Welcome to our series on who wore each number best for the Penguins.
The idea is being openly borrowed from our new hockey writer, Cody Tucker, and his project at the Lansing State Journal covering all the uniform numbers worn through Michigan State football history, one that's been well received by their readers and prompted heavy discussion and debate.
Under the organization of Taylor Haase, and following the voting of a big chunk of our staff, we'll publish one new one each day until completion, which should be right around the start of training camp.
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Name: Mike Bullard
Number: 22
Position: Center
Born: March 10, 1961, in Ottawa
Seasons with Penguins: 1980-87
Statistics with Penguins: 382 games, 185 goals, 175 assists in regular season, 9 games, 4 goals, 4 assists in playoffs
WHY BULLARD?
Because the Penguins did have one incumbent star on Mario Lemieux's first team. At least in terms of productivity.
Bullard achieved a seeming mathematical impossibility in 1983-84 by scoring 51 goals without a single game-winner, probably still the most bizarre statistic in franchise history ... unless, of course, one can actually recall how spectacularly awful that team was in going 16-58-6 -- I never have to look that up, I swear -- to win the rights to draft Lemieux first overall.
Did they tank?
Sure they did. All concerned know it, though Eddie Johnston, the GM at the time, will never quite confess. The always outspoken Bullard would blurt it right out several years later, telling the Ottawa Citizen that before one game against the Devils -- the NHL's other terrible team that winter -- Johnston actually burst into the locker room during an intermission and "told us to lose." No one else has ever corroborated such a story.
By 1987, weary of playing in Lemieux's shadow and losing out on power-play time, Bullard complained loudly enough to be stripped of his captaincy, then traded to Calgary.
All that fuss aside, Bullard was a terrific scorer, an elite one at times. He topped 30 goals five times with the Penguins, using his surprising shiftiness for a stocky-framed guy, a trademark toe-drag move that no one still has matched in Pittsburgh since he left -- and Alexei Kovalev had a great one, too -- but most of all, lightning-quick hands such as what's shown in this tuck in Edmonton in 1986:
WHAT'S HE DOING NOW?
Bullard, now 57, has never left hockey, but he's certainly strayed far from home. After bouncing around to four different NHL teams upon being traded out of Pittsburgh, he flew to Switzerland to play professionally, then to Germany, where he was the Bundesliga's top scorer in 1993-94. He then became a head coach in Germany through 2009 before returning to his native Ontario, where he's currently coaching Caledonia of the Greater Ontario Hockey League.
IT WAS SPOKEN
-- "I was probably the only one that told the truth. The NHL doesn't want anyone to say they tanked. It doesn't look good. But a guy like Mario Lemieux can save a franchise. We were drawing maybe 6,800 or 7,000 people a game and you can't run a pro franchise like that. If we hadn't got Mario, the Penguins would not be in Pittsburgh." -- Bullard, on that fateful 1983-84 season
-- "What's the matter? Do we have a problem? Mike, your attitude's a joke!" -- Bob Berry, head coach, shouting at Bullard at his final practice with the Penguins in 1987
-- "The only problem here is your coaching!" -- Bullard, back to Berry, after which he was immediately stripped of his captaincy and traded to Calgary
HONORABLE MENTION AT NO. 22
Greg Polis
Bob 'Battleship' Kelly
Paul Stanton
ANY DEBATE?
Yes, and plenty.
Polis, a first-round pick in 1970, was a sharp-shooting left winger who scored 88 goals over 3 1/2 seasons and the All-Star Game MVP in 1973. He died this past March at age 67.
The 'Battleship,' as Kelly was almost entirely known to fans when patrolling the left wing here in 1973-77, was as popular for his nickname as his two-pronged punch, putting up 69 goals to go with 462 penalty minutes and dropped gloves galore.
Stanton lasted only five seasons as an overachieving NHL defenseman, but the first two of those, 1990-92, saw him take regular shifts with the franchise's first two championship teams. He put up a plus-6 rating in each of those two runs, playing every game along the way.
Tomorrow: I've got No. 23.
Yesterday: Michel Briere
