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And now, the anticlimax.
Some of the choices of the top players to wear sweaters No. 1-30 during the soon-to-end Civic/Mellon Arena phase of the Penguins' existence inspired heated reactions and debate, but that isn't likely to be the case with the list of Nos. 31-95 in the final installment of this series.
Many of the numbers below have been worn by one only guy, which tends to simplify the selection process. As before, the criteria are nebulous and selections are intended to reflect what a player did as a member of the Penguins and while wearing that particular number:
31. Ken Wregget, an underrated goaltender whose playoff goals-against average (2.86) actually was better than Tom Barrasso's (2.91).
32. Dave Hannan. Scrappy forward edges defensemen Dick Tarnstrom and Peter Taglianetti.
33. Doug Bodger beats out. Zarley Zalapski, although neither lived up to his full potential. And Marty McSorley likely would beat up both.
34. Scott Young tops a weak field. Greg Tebbutt was way more interesting, though.
35. Tom Barrasso. Because it's about winning games, not friends.
36. The wonderfully feisty, quotable Matthew Barnaby. With apologies to the legions of Pat Neaton fans.
37. Jarkko Ruutu, if only to assure that he doesn't bite the selector.
38. Jan Hrdina was a solid, albeit less-than-fierce, two-way center. Jiri Hrdina (related only by number) deserves mention for helping Jaromir Jagr adapt to North America.
39. Mike Needham. What, you were hoping for Peter Allen?
40. Frank Pietrangelo. Because Patrick Lalime and Andy Chiodo didn't make The Save.
41. Martin Skoula. The unanimous choice on a ballot of one.
42. Dustin Jeffrey, but only after Tuomas Gronman gave him a heck of a fight.
43. Tomas Surovy. Go ahead, make the case for Jeff Daniels.
44. Brooks Orpik, even though he'll never score 49 goals in a season the way the great Robbie Brown did.
45. Martin Sonnenberg. Glenn Mulvenna's one game just wasn't that memorable.
48. Tyler Kennedy. Jeff Serowik couldn't quite hold him off.
50. Martin Brochu. See No. 41.
51. Dave Roche. See No. 50.
52. Rusty Fitzgerald. Even by default, not an easy selection.
54. Ryan Lannon. Ditto.
55. Larry Murphy, by a wisp over Sergei Gonchar.
56. Sergei Zubov. Too bad he was here only one year.
57. Chris Ferraro. Shawn Heins wasn't much of an option.
58. Kris Letang. Good past, better future.
59. Robert Dome or the pre-No. 7 Michel Ouellet. Or no one.
61. Luca Caputi. Great five games he's played so far, aren't they?
63. Tim Wallace. See No. 41.
65. Ben Lovejoy. See No. 63.
66. Mario Lemieux. See No. 52 ... oops, maybe not.
67. Alex Goligoski. Not his best number, but there was no competition.
68. Jaromir Jagr. A safe pick, even if he hadn't run unopposed.
71. Evgeni Malkin. Sorry, Konstantin Koltsov.
72. Eric Meloche. Not to disrespect Jeff Christian, of course.
74. Jay McKee. The first and only.
76. Richard Park. Him, too.
77. Paul Coffey. So fast, he made the list 20 years ago.
81. Miroslav Satan, even though he wasn't a contributor of Biblical proportions.
82. Martin Straka was a lot more than just Jagr's sidekick.
85. Petr Klima. Sheesh.
87. Sidney Crosby. Plenty of sleepless nights went into this choice.
92. Rick Tocchet, because those hands could do it all in this game.
93. Petr Nedved, owner of one of hockey's finest wrist shots.
95. Aleksey Morozov. No, he won't return to wear it again.
Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
