The Pittsburgh Penguins were out for revenge during the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs.
They had lost in the 2008 final against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 6. It was a tough defeat, and it didn’t help that the Red Wings managed to win it in Mellon Arena.
It just so happened that the 2009 Finals were against the Red Wings again. A great chance to get revenge. But a tough memory of a Finals loss is always present.
When the Penguins lost Game 5, they knew they would need two straight wins to win the Cup. They couldn’t allow the Red Wings to win one more game. Years later, the players confessed that Mario Lemieux played a huge part in what would happen next.
As a player, Lemieux was one of the greatest, and he could do just about anything, and he didn’t need more than a stick and a pair of skates.
But this time, he used his verbal skills and modern technology as an owner.
The team was still in the locker room after that blowout loss in Game 5 when Lemieux sent out a group text to the team.
”It was good thoughts. I think he sent it pretty close to (Game 5), when we were in the showers. We were still in Detroit. … When he says something, you listen,” Marc-Andre Fleury told The Athletic.
Dan Bylsma, then coach of the Penguins, was stunned.
”It wasn’t something I hadn’t experienced from Mario. My guess is that was Mario thinking like a player, a captain.”
It’s not been disclosed just what Lemieux said in his text; that’s something between him and the players, but Max Talbot, then a winger for the Penguins, was stocked.
”It was, like, “F—k yeah!” If he believed, we should probably believe because he’s probably the best hockey player to play the game.”
The group text was just what the Penguins needed. The Penguins won 2-1 to set up a deciding Game 7.
The Penguins had only won one of six previous final games in Detroit, and if they won, they would become the first NHL team since 1971 to win the Cup on the road in a Game 7.
To make things worse, captain Sidney Crosby had to leave the game in the second period due to an injury. He would take only one shift the rest of the game.
But they had Evgeni Malkin, who, after the game, would be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Marc-Andre Fleury made an unbelievable save in the end, and the Penguins won the Cup. And it all started with a text from Mario Lemieux, being an immense figure for the Penguins, but this time as an owner.
