Mario Lemieux - An Introduction

 

Introduction

With my Wayne Gretzky series going down so well I decided to continue with other players and who better than the one player who was equally as great as Gretzky? The Magnificent one, Mario Lemieux. Born October 5, 1965, Super Mario played off and on for 17 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984 and 2006. In 1999, he bought the Penguins and their top minor-league affiliate, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL, out of bankruptcy, and is currently the team's principal owner and chairman. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the best players of all time. A gifted playmaker and fast skater despite his large size, Lemieux often beat defensemen with fakes and dekes.

Lemieux led Pittsburgh to two consecutive Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992. Under his ownership, the Penguins won a third Cup in 2009. He is the only person to have his name on the Cup as both a player and an owner. He also led Team Canada to an Olympic gold medal in 2002, a championship at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, and a Canada Cup in 1987. He won the Lester B. Pearson Award as the most outstanding player voted by the player four times, the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player (MVP) during the regular season three times, the Art Ross Trophy as the league's points leader six times, and the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1991 and 1992. At the time of his retirement, he was the NHL's seventh-ranked all-time scorer with 690 goals and 1,033 assists. He ranks second in NHL history with a 0.754 goals-per game average for his career, behind only Islanders great Mike Bossy (0.762). In 2004, he was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Lemieux's career was plagued by health problems that limited him to 915 of a possible 1,428 NHL games. His numerous ailments included spinal disc herniation, Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic tendinitis of a hip-flexor muscle, and chronic back pain so severe that other people had to tie his skates. He retired two different times over the course of his career due to these health issues: first in 1997 after battling lymphoma (he returned in 2000), and for a second and final time in 2006, after being diagnosed with an atrial fibrillation. He also missed the entire 1994-95 season due to Hodgkin's lymphoma. Despite his lengthy absences from the game, his play remained at a high level upon his return to the ice; he won the Hart Trophy and scoring title in 1995–96 after sitting out the entire previous season, and he was a finalist for the Hart when he made his comeback in 2000.

The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted Lemieux immediately after his first retirement in 1997, waiving the normal three-year waiting period; upon his return in 2000, he became the third Hall of Famer (after Gordie Howe and Guy Lafleur) to play after being inducted. Lemieux's impact on the NHL has been significant: Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called him the "savior" of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and after Lemieux's retirement, Wayne Gretzky commented that "You don't replace players like Mario Lemieux [...] The game will miss him." Bobby Orr called him "the most talented player I've ever seen." Orr, along with Bryan Trottier and numerous fans, speculate that if Lemieux had not suffered so many issues with his health, his on-ice achievements would have been much greater.

Cultural references

·       Lemieux had a hockey video game, Mario Lemieux Hockey (1991) for the Sega Genesis, named after him. Additionally, he was featured as the cover athlete on EA Sports' 2002 edition of its popular NHL series for multiple platforms.

·       Mario Lemieux was mentioned in the hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest's track "Keep It Rollin'", which was released on the group's third studio album, "Midnight Marauders". On the track, rapper Phife Dawg sings: "I skate on your crew, like Mario Lemieux."

·       Canadian Hardcore punk band Comeback Kid are named after a newspaper article which nicknamed Mario Lemieux 'the comeback kid'

·       Lemieux appears in NHL 12 in the game's 'Be A Legend' mode.