The following is an excerpt from “If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Ice, Locker Room and Press Box,” by Phil Bourque with Josh Yohe. This excerpt is from Chapter 4: “Finally make it, Alyssa Milano and So Much More,” which focuses on the 1988-89 Penguins season.



I showed up at camp in September 1988 and I immediately felt at home. I was also quite excited about the talent we had assembled. Mario (Lemieux) was on top of the world and was about to produce a 199-point season. He was only 23 then but he was, like (GM Eddie Johnston) said, the best fucking player in the world. Something else had happened, too. The season before, the Penguins had traded for Paul Coffey. It was one of the best moves in franchise history. Coff was an all-time great and he was also an incredibly good leader, a thoughtful guy who always said the right thing at the right time. We don’t win Cups without him. He was that important in our transition from a shit...