15 years ago today, Mario Lemieux added perhaps his list magical moment as a player when he scored directly off a faceoff in a game against the Buffalo Sabres.
From a previous Pensburgh writeup, this moment was pretty much the last gasp of something good happening for the Penguins for a while.
The 2002-03 Penguins fell apart soon after, Kovalev was traded (basically sold) back to the Rangers just two months later. Straka would be injured and Lemieux, on his bad hip, limped through the final mostly-healthy season of his career on a last place team, limping towards the lockout and financial stability and also the new core that would begin in earnest with the high pick born out of that dreadful season in the form of a young goalie from Quebec named Marc-Andre Fleury.