TBC: The Pittsburgh Penguins

I'll be honest in saying that there aren't a lot of books that I've read where the complete history of a team is both described and brought to life through pictures. For some teams, their histories would occupy volumes of books as there would be all sorts of key moments in those franchises' histories. For others, the stories would be shorter, but there still would be big moments. For a franchise like the Pittsburgh Penguins, they have reached the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in their history, and one man has been following this team since 1983. In knowing this, Teebz's Book Club is proud to review The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline written by Dave Molinari and published by Reedy Press. Molinari's new book pulls the key moments from the Penguins' history by describing those moments and illustrating them with pictures from a number of sources to compile what might be the best historical look at the Penguins franchise since its start in 1967.

From his biography on the Reed Press site, "Dave Molinari has covered the Pittsburgh Penguins for more than four decades, primarily for The Pittsburgh Press from 1983 through 1992 and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 1993 until mid-2019. He is a native of Western Pennsylvania and was the 2009 recipient of the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, which is tantamount to induction into the writers' wing of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is the only Pittsburgh-based writer to be so honored." Molinari is a Penn State graduate, and wrote for the DK Pittsburgh Sports site before moving to be the Penguins beat writer for Pittsburgh Hockey Now. Dave and his wife, Debbie, have three children - Kelsey, Jeremy, and Jessica - and live in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He can be followed on Twitter through @MolinariPGH.

Being that the Penguins got started in 1967 and Dave Molinari started covering them in 1983, there are definitely a number of moments early in the franchise's existence where Molinari wasn't present. What makes The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline so good is that Molinari went back and used newspaper and photo archives to bring forth those key moments in the team's history. Among some of the key early moments in team history are the Pittsburgh Penguins' first game, the team's first win, and the first hat trick in franchise history.

Where The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline really shines in this writer's opinon is the titled illustrated timeline in that the pictures in this book are worth the price alone. Molinari chose photos that some may have seen, but many photos are ones that fans living outside the greater Pittsburgh area have not seen. Being a lifelong Penguins fan, I thought I would recognize a number of the images in The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline, but reading the book quickly became an effort to get to the next page to see what Molinari wrote and the images that illustrated his chosen moments.

Make no mistake that Dave Molinari's writing in The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline is still among the best sportswriting in North America, and some of the chosen quotations from Penguins players that Molinari uses in his descriptions of key moments are priceless. One such quotation came from Kevin Stevens who had thoughts about Darius Kasparaitis's Game Seven overtime goal against the Buffalo Sabres on May 10, 2001. Molinari writes,

"'I haven't seen [Kasparaitis] score a goal in practice, never mind in a game,' left winger Kevin Stevens said. 'If I had to pick one guy, he'd be the least [likely] to score.' Fair, on all counts, but none of that mattered when Kasparaitis joined a rush and took a pass from Robert Lang before throwing a shot past the glove of Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek to end the series. 'We're here and we're celebrating, so it means somebody scored,' Kasparaitis said. 'Guys started hugging me, so it means I did it.'"

For the record, that was the only goal that Kasparaitis scored in that postseason run by the Penguins, and it was just the fourth goal he scored in 94 games that season. Clearly, Kevin Stevens knew what he was talking about when it came to Kasparaitis's scoring talents!

Jokes aside, there are incredible write-ups for each of the 159 moments that Dave Molinari aside, and a lot of them contain history, quotations, and statistics that may not be known to even the most die-hard Penguins fans. The pictures do a great job in bringing Molinari's descriptions to life, and the number of exceptional photos of players like Andy Bathgate, Syl Apps, Jean Pronovost, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin makes me realize how blessed the Penguins have been when it comes to having exceptional talent wear the skating penguin on their chests.

Overall, The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline is a very easy read thanks to Dave Molinari's writing style. There's nothing overly wordy in his descriptions, and the short write-ups allow one to flip pages quickly while absorbing all of the information and visual morsels that the book has to offer on its 162 pages. Because of Molinari's easy-to-read descriptions, the vivid imagery used throughout the book, and the number of historical moments chosen by Molinari that brought the Pittsburgh Penguins to where they are today, it's an easy decision to bestow The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline with the Teebz's Book Club Seal of Approval!

The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline was released on August 15, 2025, so you can find it on bookstore shelves and, possibly, library shelves right now. While it might seem premature to mention this on Halloween, this book would be a perfect Christmas gift for your hockey fan and is a must-read for any Penguins fan! The material contained within the covers is easy-to-read and highly knowledgeable, and the one-page historical moments make it easy to work one's way through the book. As such, The Pittsburgh Penguins: An Illustrated Timeline by Dave Molinari is recommended for all hockey fans, and I highly recommend adding it to your bookshelf!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!