It has encompassed only 11 games, but this comeback thing of Mario Lemieux’s seems to be working out just fine.
“It has been a lot of fun the first couple of weeks. I’ve been enjoying it,” Lemieux said Friday as the Mario Comeback Tour 2000-01, also known as the Pittsburgh Penguins, pulled into Texas.
It has been fun for Lemieux, fun for the team he owns and plays for and certainly fun for ticket managers around the NHL. All of a sudden they’re very popular people when Pittsburgh comes to town.
The Penguins will be in Chicago on Sunday night to face the Blackhawks, Lemieux’s first appearance at the United Center since a 2-1 Hawks victory in December 1996. The Hawks held “Super Mario” scoreless in that game, and hope to do it again Sunday.
Like the Penguins’ previous 11 games, Sunday’s will be a sellout, only the third of the season for the Hawks and the first not involving Detroit. Only Friday’s game at Dallas would have been a sellout if Lemieux had stayed in the owner’s box.
The Penguins have become to the NHL what the Bulls and Michael Jordan were to the NBA–the prime attraction throughout the league and a media circus at every stop.
“It’s been great for us,” Penguins forward Alexei Kovalev said. “Every city we go to the game is sold out, which is good for the city and the NHL.”
Despite suspect goaltending, the revitalized Penguins are being viewed as a Stanley Cup contender, largely because of Lemieux’s play. “He can take this team anywhere,” Kovalev said. “He can take us to the Stanley Cup, no problem.”
Through 11 games, Lemieux is on his normal pace of two points per game with 22. He has been held scoreless just once since his return and is plus-9.
Still, he says he’s not completely back to where he wants to be, which should send shivers down the spines of future opponents.
“I still have a ways to go, but I felt the game in Phoenix [on Wednesday] was probably my best game of them all,” Lemieux said. “My game is starting to come around.”
Never a burner in the style of, say, Paul Kariya, Lemieux is deceptively quick for a player 6 feet 4 inches and 240 pounds. As Wayne Gretzky did, Lemieux has a knack for slipping loose from a check and finding an open area of ice, and he’s strong enough to maintain his position in front of the net.
“My legs are picking up a little bit, which is the key for me,” he said. “To skate and change direction with some speed, I thought I was able to do that very well in Phoenix.”
Penguins captain Jaromir Jagr, his linemate, said he was concerned about Lemieux’s skating before the comeback began, but now he believes Lemieux is faster than he was before he retired.
Aside from his play on the ice, Lemieux has brought an air of confidence to the dressing room.
“The attitude is a little different,” Lemieux said. “When we’re down a goal or two we know we can come back.”
As Jordan was with the Bulls, Lemieux is now the focal point for the media. While the rest of the players concentrate on hockey, he is constantly surrounded by notepads and microphones.
Aside from Lemieux, Jagr is the Penguins’ most recognizable player. Jagr doesn’t particularly enjoy the media give-and-take on his best days.
“It took a lot of the pressure off him since I’ve been back, and I know he appreciates that,” Lemieux said.
It seems an odd arrangement, the team owner changing from suit to sweater, a move that would seem to have all concerned a bit cautious about what they say and how they act. But Lemieux the owner’s transition to Lemieux the player has been as seamless as his efforts on the ice.
“I told everybody when I came back that I just wanted to be treated like a player,” Lemieux said. “That really hasn’t been a problem. We’re all in this for the same reason–to achieve our goal and win the Stanley Cup.”
Lemieux knows the Cup drill. He helped Pittsburgh win it twice in the ’90s.
Said Kovalev: “He’s part of the team, and everyone looks to him as a player. Nothing really changed around the players when he came back. Just our game is a lot better.”
Penguins coach Ivan Hlinka, who was coaching in the Czech Republic when Lemieux had his first tour of NHL duty, acknowledged that he is in a unique situation as the coach of a man who can fire him.
“I don’t think there has been a coach before me who has had the owner in the lineup–that’s something special,” Hlinka said. “Our goal is to win. Maybe it’s an advantage for me since he knows hockey from the other side, as an owner. Sometimes that’s good for the coach.”
Friday’s game against Dallas was the first major test for Lemieux and his team. Dallas is by far the best team the Penguins have faced since his comeback. Lemieux scored his 10th goal of the season but was on the ice for five Dallas goals, had just two shots and was a minus-1 in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Stars.
Never shy about pulling the trigger on trades, Penguins General Manager Craig Patrick has already made a couple of deals to bulk up the Penguins for playoff time.
Bruising forward Kevin Stevens was added and inserted onto the line with Lemieux and Jagr to create space for the two gifted scorers. Stevens will also make sure that no one takes any liberties with the man who scores the goals and signs the paychecks. Lemieux not only anticipates teams trying to rough him up as the season winds down, but he seems to welcome it as well.
“I’ve played 12 years and they’ve tried everything,” he said. “Being physical is part of the game. As I said many times, I’m not a little guy. I can take care of myself very well.”
