Original author: Joe Starkey: Jan. 19, 2001
Two games into his comeback, Mario Lemieux reached the 1,500-point mark. That’s right, he scored 750 points against Toronto and 750 more against Ottawa.
OK, it only seemed that way.
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The real numbers are almost as scary. Lemieux, 35, returned to the NHL on more than 1,200 days’ rest and began scoring at a rate that would net him 138 points in Pittsburgh’s remaining 46 games.
Normally, such projections are folly. With Lemieux, you just don’t know. He had three points against the Leafs, four against the Senators and two more against Washington for a total of three goals and six assists. In the Senators’ game, he became 10th player in NHL history to reach 1,500 career points.
“I’m a little bit surprised by the way I played after being off 3-1/2 years, but it was certainly my plan to go out and play well and play at a high level if I could,” Lemieux said.
High level? Lemieux soared like an eagle from his very first shift — and he didn’t even have his old burst yet.
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“He’s getting better every day,” said Penguins’ defenseman Ian Moran. “That’s what’s scary”
It took Lemieux just 33 seconds to reacquaint himself with the scoresheet when the Leafs visited Mellon Arena Dec. 27 in one of the most anticipated games in NHL history. He assisted on Jaromir Jagr’s goal. But his impact in the dressing room hit home about a half-hour before that, as the Penguins anxiously awaited to take the ice with their Hall of Fame player-turned-owner-turned-player.
“We all tried to talk, but it was weird,” said defenseman Darius Kasparaitis. “I haven’t felt that nervous for many years.”
The Penguins waited while Lemieux’s retired No. 66 banner was lowered from the roof as his 4-year-old son, Austin, watched from the ice. When the team finally bolted from the runway, the biggest crowd of the season—a standing-room-only gathering of 17,148—roared. TV viewers all over North America watched intently. Lemieux’s return drew a bigger regional audience—about 180,000 households in the Pittsburgh market—than any regular season game in the history of the 22 Fox Sports Net affiliates. Nationally, ratings on ESPN (double the season average) and Hockey Night in Canada(up roughly 65 per cent) went through the roof.
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Lemieux didn’t disappoint that night or three nights later when the Senators paid a visit. And he might have had his most impressive performance against the Capitals, who checked Lemieux tightly only to see him set up Jagr for the game-winner with 8:07 left. The Penguins won all three home games by a combined score of 13-5. Before his return, the Penguins had lost five consecutive home games, which was two short of tying a team futility record.
“The most amazing thing is he made everybody better, not just his line, but the whole team—instantly,” said veteran defenseman Jeff Norton. “It wasn’t a meeting. It wasn’t a hard practice. It was Mario’s presence. I haven’t seen anything like that.”
In many ways. Lemieux is the same player he always was, a step ahead of everyone while somehow slowing the game to his pace. But in other ways, this is a new Lemieux. He wears his helmet and shoulder pads at practice. He maintains a strict diet. And he boasts a much stronger upper body than he did in his first 12 NHL seasons.
“I’ve been doing a lot more weights than my early years,”
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Lemieux said, “I feel a lot stronger on the puck.”
That can’t be good news for defenders, who showed Lemieux so much respect in his first two games you would have thought he was holding an AK-47 rather than a hockey stick. The few who dared touch him wound up flat on their fannies.
“I think it’s good I’m playing with him,” Kasparaitis said. “If I was playing against him, maybe I’d get abused.”
Lemieux worked minimally with weights earlier in his career, but he hit them hard when he got the comeback bug in November. He trained alternately with former Penguins’ teammate Jay Caufield and Pittsburgh-area back specialist and personal trainer Tom Plasko.
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“From what Mario was all about to now, it’s a total turnaround,” Plasko says. “He has become dedicated. This guy has put 150 per cent into everything we’re doing.”
Lemieux’s conditioning paid off immediately, even though his leg strength wasn’t what he wanted it to be. He sat out most of the third period against the Leafs, but still averaged 22:52 of ice time in his first three games. That put him eighth in average ice time among NHL forwards. Three of Lemieux’s teammates were among the top six: Alexei Kovalev led the league at 24:46; Jagr was third at 23:56; and Martin Straka was sixth at 23:20. If things work out as Lemieux hopes, he might surpass them all.
“(Coach) Ivan (Hlinka) asked me a couple of times if I was tired and I felt pretty good,” Lemieux said. “The best way to get back into the game is to play. Sometimes, I’m going to feel a little tired at the end of the shifts, but that’s all conditioning and you have to go through that to get to the next level, which I intend to do pretty quickly. If I can keep playing 20-to-25 minutes a game and by the end of the year probably 30 minutes a game, that’s where I want to be.”
Lemieux’s impact could be seen everywhere, most notably in the rejuvenated play of linemates Jaromir Jagr and Jan Hrdina. Jagr had 10 points in Lemieux’s first three games. Hrdina continued to play mostly center while Lemieux played left wing, just as he had in his final season (1996-97) before retirement. Earlier this season, Hrdina was reluctant to shoot and was often guilty of forcing the puck to Jagr. Both things changed when Lemieux joined the crew.
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And the power play? “I’ve never seen a power play with that many options,” said Leafs’ goaltender Curtis Joseph.
The power play might have Lemieux on the left wing boards and Jagr cruising the slot, or Jagr on the right wing boards with Lemieux looking for a shot. Kovalev works the right point with ne of the hardest shots in the game and a pair of talented forwards, Straka and Robert Lang, round out the unit.
“That’s the best I’ve seen our power play look in years,” said Pens’ GM Craig Patrick after Lemieux’s first game.
The unit went 3-for-11 in Lemieux’s first three games (27.2 percent). Prior to that, it clicked at a 16.2 percent rate.
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The Penguins sold out the first two games of Lemieux’s return and are a good bet to sell out most of their remaining games. Tickets were selling briskly for his away games, too.
“This takes things up another notch,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “It’s because what he’s doing transcends the Penguins; it transcends hockey.”
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One of the most extraordinary aspects of Lemieux’s return, of course, is he remains the Penguins’ owner. But that hasn’t caused a ripple among his teammates or with Hlinka, who said simply, “He does n’t need a coach.”
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“I’m back playing the game now,” Lemieux said. “I want to be treated like a player. That’s what I’ve been my whole career. Just the fact that I own the team doesn’t mean that people have to treat me differently, especially the players and the coaching staff.”
If Lemieux is able to stay away from the injuries that hampered him in his first 12 seasons, there is no telling what kind of numbers he might put up. It seemed certain he was only going to get better and stronger as he played more games.
“That was just a start,” Norton said. “He has looked better and better out there, skating-wise. A couple of times the other night he had the puck, beat a guy and lost it. Those things are going to come. As you’ve seen, those moves are usually completed and the puck’s in the net.”
Said Lemieux: “I’m not where I want to be yet.”
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