We lost an important figure in the story of the Penguins
I haven’t said much about the passing of Ray Shero, perhaps out of shock and needing a bit of time to process it. You can talk about the professional side, and there’s a lot to go with there.
Shero came to the Penguins in May 2006 at a critical time. The team had Sidney Crosby, who just put up 100+ points as an 18-year old. They would work on signing Evgeni Malkin. Marc-Andre Fleury was the rare high goalie draft pick and made it to the big league early. The pieces were there but not quite adding up.
The 2005-06 season didn’t go the way anyone thought it would; the Pens were a mess they tried to sign a bunch of older players (Mark Recchi, Sergei Gonchar, Ziggy Palffy, John LeClair) and the results were sloppy. Mario Lemieux had to retire mid-season due to a medical condition. Palffy literally quit on the team halfway through the season after taking a massive hit and noping his way back to Slovakia. Gonchar would settle in but had the yips in his first season in Pittsburgh. The game passed LeClair by during the lockout. The salary cap was still new enough that no one quite could know when the Pens would arrive, or if they even would. Let’s not forget the rebuilding Capitals at the same time wouldn’t get out of the second round of the playoffs until 2018. Having Crosby and Pittsburgh become a champion in hindsight might have seemed preordained, but there was a lot work to be done to make sure it happened.
Doing just that and steadying the Pens while elevating them was an over-looked accomplishment that Shero led the way on. It’s easy to jump straight to the 2008 trade deadline and Marian Hossa as the key moment — and for good reason since that was a major statement when Pittsburgh traded former and future first round picks for a rental player. But getting to that point was important too; Shero drafted Jordan Staal, not as flashy as Nicklas Backstrom or Phil Kessel but a great fit. Shero traded for Gary Roberts and that set a tone while he built up the team to be ready for take-off. Same with Mark Eaton, Petr Sykora, Russian Fedotenko. Not huge, sweeping moves like adding Hossa but important stabilizing pieces along the way. The Penguins morphed from an unorganized mess into a team on the right path because of all of that in totality.
Shero oversaw and directed a lot of modernization that stretched all around the team to elevate them. There’s stories about simple touches like how he would see to it that flowers would be sent to the wife of a new player. Or how in the old Civic Arena there wasn’t even internet access in the coach’s office, which was really more like a closet. One of the criticisms at the end of the Craig Patrick era was that it was a country club mindset and atmosphere among the Penguins. The details didn’t matter. Under Shero, it became very clear, very quickly that getting the details right did in fact matter and it made all the difference in the world to establish a modern, legitimate, world class type of pro sports organization.
The Penguins weren’t that far removed from barely hanging on to existing from the times in 2001 or 2003 where the main consideration in return for trading players like Jaromir Jagr and Alexei Kovalev was the millions of dollars sent back needed to help keep the franchise afloat. Shero’s era brought a lot of class and lifted the team in ways big and small all throughout the organization. It wasn’t a job to be completed in a day but lifted the team, and the mindfulness and efforts ought to be celebrated even before we get to the results of the 2008 Eastern Conference championship followed up by the 2009 Stanley Cup.
In that way, it was almost funny that an outside, misguided knock on Shero was that his success was mainly due to taking over a team that had a young Crosby and Malkin. Sure, that was a factor, but across the board it took an uncommon and unusual amount of managerial work to prepare the organization to reach those heights in the modern setting. Shero wasn’t tagging along with Pens’ rise and success, his work was a key piece of it.
In that light, Shero was the perfect choice at the necessary time to help level the Penguins up. Looking back now, it all happened so fast. The Pens went from clinging to be a semi-viable, barely functioning franchise in the first half of the 2000’s to ending the mighty Red Wings dynasty for good while getting to raise the Stanley Cup at the end of the decade. Success has many fathers and there’s no doubt Shero was a central figure in putting the Penguins in the spot they ended up at over the team’s lifecycle.
I always thought it was funny, but surely no coincidence about how much leadership and quality people Shero would intentionally add, often times stockpiling various other captains or alternate captains. Roberts, Hal Gill, Pascal Dupuis, Chris Kunitz, Bill Guerin, Craig Adams, Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow, Paul Martin. Just off the very top of my head. Some of those worked out on the ice better than others but it was easy to see Shero put value in not just bringing in elite players but went a level beyond that too in trying to get good people involved with the organization. That type of impact can linger beyond the surface longer than might be first realized.
It’s also as fitting as Shero inherited players like Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, Letang, Kennedy, Orpik and Kennedy that would help him get to the top that he would leave a meaningful amount in the works for the next manager (Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust, Matt Murray, Olli Maatta, Teddy Blueger and Tristan Jarry among others that would pay off for the team in years to come).
That, of course, is just the objective facts of the matter. A capable hockey mind and manager got a certain job at a certain time, was perfectly positioned to establish something special and did just that. There were ups and downs along the way, as there always is for that line of work. The era ended, probably earlier than anyone expected, and everyone moved on. It’s important to remember how it got to be the way it is, though, and Ray Shero will always hold a very special place in Penguin history.
It’s incredibly sad he passed away which came as a shock to even many of his close friends, the suddenness and twists of life exempt no one. His time here ended earlier than anyone would have thought, and we can’t help but be saddened for the family, friends and those left behind.
A very small interaction with Shero has left a smile with me over all these years. It was the very first of the “kids games”, where the arena was packed on a weekend preseason game to give free tickets to youth hockey players in their little jerseys. Lots of enthusiasm and high-pitched prepubescent squeals. Good for business to keep the younger generation interested.
After some digging, it was this game on September 25, 2010, which also was a big event since it was my very first time getting cover the Pens from the press row. That was a blast. The game was a unique one.
There were five fights in the game and even more post-whistle scrums where just about every player from both teams was acting unhinged and going at each other all game long. A young Kris Letang fought two times! As I wrote above, even 15 years later I can still remember Max Talbot (a scratch for this exhibition game) hootin’ and hollerin’ when Letang was getting after it.
By the end of the night even the star players of Rick Nash and Evgeni Malkin squared off in a fight. It was a gongshow of a game. Needless to say, the kids loved every second of the good, clean, off the rails fun, cheering along with youthful vigor every step of the fight-filled way.
When the game was over, a lot of people crowded into the large elevator to make the trip down from the top level. I still remember both myself and Jesse Marshall getting big eyes and looking at each other incredulously when Ray Shero stepped into the elevator. We already had a great experience but now we were in the presence of almost royalty.
I don’t remember who it was but when the doors closed and the trip began, someone said something along the lines of, “jeez, Ray, all these fights on kids day, huh?” and everyone laughed.
Without missing a beat Shero turned and gave one of those Mario-esque little smiles and winks and said, “Well, they gotta see what NHL hockey is all about” and again everyone laughed. Then Shero said something almost under his breath but still out-loud enough for all to hear like, “But I definitely gotta to talk to Tanger, though”. (As a postscript, Letang would go on to get 101 PIMs in the upcoming 2010-11 season, by far his career-high.)
Fleeting as it was, that little memory always brings a laugh. Shero was effortlessly comfortable with where he was and had that type of open personality to let everyone in on the fun. I think that’s been a common theme you have and will see about all the stories coming out about him.
So long and thanks, Ray. As it turns out you helped show a lot of people what not just NHL hockey was all about, but also setup the Penguins for a really great, great journey that we’ve all gotten to enjoy. As the famous line from his father Fred Shero goes, in some regards we all will walk together forever because of it.