A shoulder injury to Tom Barrasso ended his season after five unmemorable games and led to the promotion of Lalime from the Cleveland Lumberjacks of the International Hockey League (IHL).
His first win came in relief of Wregget on December 6, and the next day, on December 7, he was given the start against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, beating the Mighty Ducks and setting him well on his way to setting the NHL record for consecutive games unbeaten to begin a career for an NHL goaltender, going 14–0–2 (16 games).
Eddie Johnston was relieved of his duties as head coach after losing eight of his last nine games and was replaced on an interim basis by General Manager Craig Patrick.
The Penguins' only win in the series was in Game 4 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, in which Lemieux scored on a breakaway against Flyers goaltender Garth Snow in the closing minutes for his final goal before his first retirement.
The Penguins have been involved in the following transactions during the 1996–97 season:[21] 1997 conditional pick (not exercised) Petr Klima Bryan Smolinski Andreas JohanssonDarius Kasparaitis Chris Wells Stu BarnesJason Woolley Shawn AntoskiDmitri Mironov Alex HicksFredrik Olausson Tomas Sandstrom Greg Johnson Jean-Jacques Daigneault Garry Valk Richard Park Roman Oksiuta Glen Murray Ed Olczyk future considerations (1998 5th round pick) Josef Beranek Pittsburgh Penguins' picks at the 1996 NHL entry draft.