Penguins Cup Chronicles: Paul Stanton

Mario Lemieux played his first home game of the season Jan. 29, 1991, and every other storyline took a backseat in that game against Washington.

That rookie defenseman Paul Stanton scored the first game-winning goal of his career — in overtime, no less — seemed an afterthought. Even to Stanton.

"I don't remember," he said this week, laughing. "I'm sorry."

Stanton paired with Zarley Zalapski for the majority of the season and later teamed with Ulf Samuelsson after the huge trade with Hartford in March.

"I was happy to be on the team, and I'm definitely not the most important guy on the team, that's for sure," he said. "I think my role on the team was pretty straight-forward: just try to stop the other team from scoring and pass the puck up to the amazing forwards that we had."

A native of Boston whose high school was only miles from Boston Garden, Stanton was excited to play the Bruins in the Wales Conference Final that season. The Bruins opened a 2-0 series lead, but the Penguins stormed back to win four straight to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.

"We knew we were a better team than them," said Stanton, who scored his only playoff goal in Game 5. "I think we played better than them in the (first two) games, even though we had lost."

Stanton now draws a corollary with the impact of the Stanley Cup win on Pittsburgh and what he witnessed growing up in Boston.

"There's guys now playing in the NHL from Pittsburgh, which is great, which is probably a little bit of like why there's so many guys from Boston that played in the NHL because we all idolized Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito and Wayne Cashman and all those guys," he said. "I'm sure there's kids who grew up in Pittsburgh in the '90s now, and it's 20 years later, and they idolized Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens and Larry Murphy and those guys. It's nice to see that our team is hopefully having an effect on youth hockey in Pittsburgh."

q&a with paul stanton

On making the team out of training camp:

I guess you have to go to camp every year thinking you got a shot to make the team. But you're definitely nervous about whether or not you're going to make it. I went there with, I guess, hoping I would make the team, but I'm one of those guys, I never really was, I would say, over-confident on my abilities to make the team.

On any of the older teammates taking him under their wing:

When you're a rookie there, the guys were nice, we had a really nice group of guys and everything like that, but it's a competitive situation and I think that when you're in training camp, you're kind of on your own. I don't think anyone's going to give you a magic pill or some sort of magic pep talk that's going to relax you or anything like that.

On being awestruck looking around the dressing room:

I think, just my opinion, Mario Lemieux is the greatest player to ever play the game. When you go in the locker room and see a guy like that or go to training camp and you see someone like that, definitely it's humbling, you know. I can't explain to people when I try to tell them about that. It was like we were all in the peewee division and he should have been moving up to the bantams or something like that — he was that much better. But definitely when you look at a guy like him, watching a guy like Paul Coffey skate, you see him on TV a little bit, but then when you actually get out on the ice, there's some impressive guys on that team, that's for sure.

On playing with Zarley Zalapski:

Zarley's a nice guy, and actually when I went to Europe, I played against him a bit in Europe. He was a super-talented player, I think, a great skater, a big, strong guy.

On playing with Ulf Samuelsson:

When I played with Ulf, he was a mean, tough player. I think he's probably one of the toughest players I ever played with and ever seen. He dealt out a lot of punishment, and he took a lot of punishment. He wasn't afraid of anybody. I think he's a lot smarter player than a lot of people thought he was. He was a good, puck-moving defenseman, I think. He moved the puck well. With him and I together, we kind of understood what each of us was doing, and I think he gets kind of underrated as a guy that people thought just ran around the ice and tried to kill people. He was a good, puck-moving defenseman as well.

On playing with Jim Paek in the playoffs:

At that point, usually by the time you're in the playoffs and you're moving along as many rounds as we went there, I think you don't think about any of that stuff, you just play, you know. You feel like you played 20 years, and it's not like, "Oh, this is my first playoff or anything like that." It's just you go out on the ice and play. I don't think Jimmy worried about it, and I know I didn't. It seemed like a logical step. I know that Jim had joined the team a little bit later, I think he was on Team Canada that year. But we had played the year before together in Muskegon.

On all the ticket requests for playing in his hometown:

It's funny, I tell people all the time that the people that are truly your friends always seem to find a way to get their own tickets, and it's the people that aren't your friends that are hounding you like crazy for tickets.

On his goal vs. Boston in Game 5:

That was the one I shot over Andy Moog's glove, I think. Bryan Trottier had given me the pass there. I kind of remember that one. I didn't score a lot of goals period, but in the playoffs I remember scoring that goal, shooting it over his glove.

On Mario Lemieux:

I just remember the confidence. He's a confident guy. I don't remember individual speeches; I just remember the way Mario always carried himself and Bryan Trottier especially, as well. Bryan had won before, and I think he was a real team leader. I think guys drew a lot off of him. I mean Mario, even though he hadn't won a Cup, he acted like had been there a thousand times because he was a very relaxed guy, but very intense in the same manner, if that makes any sense. You knew he was ready to play, and I think in the playoffs and Game 6, we were a little bit tight before the game in the room. I remember Bryan talking a little bit and Mario, who doesn't say a whole lot, speaking.

On when he realized the Penguins were going to win the Stanley Cup:

I just remember being in between periods, like the second and third periods, praying for (Game 6) to end. You wanted it to end right there. You don't want to be the guy to make a mistake and let anybody back in the game. They really probably couldn't have got back in the game at that point. You're just thinking, "I want this game over with, I want to hoist the Cup and be done with it."

On hoisting the Stanley Cup:

It's a dream. As a kid, you're dreaming of winning the Stanley Cup, dream of playing in the NHL. It's kind of all those things put together, and it's a wonderful feeling. It's one that I'll never forget. I think guys that have won it, they all know that feeling, and it's hard to describe. But it's a lot of hard work, and it's not just that season, but it's a lot of hard work throughout your life to get to that point.

On appreciating it as a rookie:

It's kind of like, well, we have a good team here, you expect to win. I remember Gordie Roberts had said to me, when we won the second year, he said, "You think it's going to be easy, just win every year or whatever?" It just seemed normal. You know, our team was good, and I didn't think about unfortunate guys that have never got an opportunity to win or anything like that or guys that have been in the league for a long time and on our team and hadn't won. It just seemed like it was a natural progression for our season.

On his time in Pittsburgh:

It was a great time in my life. I have great memories of Pittsburgh and the fans. It's a great city. I live down here in Naples now, and I'll run into people from Pittsburgh and can always tell from that funny accent. I usually don't say, "Oh, I played for the Penguins." Usually, I'll just talk to someone from Pittsburgh, and they're just nice people. And I'm not just saying that because it's an interview. The people from Pittsburgh were nice. That's kind of my memory of playing for the Penguins and living in the city. The people, when they come to Florida, they're nice people. They're not the big city, "what, are you trying to take advantage of me?"' kind of people; they're just nice. I'll remember that forever.

I have the NHL Network, with the NHL (TV) package, when I watch the games and I listen to Bob Errey on there, and I have satellite radio and I hear Phil Bourque. It's nice to see that those guys are still involved with the team. I talk to Troy Loney a bit. I think that the city still embraces the guys. They still like the guys from that team. We had a nice group of guys. Bob was a nice guy, and Phil and Troy. They were all nice guys, and they live in the city. I think the city, yeah, they embraced the team, but the people were genuinely nice, too. It's a win-win for the players. I'm happy to see the new stadium. It seems like there's excitement about hockey, and it's continued.

On the information available on the Internet:

It kind of ruins your stories when you're sitting around the bar telling everybody how good you were and they're like, "Actually, you only had two goals."

Additional Information:

Paul Stanton

ACQUIRED: June 15, 1985 • Eighth-round draft pick (149th overall)

PENGUINS DEBUT: Oct. 5, 1990, at Washington

PENGUINS 1990-91 STATS: 75 games, 5 goals, 18 assists, 23 points, 40 PIM

PENGUINS CAREER STATS: 206 games, 11 goals, 38 assists, 49 points, 199 PIM

WHAT HE'S UP TO NOW: Builds custom homes in Naples, Fla.