Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette photos

" No KC" Joining other fans in expressing their views about the Penguins' potential move from Pittsburgh at last night's Mellon Arena game were IUP students Dan Grow, Sean Riffle, Neil Hartshorne, and Stefano Fina. The Penguins lost to the New Jersey Devils, 4-3, in a shootout. The talks among team officials and elected leaders in Philadelphia concluded last night with plans to meet again Wednesday.

By Bob Dvorchak
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Under normal circumstances, that passionate breed of sports fanatics known as Penguins supporters would have filled every seat in the Igloo to watch one of the National Hockey League's darling teams face off against the team in front of them in the Atlantic Division standings as the playoffs approach.

Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Matt Jacob, of Point Breeze, holds up a sign in support of a new arena for the Penguins during last night's game at the Mellon Arena against the New Jersey Devils. Click photo for larger image.

But the circumstances were anything but normal last night. Although the house was full for the 15th time in the last 17 games, the focus was split between what was happening on the ice and what could come out of a bargaining session in Philadelphia on the fate of the franchise's future in Pittsburgh.

"It's a shame there has to be a shroud over this game," said Mike "Doc" Emrick, who grew up a Penguins fan and now serves as a broadcaster with the New Jersey Devils. "It would be a marvelous stroke of fortune if this deal got done tonight. We'll burn our candles in hopes that it gets done."

Indeed. Fans took up the chant of "Save Our Pens" in the first minute of play and repeated the sentiment throughout the game, even if the governor and city and county officials couldn't hear them as they met with the franchise owners and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Among the banners sprinkled through the arena was this sign of the times: "Someone's About 2 Lose 17,000 Votes." Another sign was a play on a TV show that read "Deal? Or No Deal?"

This has been a torturous march of the Penguins. Years of talks, inaction, posturing and bargaining appeared to be coming to a resolution over an arena financing deal that would keep the Penguins in the city where they were born 39 winters ago. But there was no word of any outcome at game time, and the uncertainty remained a distraction.

"I think both sides ought to think more about the feelings of the loyal fans," said Debbie Kmit, attending the game with her niece, Kamela Ferguson. "The Penguins are like part of my family. You get attached to the players. I've been a season-ticket holder and my son is one now. Right now, this team is so much fun to watch. How could you not love them? I don't want to see them leave."

The Penguins already had an offer of free rent to relocate to a new arena in Kansas City next fall, and that offer was sweetened this week so that the option apparently is better than free. Also this week, the Penguins declared an impasse in talks and announced they were aggressively seeing what other deals might be available out there.

The fans who pour their money and their hearts into the Penguins obviously wear their hearts on their sleeves. One group of four young men, part of a standing-room-only crowd of 17,132 that watched the Penguins lose 4-3 in a shootout, went a step farther by wearing their sentiments on their bare chests. Each wore a different painted letter to spell out "NO KC."

As an example of how much the issue has dominated conversation in the city, talk radio devoted more hours of discussion to a meeting between politicians and millionaires in Philadelphia than it did to the Steelers punter.

"We really want them to stay," said Milton Claney of Greensburg, attending the game with his wife, Jackie. "We all have this funny feeling in our stomachs because of this meeting. I go back so far I used to follow the Hornets. Now I take my grandchildren to Penguins games. We are faithful fans. We have a display of Penguins stuff in our family room, so yes, we think they are family. Where are you going to get better hockey fans?"

Turning nostalgic, Mr. Claney thought back to the days when his mother, a beautician from the North Side, was a booster with the Hornets, a minor-league team that preceded the Penguins on the city's hockey scene.

"My mom used to pick the stitches out of the players' faces when they came over to the house. They didn't wear helmets in those days," he recalled. "We would miss the Penguins terribly if they weren't here. Heck, my wife takes it personally when they lose a game."

To show how much of a fixture the Penguins are in the hearts of their followers, groups of fans in attendance spanned generations.

One father/son pairing was Bob and Louis Fabrizi of Murrysville. Bob bought his son's ticket to the game because he wanted to see the Penguins while he is on a two-week leave while serving with the Army's 101st Airborne Division in Balad, Iraq.

"In Iraq, I check the Post-Gazette Web every single day for news on the arena," said the younger Fabrizi, a first lieutenant and pilot of an Apache attack helicopter. "To me, it's very frustrating. I have no idea why they couldn't have come up with a solution before this. I'm really frustrated at the politicians."

Lt. Fabrizi still has three months left after having served eight months at Log Support Area Anaconda. While serving his country overseas, he says that following the Penguins is like having a piece of Pittsburgh with him.

Concerns over getting a deal done were also shared by the work force at Mellon Arena. Some depend on their paychecks at their arena jobs to feed their families or augment their income.

"Everybody's on pins and needles," said John Domitrovic, who has worked at the arena since it opened in 1961 as the home of Civic Light Opera. "It's what everybody is talking about."

Mr. Emrick, who also does national broadcasts as part of the NHL's cable TV deal, goes back to 1970 with the Penguins. He covered Penguins games as a stringer for the Beaver County Times, dropping off his sheets of manually typed game stories through the transom of the newspaper's office. He wasn't paid for his work. It was enough that he got a media pass to attend the games.

"I know what it was like for fans in Quebec and Winnipeg who lost their teams over arena issues," Mr. Emrick said. "Hockey fans historically pay more money for tickets than fans in any other sport. When they pay money for tickets, part of their heart goes through that tray. I can't even imagine Pittsburgh without the Penguins, especially this team.

"The athletic assets of this team are unbelievable. I just hope they're playing here," he said. "What they could accomplish over the next five years could make you heartsick if they went someplace else."

Fans who attend a hockey game are guaranteed to know the result after regulation time, overtime or the tie-breaking shoot-out. An arena full of fans watched their team lose in a shootout to the Devils without knowing with any certainty the results of the meeting in Philadelphia.

Who knows how long they'll have to wait?