O YOU KNOW TRIVIA?

• THE PLAYER PICTURED IS A WALKING, TALKING PENGUINS TRIVIA ANSWER. (HINT: IT’S CRAIG MUNI).

Mikael Granlund said he felt a sense of relief last week when he netted his first goal in black and gold — and the new guy needed just four games to get it.

For some Penguins players, that goal never comes. Their time with the team runs out without ever having lit the lamp. Sergei Plotnikov, Paul Bissonnette and Dennis Bonvie are among the many who were shut out while with Pittsburgh.

But which player skated in the most games for the Penguins without scoring?

Recently reached over the phone, the man who is the answer to that trivia question chuckled — thankfully — when that not-sofun fact was shared with him.

“I wasn’t paid for that stat,” Craig Muni said. “My job was to move the puck to the guys like Mario [Lemieux], Ronnie [Francis] and [Petr] Nedved and Joey Mullen, the pure goal scorers, and make sure that it didn’t end up in our net.”

The Penguins before the 199697 season signed Muni, a stay-athome defender who won three Stanley Cup titles with the Edmonton Oilers. He spent the previous season with Winnipeg and had an invitation to head south with that franchise as it relocated to Arizona. But Pittsburgh offered him a chance to win.

“That’s what I was looking for. Our generation played the game for that more than today’s generation, for the most part,” he said. “It was an excellent team.”

It turned out to be a chaotic, disappointing season for the Penguins. Tom Barrasso got hurt, setting the stage for Patrick Lalime’s memorable rookie run. Craig Patrick fired Eddie Johnston and replaced him on the bench. Lemieux piled up 122 points then retired for the first time following their first-round playoff loss.

Muni enjoyed his one year here, though. He said it was a great group of guys.

One memory stands out. It was early in the season and he was still getting a feel for his new teammates. His young son tagged along on a team charter.

“I sat in the back and kind of kitty-corner from where Mario was sitting back there, with Ron Francis,” Muni recalled. “Mario sat and talked to my son, Brent, and made him feel so warm and welcome. It had probably been the most I had seen Mario talk at that time. It left a lasting impression for my son and myself.”

Muni, a left-shot defender who was listed at 6-foot-3 and 208 pounds, played 64 games that season. He fired just 19 shots on goal. None of them found twine.

Muni didn’t score in any playoff games with the Penguins, either. He would actually finish his career without a single goal in 113 postseason games. That is the most in NHL history, edging out another former Penguins blue-liner, Hal Gill.

Others with bigger egos might have hung up the phone if a stranger asked about occupying such a unique place in hockey history. But Muni got a kick out of the line of questioning and his humility hinted at why he thrived in his role.

The stats Muni worried about were hits, blocked shots, plus-minus and wins.

One brief chat at his first NHL training camp helped shape his career. Muni had been drafted by Toronto in the second round in 1980. Sitting on the bench between shifts, Darryl Sittler leaned over and gave the rookie a piece of advice.

“I understand you’re a high draft pick,” Muni remembers the Maple Leafs legend telling him. “Just go out and do what you normally do. Don’t try to do anything out of character. That’s when you start making mistakes. Just do your job.”

Sittler was one of several alltime greats with whom Muni can say he played.

That incredible list includes but is not limited to Borje Salming, Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Grant Fuhr, Chris Chelios, Dominik Hasek and Mike Modano, plus all of those amazing players in his one year here.

Obviously, most folks ask Muni to compare two Hall of Famers in particular.

“My response has always been that Wayne liked to gain the blue line, circle back and create open ice and find the open person,” Muni said. “Mario was so big and strong and skilled and such a good skater. He would attack defensemen 1-on-1 and basically undress a lot of them and make them look pretty silly.” After retiring as a player in 1998, Muni dabbled in the agent business but quickly realized that was not for him. He was hired as a professional scout by the Tampa Bay Lightning, helping to assemble their 2004 championship squad.

During the 2004-05 lockout, he left the league to work at Uniland, a development company based in Buffalo, N.Y. He is still happily employed there today.

And he is always up for chatting about his NHL career when anyone asks.

“I always felt very lucky and fortunate to have the opportunity to play in the NHL, to have an opportunity to play with the players and be on some very good teams, win the Stanley Cup three times,” Muni said. “I always say, ‘Right place, right time.’ And to me it’s the same in business as it is in sports and in life.”