The Pittsburgh Penguins’ organizational history has a plethora of great players, and we’ve decided to go through the best Penguins’ players to wear each jersey number. Today, we continue the list by naming the best #4 in Penguins’ history.
There have been a lot of good #4s for the Penguins, notably defensemen Dave Burrows, Kevin Hatcher, and Justin Schultz, each who left their own mark on the franchise. But there was one player who stood out for his shutdown defense – and for a particular play that quite literally may have saved a Stanley Cup run.
His name? Rob “The Piece” Scuderi.
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Scuderi played two different stints with the Penguins, the first being from 2003-09 and the second from 2013-16. He wasn’t an offensive juggernaut by any means whatsoever – he amassed just eight goals and 110 points in 783 career games – but his defensive work while he was in his prime was a sight to behold.
And there was no play bigger than this one – and, actually, several – from the waning seconds of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final against Detroit in 2009:
Scuderi made three different saves in a matter of seconds on Detroit’s Johan Franzen to help secure the Penguins’ victory, 2-1, and force the Game 7 that led to the team’s first Stanley Cup in the Crosby era and first since 1992.
After Game 6, Scuderi made a rather hilarious remark that helped cement his legacy with the Penguins. He recalled his interview with Mark Spector:
“I made a pretty brutal quote a couple of days ago,” Scuderi told reporters after the fact. “I was supposed to say, ‘a’ piece to the puzzle, but instead I said, ‘the’ piece to the puzzle. So, it’s not Sid, it’s not Geno. Apparently it’s me.”
It’s a nickname that stuck with Scuderi for the rest of his career, even when he came back for his second stint with the Penguins:
Scuderi was a shutdown defensive stalwart for years, especially during his first stint. In 2008-09, he led the Penguins with 164 blocked shots and a plus-23, and he led the NHL with 53 blocked shots in the 2009 playoffs. Although his defensive prowess waned a bit in the final years of his career, he was a steady presence on the Penguins’ blue line for a large portion of the Crosby era.
He left the Penguins following their 2009 Cup run and signed with the Los Angeles Kings, where he won a second Stanley Cup in 2011-12. He rejoined the Penguins via free agency in 2013 and reinforced his role as a solid shutdown defenseman for a while, but in the midst of the 2015-16 season, Scuderi was dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenseman Trevor Daley, who helped them en route to two consecutive Cups in 2016 and 2017.
Scuderi was waived later on that same year by the Blackhawks, and he was traded back to Los Angeles prior to the 2016 trade deadline. That was his final season as an NHL player.
Honorable mentions: Kevin Hatcher, Justin Schultz, Dave Burrows
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