Penguins Cup Chronicles: Jim Paek

Defenseman Jim Paek didn't play much in the 1990-91 season — three games, to be exact — before the Penguins dispatched him to play for the Canadian national team.

But he got the call to return for the playoffs — as the team's ninth defenseman. During the Washington series, injuries to Paul Coffey, Ulf Samuelsson and Peter Taglianetti forced the rookie into the lineup.

”Who would ever think that, you know• But you pray, you're down, 3-1, to Washington, you get to play a game, and holy smokes,” Paek said recently. “It was absolutely fantastic. They kept throwing me into the fire and played me and got my confidence up. It was just a great, great time in my life.”

Paek's claim to fame is scoring the seventh goal — on an unlikely two-on-one with Mario Lemieux — in the Penguins' clinching, 8-0 win in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

”The thought that went through my head was, ‘OK, we're up, 6-0. Should I go or should I stay?' I said, ‘Aw, screw it,' “ he said. “So I took off, and everybody went toward Mario and left me wide open. He pulled everybody toward him, left me wide open, gave me a pass and then pretty much I went blank in a sense that my great hockey instinct for goal scoring came into effect. Not really, but ... Brian Hayward came out to challenge me, and I kind of stepped around him and put the puck in the net.”

Quoting Jim Paek

On his shot at making the team:

”I played three years in the minors, and that year, I finally had an opportunity to make the big team. Bob Johnson said, for me to stay up there, I was the ninth defenseman. Thirteen games into the season, it was, ‘Jim, you need to play.' So he sent me to the national team, the Canadian national team, for that season, so I played pretty much the whole year there with the national team, traveling around the world and played against the world's best national teams and had a great experience. I remember the phone call. We were in a small town in (British Columbia) somewhere playing a tournament against the Russians, and I get a call from Craig Patrick saying, ‘Hey Jim, come up for the playoffs.' Boy, what a great day that was, jumping up and down on the bed and everything. So, I got out of there and went to join the team for the playoffs. Again, I was the ninth defenseman, and I still remember Badger Bob telling me, ‘Jim, keep working hard, have a smile on your face, you never know what's going to happen.' Sure enough, the ninth defenseman turns into the sixth defenseman and gets to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's just absolutely a dream come true and everything came together, all the hard work and traveling around. Everything was kind of worth it, you know.”

On Bob Johnson:

”I only knew Bob for a short time that I was with the team, just his positive attitude has really stuck with me. Everything he said, I kind of remembered. He would talk to you. It didn't matter if you were Mario Lemieux or Jim Paek, he would talk to you. He made the time to say hello, tell you a story, positive. One of the stories is that I was in the elevator with him. As a player, you're stuck with the coach, you go, ‘Oh, it's like going down to the principal's office.' It was nothing like that. He goes, ‘Jim, you know, I have a goal every day, and my goal was to go out and buy underwear today. I finished my goal.' Those things, just real positive, telling me to keep smiling, keep working hard and you never know what's going to happen. Sure enough, everything came together, and I hung on every word he had. And I still remember to this day everything he said to me. The positive energy that he put forth was absolutely fantastic.”

On the Penguins' veterans helping the rookies:

”They were all great. That's what was so special about that team, and that's why we were a championship team. From our captain, Mario, all the way down to a role player like Troy Loney, Larry Murphy, the list goes on of the great guys, Ronnie Francis. It's just absolutely fantastic players and people, too. They really took care of the young guys, and they took care of the older guys. It was such a great team.”

On all of the future Hall of Famers on the team:

”I was pretty much in awe. But, you know, at the end of the day, you're skating on the same ice, you're changing with them in the same dressing room, and they didn't make you feel any different. They didn't make you feel inferior or better or worse or anything. They were just great teammates.”

On playing with the national team vs. playing in Muskegon:

”We had some great players in Muskegon, but I was there for three years. Badger Bob, he was all about the national team. He worked with USA Hockey and the national program there, and he thought that would be a great experience for me to do it that way, a change in scenery, to go and play with, we had a bunch of first-rounders on that team. Names that come to mind would be Kenny Priestlay, Craig Billington in net, Stu Barnes was there. There's a lot of great hockey players that I had a chance to play with. You had Valeri Kamensky on the Russian national team. You had all these great hockey players that you get to play against, which ups your game tremendously.”

On Mario Lemieux's leadership, and the strong supporting cast:

”He couldn't even bend over to tie up his own skates, but the leadership he showed, the way he played without being able to bend over and tie up your own skates, that's really a miracle. He led the team. I remember a time he stood up on the bench and he goes, ‘That's enough. Let's go, boys.' And sure enough, we went. We followed our leader, and he took charge. And that's the way it was. He wasn't a very vocal guy, but he led by example, and when he spoke, everybody listened and we followed. He was a great captain. He would always take the bull by the horn and lead the team wherever it needed to go. Saying that, though, he had a great supporting cast. You have guys like, oh my gosh, Ronnie Francis was there, Larry Murphy, the list goes on, Troy Loney, Bob Errey, Paul Coffey. They could have been captains on any other team, so he had a great supporting cast. I can't say enough about the character of that group.”

On playing with fellow rookie Paul Stanton:

”Every game was pressure because you didn't want to screw up. You had such a great team. But, then again, if you did screw up, you had such a great team. Tommy Barrasso was outstanding in net. We had great forwards. You put it on the wall, and there was Joey Mullen to take it out of the zone. You're just surrounded by great hockey players that make thinking so much easier for you, which made less mistakes. All you had to do was compete hard and battle your (butt) off, I guess, and our best players were our best players, and Mario would take over.”

On his goal in Game 6 of the Final, his first in the NHL:

”I remember it like yesterday because that was the only goal I pretty much scored in my career. You get to remember those. I'd love to say I went coast to coast, deked everybody out and went top shelf, but all the moons and stars lined up, with a stick breaking, leaving the puck right there for me. And who other player to give it to than Mario• He could get you the puck anywhere on the ice. So, it was very fortunate that I had that opportunity to score my first goal. And that's a moment I'll never forget.”

On the odds of a Mario Lemieux-Jim Paek two-on-one:

”It would never happen again. And it never happened before that. Back in that day, I was labeled as a kind of defensive defenseman. I had the dog collar leash on me, if I crossed the blue line, it would pull me back kind of thing. So, you never were up in the play, and there was an opportunity there, and I took that opportunity, and thankfully everything turned out.”

On talking to Paul Coffey on the bench after scoring:

”I remember him saying something, ‘Way to go, Jim. That's great' and all that, but I was pretty much on Cloud Nine. Scoring the seventh goal, to me, it was like it didn't matter, seventh goal in a 7-0 game so far. To me, I like to think that was the nail in the coffin, that everybody could relax. What a great moment for me and my career.”

On what it was like to hoist the Stanley Cup:

”It was lighter than a feather, I'll tell you. All of those years, the blood, sweat and tears, playing out on the street and pretending there's a seventh game, winning the Stanley Cup — and everything comes true. There's just like all the emotions and everything that you've gone through. Then, you think of your parents and all the support and everything that they have given you, and your family. It's just a very emotional time. Just thinking about it now, you still get goosebumps, and that was how many years ago• So, it's just a moment that you'll never forget, and it's just an absolute dream come true.”

On recognizing the difficulty of winning a Stanley Cup:

”You know it's never easy. I was in the right time and the right situation, I guess. The Penguins took a long history to get where they were at that point. The city, the whole team, especially Mario and he first was drafted there, they built to become that championship team, that was a lot of hard work. So, you knew it wasn't easy to repeat, but you look around the dressing room and say, ‘Why can't we do this every year?' All the talent and character that we had, but every team is like that, too. Everybody is shooting for that one trophy, so they're all thinking the same thing. It's very difficult to win a championship.”

On the nature of his career:

”You can't write the story any better, to tell you the truth. All the years in the minors and all of a sudden getting an opportunity to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs, scoring your first NHL goal, assisted by Mario Lemieux in a Stanley Cup Final game, and then you get to hoist the Cup. So, you can't write the story any better than that. It's just absolutely fantastic.”