Former Penguins forward and current Penguins scout Kevin Stevens was on Monday's episode of the Spittin' Chiclets podcast, and he told some good stories about his time in Pittsburgh.
The full episode can be heard here, with Stevens joining the show at 58:30 into the episode. Here are some of the highlights from Stevens' appearance:
On how he got the nickname 'Artie': "That happened at (Boston College) when I was there, that's my dad's name. It's kind of an easy name, 'Artie.' Someone gave it to me at BC, and it stuck. My mother didn't like it. She thinks Kevin is a nice name. But everyone calls me 'Artie.' Girls, guys, dogs, everybody, it's 'Artie.' I don't even know people and they call me 'Artie.'
On joining the Penguins, Mario Lemieux: "I came to Pittsburgh right after the Olympics, in February. ... I came and played with (Lemieux) right after that. I couldn't play with him. I was shoving the puck in his skates. He yells for it, he'd have four guys on him, and I'd give it to him. If he yells for it, he has eight guys on him, I'm giving it to him. He always wanted the puck. And I was panicky. I didn't know him. Mario, I had to get him the puck. If he wants it, give him the puck. That didn't work out for awhile."
On his sophomore season: "I got sent down. I came in in February (the year before), I had like seven goals in 17 games or something. I thought I was going to make the team, next thing you know, I get sent down. I didn't have a great camp, I took things for granted probably. I went down to Muskegon, and whew. Muskegon is a tough place. It's just kind of one of those places that you don't want to be at. Paper mills, snowing all the time, there wasn't any people out there. I think I was making like, 55,000 dollars down there, it was like making 55 million. I was the richest guy in town. I couldn't cash my check anywhere. I'd go to the bank, 'Can you come back tomorrow?' For 1,800 dollars? That was an interesting place. I learned a lot down there."
A story with Mark Recchi from Muskegon: "I remember one time we come off the road, we were in Denver or something. We were staying at the hotel because we're up-and-down all the time. So we come back to the hotel at like three in the morning. The hotel's like, shut down. There's an arrow going over here, it says, 'Muskegon players clothes.' The arrow was going right to the 7-Eleven. We had to go pick up our clothes at the 7-Eleven. The hotel closed down. Our stuff was in the back room at the 7-Eleven."
On Lemieux: "He was phenomenal, just the stuff he did. I remember coming up one night, I come into the locker room, I hear him scoring his 89th goal of the year. I'm like, 89? You peek out, you hear the announcer say '89th of the year.' I'm like, 'Oh my God,' when you hear that. He's such a great guy, when you get to know him, when you get to meet him."
On Jaromir Jagr: "Think about it. 18 years old, going over to the Czech? Speaking that language? I'd be devastated, I wouldn't want to be there at all, ever. So he came over, his mom came with him, language was brutal, but he hung in there. But there was days he was crying, days he couldn't handle it. Everyone tried to help him. But then Craig Patrick got a couple of Czechs -- Jiri Hrdina, Martin Straka -- he brought like five guys that he could relate to, and that really helped Jagr, because he was struggling. His first year, we won the Stanley Cup, he was a third-line guy. He had like 20 goals, you knew he was going to be a stud, but he was playing with like Bryan Trottier, that team we had there."
On the fans in 1991: "The playoffs, you pull into the parking lot, there's 5,000 people in there at 3 in the afternoon. It was awesome. People are going crazy. Then you get into the locker room, 40 minutes before the game, it's packed outside. That place, The Igloo, was one of the best. That run we had was, they were a big part of it. They were great."
On playing against the Sharks in their first year in the league: "The first game (Rick Tocchet) played, we played San Jose. San Jose, that's when they were an expansion. They were bad. It was 'point night.' I'm playing with me, Mario, and Tocch. Mario that night had seven points, Tocch had a hat trick in the first period. His first game! First game he comes in and gets a hat trick, six points. I'm on the line, I get none! None! I was going this way, they were going that way. That's when I had like 100 points, I was second in the league in scoring. And when you get no points against San Jose, you want to commit suicide. I don't care if you win like, 30-0. I had no points. And my line had 13. That's still a joke with Tocch we talk about today. 'Remember that first game, and I got none?'"
On the 1992-93 scoring race: "I remember that was funny. I'm in the lead, and Pat LaFontaine is behind me I think. I'm like, 'Oh my God, I might win this thing.' I'm saying, 'Mario (who was injured), take some time, just come back for the playoffs. Take some time, relax, we'll take care of this.' He came back, he beat me by like 20 points. He came back, he got like 16 games, he got like 30 points and beat me."
On Scotty Bowman: "Scotty was a great bench coach, really solid in the game. Really knew how to control the bench. But practice-wise? Ugh, oh man. We had a meeting between us and the general manager, and we took a vote, and he got vetoed out of practice. Our head coach! Our head coach! 'Scotty, you can stay in Buffalo with the family, fly in for the games!' ... That's how crazy this thing was. He got vetoed out. Maybe he agreed to it, I don't know, but he just didn't show up for practice. He loved to blow the whistle. Scotty, he's a teacher, you know? He wanted to talk. Nothing wrong with it, but back those days, it was more of 45 minutes, good pace, get off, go grab lunch and call it a day. But Scotty, an hour and 20 minutes! He'd blow the whistle, we'd work on changeups. We're going to work on changing?"
On his injury: "I saw (Rich Pilon) coming, and if you saw the check, I got him good. He went flying, kind of jumped in the air. He had hurt his eye. He never wore a shield, but he had it on this time because he had hurt his eye. I got hit in the temple when I hit him, got knocked out in the air. I couldn't put my hands down. That's when I got hurt, all the other stuff happens. You get in the hospital, pain medication, it took me down a path. ... Recovery was fine. I didn't get to work out at all, I kind of just in September came back and took it easy. I did that, but it was a tough season. I was in and out, okay some times, not great."
On talking about his sobriety: "The biggest thing about my story, I just tell the truth. I was on the top of the world a first-team all-star scoring 55 goals, and I tried something. Cocaine was the first thing. I was 28, never did a drug in my life, never even knew about it. That was the thing that set me off. I was in Pittsburgh, we were in New York going for our third cup, in the middle of the year. Maybe a couple of weeks before I got hurt. I didn't even know what it really was. It was like a 20-second decision. I didn't know I would be an addict. I thought I would jump on the bus the next day and life would be the same. I had no idea that it was going to affect me."
