HEYYYYY FANNNSSSS: In 35 Days...

If you've read this for the past 30 days or so, you catch the jist, but 35 days from right now, the Pittsburgh Penguins will open up their 47th NHL season (Bettman Sucks) against the Anaheim Ducks at Consol Energy Center at 7:08ish PM. With a new age of Penguins hockey taking over this season, we continue our countdown of Penguins players to wear particular jersey numbers. Some players are good and very vital parts of Penguins history, some well, lets just say we wanna remind you how bad they were.

The number 35 has only been worn a handful of times throughout the past 47 years of Penguins hockey. 1983 was the first year a Penguins player put on a sweater with the #35 and that player was Roberto Romano.

We're pretty sure he's not related to this guy. The following season, Darren Lowe wore 35. Warren Young wore it next for 3 seasons while Ron Duguay wore it for a brief time in 1986. Brad Aitken wore it in 1988 and the great Ty Conklin wore it during the 2008 cup run.

The best player to wear 35 though might be the best (or second best depending where you rank MAF) goalie in Pittsburgh Penguins history. That player is Tom Barrasso.

He just looks like an asshole.

When you ask any member of the media who covered the Penguins from 1989-2000 about Barrasso, they probably hated him because he was not a media friendly guy. Barrasso was a typical NHL goalie though.

Barrasso was drafted 5th overall in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres. He broke into the league as an 18 year old netminder during the 83-84 season and won the Calder Trophy as the League's top rookie as well as the Vezina that season. He then went on to play 5 1/2 seasons with Buffalo putting up incredible numbers. He finished in the Top 10 in Vezina voting 3 times during those seasons. On November 12th, 1988 the Penguins traded Doug Bodger and Darrin Shannon for Barrasso and Buffalo's third round pick that season which forever changed goaltending in Pittsburgh hockey history.

In that first season in Pittsburgh, Barrasso went 18-15-7 (ties) in 44 games posting an .888 save percentage and 4.04 GAA. Now you have to remember in those days, those are pretty good numbers for goaltenders considering how high scoring was. During the first Penguins cup run in 1990-91, Barrasso finished the regular season 27-16-3 with a .896 save percentage and 3.59 GAA. During the playoffs Barrasso went 12-7 posting a .919 save percentage and 2.60 GAA en route to the first Stanley Cup in Penguins history.

During the second cup run, Barrasso went 25-22-9 with a .885 save percentage and 3.53 GAA during the regular season before going 16-5 with a .907 save percentage and 2.82 GAA in the playoffs.

What a video.

Barrasso stayed with the Penguins as their netminder for 12 total seasons. In his tenure in Pittsburgh, he set numerous records that have since been broken by Marc-Andre Fleury (even though he sucks). Barrasso went 226-153-53 in 12 seasons as a Penguin. He recorded 22 shutouts while posting a .896 save percentage with a 3.27 GAA. On March 14, 2000, he was traded to Ottawa for Ron Tugnutt and Janne Laukkanen and then signed as a UFA with the Carolina Hurricanes (Jim Rutherford) the following offseason.

Here's one game from Barrasso's career with the Hurricanes we really want to point out.

Carolina Hurricanes
7
Won 1
⇐ Prev Game / Next Game ⇒

Pittsburgh Penguins
0
Lost 3
⇐ Prev Game / Next Game ⇒

Carolina
Skaters & Goalies

Pittsburgh
Skaters & Goalies

Carolina Hurricanes (16-12-4-4)

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		Skater Stats
Rk	Player	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	SHFT	TOI
1	Bates Battaglia	1	0	1	2	0	1	0	0	0				2	50.0	22	18:22
2	Rod Brind'Amour	1	4	5	3	4	1	0	0	1				3	33.3	23	20:21
3	Erik Cole	1	1	2	3	5	1	0	0	0				5	20.0	17	12:41
4	Jeff Daniels	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0				1	100.0	11	10:53
5	Ron Francis	2	1	3	0	0	0	2	0	0				5	40.0	22	19:14
6	Martin Gelinas	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0				3	0.0	19	14:25
7	Sean Hill	0	2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0				5	0.0	24	21:42
8	Sami Kapanen	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0				3	0.0	22	20:33
9	Darren Langdon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	9	8:12
10	Marek Malik	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	21	17:06
11	Jeff O'Neill	1	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0				7	14.3	23	20:42
12	Sandis Ozolinsh	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	0				0		23	18:38
13	David Tanabe	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0				5	0.0	26	19:17
14	Josef Vasicek	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0				2	0.0	18	16:58
15	Aaron Ward	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	21	13:54
16	Glen Wesley	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	23	15:33
17	Tommy Westlund	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	11	10:25
18	Shane Willis	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0				3	0.0	17	15:31

Goalies

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		Goalie Stats
Rk	Player	DEC	GA	SA	SV	SV%	SO	PIM	TOI	EV GA	PP GA	SH GA	EN GA
1	Tom Barrasso	W	0	11	11	1.000	1	0	59:52	0	0	0	0

Pittsburgh Penguins (13-14-4-2)

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		Skater Stats
Rk	Player	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	SHFT	TOI
1	Kris Beech	0	0	0	-3	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	17	14:45
2	Andrew Ference	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	0				0		28	20:11
3	Jan Hrdina	0	0	0	-3	2	0	0	0	0				2	0.0	30	22:44
4	John Jakopin	0	0	0	0	27	0	0	0	0				0		5	3:33
5	Hans Jonsson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0				0		24	18:59
6	Darius Kasparaitis	0	0	0	-1	6	0	0	0	0				0		29	22:34
7	Alex Kovalev	0	0	0	-2	0	0	0	0	0				0		21	19:23
8	Milan Kraft	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	17	15:53
9	Dan LaCouture	0	0	0	0	17	0	0	0	0				0		18	12:28
10	Robert Lang	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	28	21:44
11	Janne Laukkanen	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	0				0		20	15:46
12	Josef Melichar	0	0	0	-2	8	0	0	0	0				2	0.0	24	15:42
13	Toby Petersen	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	0				0		18	13:15
14	Wayne Primeau	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	14	8:48
15	Stephane Richer	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0				0		14	11:30
16	Michal Rozsival	0	0	0	-3	0	0	0	0	0				1	0.0	28	19:35
17	Kevin Stevens	0	0	0	-1	4	0	0	0	0				2	0.0	16	9:36
18	Billy Tibbetts	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0	0				0		15	9:44