Eddie Johnston, Key Player in Penguins’ Stay in Pittsburgh Jim O’Brien
A biographical sketch of Eddie Johnston said he S o a r e t h e is best known as the man who drafted Mario Lemieux for the Johnstons. Eddie, Penguins. in particular, reI suggested to Eddie, a long-time Upper St. Clair neighbor members where who lives exactly two-tenths of a mile from my house, that the he came from, and following five words would appear in the first paragraph of his he appreciates his obituary: “It was a no brainer.” These are the words Eddie used good fortune. as a result of his decision to draft Mario Lemieux in 1984. The I came upon Penguins were a dreadful franchise at the time, losing more games Diane this past and more money than any team in the league and in danger of summer as she folding. Mario Lemieux was the savior on the ice and Eddie s t o o d o n h e r Johnston saved the day with this one decision. This time, being front lawn during stubborn paid dividends. a neighborhood Both Lemieux and Johnston were born in Montreal, not far garage sale. She’d from the old Montreal Forum where Maurice “The Rocket” spread a blanket Eddie Johnston. Richard and Jean Beliveau starred for the Canadiens. I met those on the grass and Photo credit: Jim O’Brien two revered Montreal hockey players once in the pressroom at the placed on it about Montreal Forum when I was covering hockey for The New York 35 ball caps that Post. I remember what a thrill it was. They had been long retired, her husband had picked up along the way, mostly at golf outings. but I remembered reading about them in the sports magazines She was giving them away. She gave me one with “Johnstown that were always at my boyhood bedside. Jets” inscribed on it. Eddie had played for the Jets early in his I ran into Eddie at a Penguins alumni golf outing in late hockey career. August at Valley Brook Country Club. He had a small white patch I visited the Johnstons at their home in mid-September. We under his right eye. “My dermatologist had to remove some skin sat around a table in their family room. Diane offered coffee and cancer,” he said, dismissing it as if it was nothing. If his dermatolo- Eddie had chocolate sticks for a sweetener. Eddie showed me the gist looked close he’d also have noticed that Johnston’s face has fresh scars under his right eye from his recent surgery. “Before faint lines creasing his skin here and there. He was the last goalie this, Eddie had 111 stitches in his face,” said Diane, “Now he to not wear a protective mask during his days playing in has 134.” the National Hockey League. He was also a boxer in “You’d never know it to look at him,” I offered. his youth. He has scars from the stitches to prove it. “I can see them,” she said. “Hey, he was a really “I got hit in the head with a puck during a good-looking guy when I met him, but I still love warm-up session before a game in Detroit and him,” she said with a smile. So, too, do Mario was in a coma for six weeks,” Johnson recalls. Lemieux and the Penguins’ top-tier people. “While I didn’t know it at the time, Glenn Hall, Eddie has been associated with the Penguins one of the great goalies in our league, came to in one position or another for 30 years. Jim see me in the hospital. I learned later that Hall Rutherford, a former goalie for the Penguins put on a face mask that night for a game for the and other NHL teams, is the Penguins’ new very first time.” general manager. “Jimmy asked me to get more Eddie was the last goalie to play every minute involved and come around more often,” said of every game in an NHL season when he played Eddie. “I’m listed as a senior advisor. He wants in 70 games for the Bruins during the 1963-1964 my input. I go to most home games, except when season. This was at a time when there were only six I’m in Florida during some of the winter. I’m happy teams in the NHL and only six goalies. He was in elite to help. Jimmy was a terrific goalie in the National company. Teams in Montreal and Toronto provided Hockey League. He knows hockey and his way a spare goalie in case the starting goalie got hurt. Diane Johnston sits proudly atop around the league. He’ll do a good job.” the Stanley Cup won by the Most teams had a trainer who could fill in as a When the Penguins won the Stanley Cup Penguins in 1992. goalie. Imagine that! in 2009, Diane stopped at the bottom of our I first met Eddie and his lovely wife, Diane (a former airline driveway one day and invited us to a party at nearby Piccolina’s attendant who still looks the part), at a block party soon after Restaurant in Pinebridge Commons, where the Stanley Cup would they moved into USC’s Trotwood neighborhood. They were fun be on display. I recalled to Diane that I had a picture of her sitfrom the start and honest to the bone, absolutely no pretension. ting atop the Stanley Cup when the team had previously won the Former Pirates pitcher and current Pirates broadcaster Steve Stanley Cup in 1992. The picture appeared in my book Penguins Blass said of Bill Mazeroski more than once, “He’s so… for-real.” Profiles: Mario and the Boys of Winter.
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UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY
Winter 2014