He was coach, assistant coach, general manager, assistant manager and now is senior advisor/hockey operations.

In a quarter century with the Penguins -- interrupted by three seasons as Hartford's GM -- Eddie Johnston has more stories and memories than could fit on this page, but there is one moment he figures defines his association with the club.

"Drafting Mario [Lemieux]; we wouldn't have a franchise here if we had taken somebody else," said Johnston, who was GM when the Penguins selected Lemieux -- the Hall of Fame center and current team co-owner -- first overall in the 1984 NHL draft.

"And we got [trade] offers from almost every team. The only way that things could have changed is us making a deal for him."

Today, Johnston will be honored for his 25 years with the Penguins in a pregame ceremony before the team plays the Boston Bruins -- a team he tended goal for -- at Mellon Arena.

Asked to identify one person most instrumental for him spending so much time with the club, Johnston picked former GM Craig Patrick.

Some of Johnston's other favorite memories come from his coaching days. He has the most games coached, 516, and most wins, 232, of any coach in team history.

"My first training camp here [in 1980], we started with 23 players and all 23 made the team," Johnston said.

"And we made the playoffs with guys like [Randy] Carlyle and [Rick Kehoe]."

Asked for one story from his coaching days, Johnston remembered a road trip to Washington.

"There wasn't a place around [the hotel] after the game to have a beer," he said.

"We lost. I got a little hot. I told them, 'Nobody's drinking in the hotel.' So no one drank.

"The next time we came in there, we had a feeling the same thing might happen, so they ordered beer before the game and put it on ice so they could have a beer after the game."

The bystander becomes the big shot today when Mathieu Garon gets his second start for the Penguins.

And does it against the best team in the Eastern Conference.

"Yeah, it's a big challenge. It's going to be good for me," Garon said of going against the Bruins a day after the Penguins fell to Ottawa, 4-3, in a shootout that marked No. 1 goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury's 19th consecutive start.

Garon, acquired in a Jan. 17 trade from Edmonton, started and lost, 5-4, Jan. 31 at Toronto.

His only other appearance with his new team came in relief of Fleury Feb. 22 at Washington, when he stopped all 14 shots he faced in a 5-2 loss.

"It's tough to wait, but, at the same time, when we're winning, I can't complain," Garon said.

"I want to be on a team that goes far in the playoffs. All I want is the team to win. When I get a chance to play, I'm excited and I want to win.

"We're having good practices. I'm feeling good."

The Penguins are expected to have their 100th consecutive sellout today. ... Former Penguins winger Jarkko Ruutu's assist on the Senators' first-period goal was the 100th point of his NHL career. ... With winger Petr Sykora back after missing three games because of an apparent shoulder injury, the Penguins scratched Craig Adams for the first time since they claimed him off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks at the trade deadline. ... Ottawa scratched winger Christoph Schubert.