wait for your opportunity to get called on.”

Caufield didn't meet the threshold (41 regular-season games or a Finals appearance) to get his name engraved on the Stanley Cup, but the team petitioned the NHL to include him.

”For the team to do that and have that happen,” Caufield said, “yeah, it does mean a lot.”

Quoting Jay Caufield

On his goal vs. the Flyers on Oct. 30, 1990:

”Bob Errey made a pass to me, he made a great feed from the left wing boards, and I just remember that. I think it even ended up being the game-winner in Philadelphia that game. Bob Errey made a great pass and found me in the slot. It was a great goal to score there, too, by the way. It would be like if you're from Pittsburgh, to score a goal in the (Civic Arena). For me, at the Spectrum at the time, it was a great place to have that happen. It did go five-hole. I was trying to just put it on net, it was a one-timer type play, so I'm a right winger coming down the slot, the pass was from the left side so I just, it was like a one-timer from that off wing. It was a great pass by Bob Errey, and it got through. So it was part of that year, it was the Stanley Cup year, so it was great to have that happen.”

On the postgame celebration:

”In the years back then, we didn't fly back so we stayed the night in Philly, so it was just out with the guys. When you get few goals in your career, when you get one, the teammates were great. The teammates we had there were a great group of guys. Everybody made sure you knew, they made you feel pretty good about it. Even after the fact, it was a good feeling.”

On the team's great chemistry:

”I think it was just a mix of, obviously the leadership part of the room. Mario (Lemieux), Kevin Stevens, Paul Coffey, all the guys that were a part of that and even the following year when Rick Tocchet became part of it, Bryan Trottier, you know, a guy that's done it all who's great to be a teammate with in Joey Mullen. I think it's those guys that had it be that way. It wasn't any different. It was a great atmosphere to be a part of.”

On watching fights and highlights on YouTube:

”I've seen some of them. I know there's so many. I don't how there's so many other ones they could pull up and get. I don't look at it that often, I just know they're out there, so there's (John) Kordic, then there was Dave Brown in Philly. Joey Kocur then ended up later on in New York, there was always New York guys. I haven't looked at it too much, but people have sent me, I have tapes and stuff like that that people have sent me from all my fights from whenever. It's amazing how they find them because we didn't even have them.

Somebody sent me a tape of that goal. I have the tape, but it's not a real high quality. If there's one thing I would like to say, I wish I would have that on a better quality disc or something like that. But really they don't go back. Even the Fox people told me before, they tried to put something together, they didn't have anything really on it.”

On fighting in the 1990s vs. today:

”All this calculated stuff, when you hear about the people doing Twitter, the tweets back and forth, ‘I'll see you when,' that to me, I don't think the NHL wants to hear that or see that. It needed to be something that took place when your team is down or it's something that happened in a previous game and you know something is going to come up again. I think that was part of the game. To that point, if that's happening a lot on Twitter, if they're doing a lot of that then, I agree, that's not what anybody wants to see. I don't think the league would want to have that. But it's still part of the game. There was definitely more of it back then. At that time there were guys with 300 penalty minutes a year, a number of them. If you didn't have 200 minutes. ... Just look at the number of games. If you played over 50 games, you probably needed to be around 200 minutes, around the 200-minute mark. It depends on what they call. Some guys get minutes because they just get fighting minutes and there's not misconducts. They seemed to call more of that stuff back then versus what you see now. The game is just different because if you went into Philadelphia, there were four or give guys. Rick Tocchet, their best player on the team, had 200, he's fighting all the time. They had five guys who would fight in Philadelphia, and three of them were ‘heavyweights.' So the game is different — some people feel for the better. It's still one part of the game that's always still going to be in it. I think the rivalries were really big, and it's hard to take away from the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh rivalry now. But it seems like we had so many going on. Maybe it has changed in a way. If there are a lot of guys making it noted that they're going to see somebody in December, I am going to say that I do feel the league would not want that going on.”

On not getting to play in the postseason:

”Bob Johnson, for me, I think I was a work in progress for him. He was always working with me. You had to be a player that truly understood your role and when you were going to get in the game. He always made it sound like, ‘You're going to be in, you're gonna be in, you're gonna be in.' But I just had to bide my time, and then the team was so successful and did so great and you don't change lineups. And that role specifically diminishes as you get into the playoffs. Even like you're seeing now, that role really disappears almost in the Stanley Cup playoffs.”

On his postseason role:

”What guys would do then, there was a number of guys, you really had to prepare every day like, ‘Hey, you still might get a chance to be in.' You had to prepare and practice like you could be in a game. And you couldn't look at it any different. Even though it wouldn't happen for some guys, you had to practice and treat it like you were ready to go. And that's what Bob Johnson expected you to do, and Craig Patrick expected you, and the players that were on your team, if you didn't prepare every day like you were ready to go, then you're not doing the proper thing. You had to go out every practice and work hard and whatever they needed to do to help the team be better, you had to do that. But if you got in a game, you certainly had to make sure you were prepared and ready to play and as close to game-shape as you could possibly be.”

On winning the Stanley Cup:

”For me, my hockey world didn't start until later, so I can never say it was a lifelong goal, but I think once you get into a sport, for me, once I get involved in the sport of hockey, then you get on a team, certainly all you want to do is be a part of a winning team and a championship team. The guys on the team, it made it pretty special to be a part of it. So to win a championship, a world championship if you will, in the game of hockey, it was a great feeling at the moment. And I think the team was blessed, my wife Alicia was there with us in Minnesota, the whole team, their wives were all there. So it was a nice moment to share with everybody and the city of Pittsburgh, and to repeat it the following year makes it even better.”