Faceoff Factor

The Recchin Ball Rolls On

C.J. "Stoosh" Jiuliante | National Hockey League

Dec 11, 04:20 PM | Hype this story!

You probably didn’t notice when his name came up at the NHL Draft that summer. Maybe you were too busy getting ready for the Bubby Brister era of Steeler football. Maybe you were down at Three Rivers admiring the talents of this 23-year old outfielder named Barry Bonds. Maybe you were trying to find tickets to the Aerosmith tour that summer – not just to see Aerosmith, but to also see what all the fuss was over this opening act of theirs called Guns N’ Roses.

Mark Recchi came to the Penguins and the city of Pittsburgh in the summer of 1988 (right about the time yours truly was going on thirteen years old and really getting into hockey). Recchi was a relatively non-descript fourth round pick, the 67th overall pick of the draft. His name was called just after Darin Kimble went to Quebec, one pick ahead of Tony Amonte (Rangers) and three picks ahead of Rob Blake (Los Angeles).

Recchi put up some staggering numbers during his “draft year” (1987-88) with Kamloops of the Western Hockey League. In 62 games that season, he scored 61 goals and added 93 assists for 154 points. That was good enough to place him second in the WHL in scoring behind two kids you might have heard of – Swift Current’s Joe Sakic and Moose Jaw’s Theoren Fleury. Despite his production, his exceptional speed and relentless work ethic, Recchi slipped to the fourth round of the NHL Draft largely because of concerns over his size (generously listed in the 5’10”, 180-pound range).

Recchi turned pro and would spend most of the 1988-89 with the IHL Muskegon Lumberjacks. In 63 games, he would go on to score 50 goals and notch 49 assists, good for eighth in the IHL in scoring. He managed to get a 15-game cup of coffee with the NHL Penguins as well, notching a modest two points (1G, 1A). Recchi would help lead Muskegon to win the IHL’s Turner Cup, with 21 points (7G, 14A) in 14 games. In three playoff series, Muskegon would lose only twice.

With the exception of a four-game stint in Muskegon, Recchi would spend all of the 1989-90 season with the Penguins. His 30 goals and 37 assists in 74 games would make him the sixth-highest scorer on the team. That Pens team would miss the playoffs by just one point.

Recchi would endear himself to Pens fans the following season. The Penguins would start the season with Mario Lemieux on the shelf thanks to back surgery. Recchi would lead what would prove to be an incredibly balanced Penguins offense – one that would feature seven 20-goal scorers – through fifty games sans Lemieux. The Recchin Ball – as he came to be affectionately known thanks to his crash-through-a-wall approach to the game – would still go on to lead the team in scoring during the regular season with 113 points (40G, 93A), good for fourth in the league.

Lemieux returned from back surgery to play 26 regular season games that year and the team qualified for the playoffs as the winners of the Patrick Division. During the magical Stanley Cup run that would ensue, Recchi would finish second only to Lemieux on the team in terms of playoff scoring. His 10 goals and 24 assists would prove instrumental as the team would go on to defeat the New Jersey Devils, the Washington Capitals, the Boston Bruins and finally the Minnesota North Stars to win its first Stanley Cup.

The euphoria of a Cup win was bolstered when the core of the team would return for the 1991-92 season. As the season would wear on, it became apparent to general manager Craig Patrick that a physical element of the game was missing. As evidenced by his decision to trade 94-point scorer John Cullen to Hartford to help acquire Ron Francis and Ulf Samuelsson, Patrick proved the season before that he was not afraid to make bold moves to get what he felt the team needed.

After notching 70 points (33 goals, 37 assists) in 58 games in 1991-92, Recchi was called into Craig Patrick’s office on Feb. 19, 1992. The Pens made two deals that day. They acquired Brian Benning, Jeff Chychrun and a first-round pick from the Kings for Paul Coffey. The Penguins then flipped Benning, that first-round pick from the Kings, and Recchi to the Philadelphia Flyers. The struggling Flyers would send bruising power forward Rick Tocchet, defenseman Kjell Samuelsson and goaltender Ken Wregget back to the Pens. Patrick guessed correctly again. Despite giving up popular talents like Recchi and Coffey, the three players acquired from the Flyers would prove to be the pieces of the puzzle that balanced the roster and allowed the Penguins to win their second Stanley Cup.

Recchi would spend the next twelve seasons building the guts of what would be a Hall of Fame-caliber career. After being acquired from the Pens, he spent two full seasons in Philly before being traded in the 1994-95 season to Montreal in a deal that would bring John Leclair to Philly and form the beginnings of what we’d come to know as the Legion of Doom line (with Eric Lindros and Mikael Renberg). He spent another three full seasons in Montreal. At the trading deadline of his fourth season with the Habs (1998-99), he was dealt back to Philadelphia. He would continue there until the end of the 2003-04 season, when he became a free agent.

Following the 2003-04 season and despite the looming threat of a lockout, he decided bring everything full circle and return to his professional roots. He signed a two-year deal with the Penguins – a team in full-fledged rebuilding mode and coming off a 23-win, 58-point campaign. After years of seeing its star players leave via free agency, the return of Recchi – who was coming off a 75-point campaign that saw him lead the Flyers in scoring – energized the Pittsburgh fanbase and gave hope that a more competitive team was on the horizon.

That relief was tempered by the lockout which would eventually claim the entire 2004-05 season. That disappointment would turn to unbridled euphoria the following summer when the lockout ended and the Penguins ended up winning the first overall pick in the 2005 Entry Draft, which allowed them to select Sidney Crosby (still one of my best three or four days as a sports fan).

Unfortunately, the team struggled mightily out of the gate in 2005-06. Miscommunication and confusion over the duties being asked in head coach Ed Olczyk’s system led to sloppy, unorganized play. This was compounded by the appearance that many of the veterans were having problems adjusting to the new rules and faster pace of the post-lockout game. Even worse, rumors of a rift in the locker room between the franchise’s veteran players and younger players began to circulate, with Recchi’s name being in the middle of those rumors.

Olczyk was fired thirty games into the season and replaced with Michel Therrien, who made a conscious effort to make the younger players the focus of the team. With the team well out of playoff contention, Recchi was dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes at the trade deadline. He would go on to contribute seven goals and nine assists in 25 playoff games and helped the Hurricanes to their franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

Ray Shero replaced Craig Patrick as the Penguins’ general manager following the 2005-06 season and elected to bring Recchi back to the club for the 06-07 season. Expected to help provide veteran stability on a team built around young world-class talent like Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal and Ryan Whitney, Recchi played well over the first three-quarters of the season, but faded as the season wore on. Despite this late-season slump, he still managed 68 points in 82 games, good for third-best on the team. He also chipped in four assists in the club’s first playoff appearance since the 2000-01 season.

Recchi’s struggles at the end of the season – especially his puzzling lack of production at even strength – caused many to believe his NHL days were numbered. But perhaps chalking it up as an extended slump more than a signal of the impending twilight of his career, Shero brought Recchi back to the Penguins once again for the 2007-08 season. Recchi was signed to a one-year deal.

It quickly became apparent that the worst may have been the case. Recchi was relentless on the ice in terms of hustle; that was never an issue. But many of the same skill-related problems that plagued his game at the end of last season carried over, and his production was down again. What’s more, it began to look as if age was finally catching up to him, sapping him of the sharp play-making abilities for which he had become famous. Numerous attempts to trade Recchi proved futile. After being placed on waivers, sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and then recalled, he was picked up by the Atlanta Thrashers.

So the Recchin Ball has moved on from Pittsburgh, likely for the last time as a player. All things considered, his stay with the Penguins was relatively brief – 389 regular season games, which would amount to a little bit under five full seasons. In that time, he scored 385 points – 154 goals and 231 assists, just about a point per game. In 29 post-season games as a Penguin, though, he elevated his game, netting 38 points (10 goals, 28 assists). He helped lead the team to one Stanley Cup and the following year was the key player heading out of town in a deal that helped the Penguins secure their second Cup. That will be his legacy here in Pittsburgh.

Happy trails, Mark Recchi.