In 32 Days....

The Pittsburgh Penguins will open up their 2014-2015 National Hockey League season against the Anaheim Sucks in 32 days. Dave Hannan, Dave Goertz, Pat Mayer, Peter Taglianetti, John Slaney, Greg Crozier, Dick Tarnstrom, Alain Nasreddine, Christopher Minard, Mathieu Garon, and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond are the Penguins players who have put on number 32 Penguins sweater. Wow, some real winner in that group.

Dick Tarnstrom

Dick Tarnstrom was drafted by the New York Islanders in the 11th round (272nd overall) of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. After being irrelevant with the Islanders, Tarnstrom joined the Penguins during the darkest days in the franchises history. 

Tarnstrom played for the Penguins from the 2002-03 season to the 2005-06 season. During those 3 seasons, (It should be 4 seasons, but you know, Bettman Sucks) Tarnstrom played in 174 games. He scored 28 goals and registered 75 assists. He also received 140 PIMs and was a -58 (+/- loving Pens fans reading this just lost their minds).

During the 2003-2004 season Tarnstrom played 80 games in a Penguins uniform. He scored 16 goals and registered 36 assists. The 03-04 season was probably the worst season of the X-Generation and possibly the worst season in Penguins history. They finished with a record of 23-47-8 for 58 points. Tarnstrom's 52 points were enough to LEAD TO THE TEAM IN POINTS THAT YEAR!! 

My god

Just take a look at some of those players and numbers from that year. *projectile vomits*. A few thoughts and notes: 

• Tarnstrom was the first and is still the only defenceman in Penguins history to lead the team in scoring at the end of the season. 
• A scoring race for the ages between Morozov and Tarnstrom that year. 
• Brooks Oprik with 1 goal, 9 assists, a -36 +/- rating, and 127 PENALTY MINUTES!!! (Probably still a better year for Orpik than the years he'll have in Washington). 
• Lasse Pirjeta and Rob Scuderi each played in only 13 games and were the only players that season who had a positive +/- rating. 
• Landon Wilson (19 GP), Kris Beech (4 GP), and Reid Simpson (2 GP) all had even +/- ratings (skaters only). Everyone else on the team was a minus. 19 players being at least double digit negative, 9 of those players being at least a -20, and 4 of those player being at least a -30. 
• The legend himself Rico Fata had the worst rating on the team as he was a whooping -46. 
• Now the +/- rating isn't the most reliable stat by any mean but when I saw those numbers I just had to mention it. More than anything, those numbers give you an idea of just how terrible the Penguins were that season. They were bad, like ungodly bad.
• Ryan "coke lines" Malone leading the team in goals with 22.
• What a year for Milan Kraft. 40 points. 
• Marc-Andre Fleury began his Penguins career that season. He posted a record of 4-14-2, a save percentage of .896, a goals against average of 3.64, and recorded 1 shutout.
• Even as his career was winding down, a terrible team and health issues didn't stop Lemieux from still almost being a point a game player. Only 10 games, 1 goal and 8 assists, but still. What a player.
• This was the final season before the Sidney Crosby era would begin.

This was supposed to be a post about Tarnstrom, but there isn't too much to say and those stats just brought back bad memories. The X-Generation was a terrible time to be a Penguins fan. Just yikes.

Anyways, Tarnstrom requested a trade out of Pittsburgh and on January 26, 2006 he was traded to the Oilers for Corey Cross and Jani Rita. He played for the Oilers during their Stanley Cup run recording 2 assists and then left to go play hockey elsewhere. He returned the the NHL and played briefly for the Oilers before being traded to the Blue Jackets for Curtis Glencross. After realizing how much Columbus sucks, he left the NHL once again and went to play hockey elsewhere for the rest of his career. The legendary career of Dick Tarnstrom came to an end in January 2013 when he was forced to retire due to injury.

Honorable Mention

Peter Taglianetti

We had to at least mention 2 time Stanley Cup Champion and twitter hero (@petertags) Peter Taglianetti. Taglianetti played 167 regular season games as a Penguin, scoring 7 goals and 28 assists. He played in 39 playoff games as well, scoring 1 goal and 7 assists.

Taglianetti once but peanut butter in his skate during the Stanley Cup playoffs to help him play through an injury known as lace bite (a bruise on the front of your ankle where you tie your skate and flex when you skate). I thought that Root/FSN once did a special intermission report on this but I couldn't find it anywhere.

Not much else to say, I really wanted to find the Taglianetti peanut butter video, but Antonio Brown just gave the Cleveland Brown's punter a WWE like karate kick to the face and I can't stop laughing. Tune in tomorrow for 31, until then.

What a player

#BannerNightLiveTweet tonight. The Streak lives or it dies.

Go Pens