Forget all his outrageous statistics. All those moves that mocked the basic laws of physics. All the highlights footage that made you wonder if videotape really can lie, after all.
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Mario Lemieux climbs over the boards in Philadelphia March 2, 1993, hours after his final cancer treatment. (George Widman, Associated Press) |
The most remarkable thing about Mario Lemieux's playing career in the NHL is that he could make the magical seem almost mundane.
Could manufacture a four-goal night as a matter of course. Could put up six points with less effort than some guys put in getting dressed. Could make a life-long memory with a dip of his shoulder and a flash of his blade.
Chances are he won't do any of that at Mellon Arena tonight. Hey, the guy's been out of the NHL for 3 1/2 years; he just might need a week or two before he begins to dominate games.
Well, perhaps a game or two. OK, a shift or two.
The details actually won't much matter, at least tonight. That's because the simple act of Lemieux pulling on his No. 66 sweater and stepping onto the Mellon Arena ice for the Penguins' game against Toronto at 7:38 assures that this will be one of the most memorable nights of his career.
Whether his comeback proves to be a sequel to Phase 1 of his career or simply adds a few chapters to an extraordinary story remains to be seen. Just having Lemieux swap his business suit for a Penguins uniform is enough to burn this date onto the pages of hockey history.
Of course, Lemieux's done a lot of that over the years. Most players are fortunate if they have a defining moment -- a positive one, anyway -- at some point in their career, Lemieux accumulated them by the gross.
Games that, for most guys, would have been the undisputed highlights of their time in hockey don't come close to making the cut in Lemieux's case.
Consider some performances discarded when compiling a list of his 10 most memorable games:
Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final against Minnesota on May 17, 1991. Lemieux splits Minnesota defensemen Shawn Chambers and Neil Wilkinson before beating North Stars goalie Jon Casey for a goal that will be a staple of hockey highlights centuries from now.
Game 3 of the 1987 Canada Cup tournament. Lemieux scores Canada's championship-clinching goal late in regulation against the Soviet Union. The goal goes nicely with his overtime winner a few days earlier.
The 1988 NHL All-Star Game, Feb. 9, 1988. Lemieux dazzles the crowd at St. Louis Arena with a record-setting performance, as he scores three goals -- including the winner at 1:08 of overtime -- and sets up three others in the Wales Conference's 6-5 victory against the Campbell.
A 6-4 loss at the Capital Centre on Jan 26, 1992. It is Lemieux's tongue, not his hands, that makes headlines this time. After the Capitals frustrate the Penguins with a display of tackling that would be the envy of the Redskins, Lemieux calls the NHL a "garage league," a phrase that immediately became imbedded in the sporting lexicon of Western Pennsylvania.
A 3-0 victory March 26, 1991, in Philadelphia. Lemieux gets all three of the Penguins' goals in a victory that puts them on the cusp of the first division championship in franchise history.
A 10-4 victory April 9, 1993, at Madison Square Garden. Lemieux scores five times against the New York Rangers as the Penguins set a league record with their 16th consecutive victory.
Images from those games will endure for years, but aren't quite as powerful as the ones generated by the games below. For they are, from at least one perspective, the 10 most memorable games of Lemieux's career.
No. 10
Oct. 11, 1984
Boston Garden, Boston
Lemieux wasted no time setting the bar for excellence -- and raising the public's expectations -- when he got to the NHL.
He swiped the puck from Boston's Raymond Bourque, merely the finest defenseman of his generation, at the right point in the Penguins' zone, then broke in alone on Bruins goalie Pete Peeters before throwing the puck into the net at 1:18 of the opening period.
First game. First shift. First shot. First goal.
Not a bad start, although that goal -- and two from linemate Warren Young -- weren't enough to help the Penguins avoid a 4-3 loss.
Which explains why Lemieux was rather somber after the game.
"All things considered, I'm happy," he said softly. "But it would have been better if we would have won."
The Penguins wouldn't be consistent winners for years, but everyone in the Garden that night knew Lemieux would be a major force in the league before long.
"He didn't do a lot tonight, but he still got a goal and I'm saying to myself, 'When this guy gets going, he'll be awesome,' " Peeters said. "He's going to flower after 30, 35 games, after he feels his way around the league."
No. 9
Jan. 26, 1991
Le Colisee, Quebec
Three-assist games were nothing special for Lemieux -- hey, the guy averaged over two points per game over the course of his career -- but setting up three goals in a 6-5 victory against Quebec was not bad for someone who had missed the first 50 games of the season because of a back infection.
"He wasn't the best he can be," Penguins goalie Wendell Young said. "But he was still one of the best players on the ice."
Lemieux sat out almost four months to start the 1990-91 season because of a career-threatening back problem called vertebral osteomyelitis, an infection that attacks the bony portion of the spine.
When he returned against the Nordiques, he took a regular shift and played on the power play, but didn't handle his usual workload.
Nonetheless, he was chosen as the game's No. 1 star. That was a pretty fair evening's work for a player who had been in just one game during the previous 11-plus months, and a pretty ominous portent for the rest of the league.
"It's going to take him a little while to get into game shape," Penguins right winger Mark Recchi said. "And when he does, it's going to be scary."
No. 8
May 26, 1992
Civic Arena, Pittsburgh
Chicago, which had run off an NHL-record 11 consecutive playoff victories, seemed poised to make it an even dozen when the Blackhawks built a 4-1 lead during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final.
Late in the second period, however, Lemieux revived the Penguins when he banked a shot off Chicago goalie Ed Belfour and into the net from behind the goal line. It was something only the most gifted players could pull off -- or even have the guts to try.
"I had no angle," Lemieux said. "I was behind the net. It was a lucky goal."
The spotlight then shifted to other players -- at 15:05 of the third period, Jaromir Jagr tied the game, 4-4, with what Lemieux called "probably the greatest goal I've ever seen" -- but the outcome would be shaped by Lemieux.
With 18 seconds left in regulation, he drew a hooking penalty from Chicago defenseman Steve Smith.
"I actually didn't dive that time," Lemieux said.
He was, however, jumping for joy seconds later.
With Smith in the penalty box, Ron Francis battled Brent Sutter for control of a faceoff in the right circle in Chicago's zone, and kicked the puck to defenseman Larry Murphy at the right point.
Murphy threw the puck at the net, and Belfour kicked it toward the left-wing boards -- and right onto Lemieux's stick.
With 12.6 seconds to play, he whipped the puck behind Belfour to give the Penguins a 5-4 victory and the first of four wins in a row against the Blackhawks.
"I went to the net, and nobody was there," Lemieux said. "Everyone was covered except me."
No. 7
Jan. 26, 1997
Molson Centre, Montreal
Lemieux never had much luck playing in his hometown, but on his penultimate visit, he gave the fans who had marveled at his skills since he was a child a night to remember, scoring four goals during the final 15 1/2 minutes of a 5-2 victory against the Canadiens.
It was only the 11th time in NHL history that a player had scored four times in a period.
"Amazing," Penguins Coach Ed Johnston said. "Just amazing."
It also gave Lemieux his 10th four-goal game, which was believed to be a record, although the NHL did not keep a formal listing of that statistic. And, had he converted all the opportunities he had, Lemieux might have been the first NHL player to get 10 or 12 in a game.
"He was flying all night," Johnston said. "He could have had three or four more."
Lemieux acknowledged that his personal statistics could have been more glittering if he hadn't hit a post and missed a couple of open nets, but said he never worried he would stay off the scoresheet all night.
"If you keep getting chances, sooner or later it's going to go in."
That's probably true. Just as it is likely was that, if Lemieux kept going back to Montreal long enough, he would treat the people there to a performance that will be talked about for decades.
"He just came," Penguins goalie Patrick Lalime said, "and showed that he's the man."
No. 6
Feb. 14, 1990
Madison Square Garden, N.Y.
Lemieux didn't get a point in this game, which is precisely what made it so significant.
Lemieux, you see, had picked up at least one in each of the previous 46, the second-longest streak in NHL history.
And he quite possibly would have wiped Wayne Gretzky's mark of 51 games out of the record book if not for the crippling back pain that forced him out of the New York game during the second period.
"It's tough to not get a chance out there," he said. "It's tough to accept, but that's the way it goes."
The back had bothered him for weeks -- at times he had difficulty walking into the arena, let alone playing -- but he played through the pain. And every time he was able to get into uniform, he was able to manufacture a point.
"It's too bad it had to end this way, because he's really fought through this thing," Coach Craig Patrick said. "There have been a lot of games where he probably couldn't have played under normal circumstances."
Lemieux, perhaps because his back had bothered him so much for so long, was rather philosophical about the streak's end. Most of his teammates had a harder time accepting that Lemieux's back had done something no opponent could.
"It just doesn't seem right," left winger Troy Loney said. "You hate to see it end because of an injury. That's what's sad. If the guy had been able to give his all tonight, he'd still have that streak going."
No. 5
Jan. 21, 1990
Civic Arena, Pittsburgh
Lemieux knew that the home crowd was counting on him to do something special in the NHL All-Star Game, and he didn't make them wait long.
Twenty-one seconds after the opening faceoff, he scored a goal. Before the game ended, he picked up three more, along with an unprecedented third MVP award in just his sixth NHL season.
"Right from the first shift, he just took control," said Brian Propp, Lemieux's left winger.
Lemieux became just the second player in All-Star history to get four goals in a game -- Wayne Gretzky did it in 1983 -- and his work in the Wales Conference's 12-7 victory impressed not only the fans and a national TV audience, but also the finest players in the game.
"You could sense that he wanted to perform really well," Wales right winger Cam Neely said. "And he certainly did."
Lemieux's rampage probably was even more satisfying because Gretzky, his archrival, finished the game with a minus-6 plus-minus rating for the Campbell Conference.
Lemieux, though, didn't gloat. Didn't say much except that he was happy to have met the expectations of everyone, from fans to himself.
"I got to show a lot of people that I was a good hockey player," Lemieux said. "That I could play with the best."
What he ended up showing was that he was the best.
No. 4
April 25, 1989
Civic Arena, Pittsburgh
It took Lemieux five seasons to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs, but he didn't waste time scrawling his name into the postseason record book, scorching the Flyers for five goals and eight points in Game 5 of the Patrick Division final.
"I've had a lot of great games, but under a lot of pressure like that -- a key game for the team -- I think that was one of the best," Lemieux said.
It was the third eight-point game during the 1988-89 season, but it was just the second time in NHL playoff history that a player had put up so many points. And just the fourth time anyone had scored five times in a playoff game.
"With a great player like Mario, it's only a matter of time," Penguins defenseman Paul Coffey said.
And not much time, either. Lemieux scored on his second, third and fourth shots against Philadelphia goalie Ron Hextall, ringing up a natural hat trick in a 4:40 span.
What made his evening's work all the more amazing was that, 24 hours before the game, Lemieux hadn't been sure he would dress.
During Game 4 against the Flyers, he had been in a violent collision with teammate Randy Cunneyworth and injured his neck, causing pain that lingered for days.
It's scary to imagine what Lemieux might have done if he had felt good going into Game 5.
"I've never seen a performance like Mario had tonight," Flyers Coach Paul Holmgren said. "We ran into a tremendous snowball with No. 66 on it. And when that gets rolling at you, it's tough to stop."
No. 3
Dec. 31, 1988
Civic Arena, Pittsburgh
New Year's Eve is a time of excess for many, and Lemieux did it up right by scoring five times in an 8-6 victory against New Jersey.
That's astonishing enough, but what made this game so special was that Lemieux became the only player in league history to score one of each type of goal -- even-strength, power-play, short-handed, penalty shot and empty-net -- in the same game.
And while his final goal was suspect -- the puck appeared to enter the empty New Jersey net after time had elapsed -- it didn't detract much from the magnitude of Lemieux's work.
"He just decided this was going to be his game, and nobody else's," Penguins right winger Rob Brown said. "Some of the things he did out there were amazing. They're going to have videotapes of tonight's game for kids to buy and watch, because it was just amazing."
There was another meaningful footnote to Lemieux's outburst: His assist on Brown's power-play goal 39 seconds into the second period was his 100th point of the season. It came in Lemieux's 36th game, two shy of the NHL standard set by Gretzky five years earlier.
All things considered, it was enough to give the Devils a splitting headache one day early. And to remind the Penguins of just what an exceptional talent Lemieux was.
"Even when he wasn't scoring goals, he was putting the puck through his legs, making twirls," Brown said. "It was a classic example of the best hockey player in the world teaching us to play."
No. 2.
March 26, 1996
Civic Arena, Pittsburgh
Lemieux had fretted for months about his wife Nathalie's difficult pregnancy. About the problems she was having, and about the ones that were possible.
Finally, his only son -- Austin Nicholas Lemieux -- was born healthy, albeit several months prematurely, and Lemieux publicly acknowledged his ordeal.
"It's been very difficult for myself and my family the last couple of months," he said. "By the way I was playing, I think everybody knew something was up. I was not able to play very well. I think my head was somewhere else."
But with the crisis behind him and his professional focus restored, Lemieux celebrated his son's birth in a way few could, scoring five goals in an 8-4 victory against St. Louis.
The first came at 3:35 of the opening period, when he fought through a hook from St. Louis defenseman Chris Pronger and flipped a shot between the legs of Blues goalie Grant Fuhr. And Lemieux stopped only when time ran out in the third period.
"I was ready to play early," Lemieux said. "I felt very good."
Good enough to add two assists to his five goals. And to remind the hockey world that he was a force with no equal. Or antidote.
"He's a pretty scary player when he gets going," Penguins forward Petr Nedved said. "There's nobody out there who's going to stop him."
No. 1
March 2, 1993
The Spectrum, Philadelphia
Few players in league history have accomplished as much as Lemieux. Six scoring titles. Two Stanley Cups. Three Most Valuable Player awards.
And none ever has -- or, probably, ever will -- duplicate his achievement in this game.
Not because his numbers were so breathtaking; heck, he just scored one goal and set up another. And not because he scored a dramatic game-winner; the Penguins actually lost, 5-4.
But simply showing up in uniform at the Spectrum qualifies as one of the most phenomenal feats in sports history, because the game was played just hours after Lemieux had gotten his final radiation treatment for Hodgkin's disease.
After receiving his treatment, Lemieux took a charter flight across the Commonwealth, and -- wearing a black turtleneck to protect the areas of his neck that had been burned by the radiation -- went onto the ice at the Spectrum to a raucous ovation from some of the most vicious fans in North America.
"He's an amazing athlete," Penguins right winger Rick Tocchet said. "Radiation, people don't realize what that stuff does to you. He was nothing short of brilliant, in my eyes."
Lemieux said he was "just a little tired at the end of the game," but those who witnessed his remarkable performance never wearied of discussing what they had seen.
"It's unbelievable," Penguins left winger Kevin Stevens said. "It's crazy. How can you even imagine what he did tonight? There's only one person in the world who could do it. And it's him."
The greatest performances of Lemieux's magnificent career ... so far 
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