Happy Birthday, Mario!

What kind of birthday present do you give to a man who has a Hall of Fame plaque, 1 Masterson, 1 Calder, 1 Olympic gold, 2 Canada/World Cups, 2 Conn Smythes, 3 Stanley Cups, 3 Harts, 4 Pearsons and 6 Art Rosses?

The greatest hockey player of all time turned forty-four years old on Monday, October 5th.

There, I said it.  Let the back-and-forth mudslinging begin.

Kid, you never saw Beliveau, the Rocket, Harvey, Howe and Orr, my respected elders admonish.
Get real.  Gretzky was always the best, my peers reply.
You be frontin’, homey.  Sid the Kid and Ovie be where it’s at, yo, the youth of today tweet.

Yet today’s post is not a forum for heatedly debating the ranking of Mario Lemieux on the list of hockey’s all-time greats.  To do so would be tantamount to rudely grabbing a fistful of Mario’s birthday cake and smearing it in the face of a fan with an opposing view.

I wonder if Lemieux will stop while he is blowing out the candles this week and consider the irony that on his forty-fourth birthday, his status in hockey has never been better, while the fortunes of the man he was always compared to, Gretzky, have never been worse.  During their careers, it was the opposite.  #99 always had the edge on #66: more Cup wins (4 to 2), more Hart Trophies as regular-season MVP (9 to 3), more scoring titles (10 to 6) and much, much better health.  Gretzky missed just 97 regular season games in his twenty-year NHL career while Lemieux astonishingly missed 372 regular season games not including the half-season when he came out of retirement and the final half-season before his second retirement.  This galling total also does not include the full-season he abstained from in 1994-95 to recuperate from all his injuries and of course, his three and a half year sabbatical when he walked away from the game due to his frustration with what the NHL had become – a cesspool where talentless “grinders” could hack, hook, trip, slash and obstruct skilled players, thus degrading the league into a farce of 1-0 and 2-1 low-scoring, boring games.

Who can forget the back pain that never left him despite many surgical procedures, the hip ailments, and of course, his battle with cancer.

Presently however, while Gretzky ponders his next move after stepping down as head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, the undisputed champions of financial and legal turmoil, Lemieux can bask in the glow of his third Stanley Cup victory and first as team owner.  Since Mario’s first retirement in the autumn of 1997, he has rescued the Penguins out of two major crises – by purchasing the team out of bankruptcy (1999) and by securing finances and political support for a new arena (2007) that will keep the team in Pittsburgh for at least thirty years.

For this writer, I will invoke authorship privilege and name two favourite Mario moments: his goal in Game 2 of the 1991 Stanley Cup Final vs. Minnesota North Stars, and his comeback from Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1993.

The Penguins were down one game to none against Minnesota in the ’91 Final when in Game 2, Mario scored a goal so spectacular, the Civic Arena (now Mellon Arena) crowd in Pittsburgh stood and gave him a full five-minute ovation.  He took a clearing pass inside his own blue line, then basically accelerated past everyone.  As he passed centre ice, Minnesota defencemen Shawn Chambers and Neil Wilkinson surely soiled themselves as they saw Mario approaching.  He faked to his left and as soon as Chambers lunged that way, Mario put the puck through Chambers’ legs.  As Chambers fell backward, Lemieux easily deked hapless goaltender Jon Casey on a backhand to score.  See for yourself on this clip with Hockey Night in Canada legend Bob Cole on the call.  (Incidentally, Lemieux’s goal and Bobby Orr’s “soaring through the air” goal have been immortalized in HNIC‘s weekly Saturday night introduction.)

In 1993, as captain of the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins, the team exploded out of the gate and were the unanimous favourites for a third straight title.  Lemieux was on pace to shatter the all time single season points record held by Gretzky.  But the tragedy that was Lemieux’s career took another improbably cruel blow – cancer,  Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system.  Lemieux announced in January that he was taking time off to be treated.  Stunned, the Penguins struggled, but even more stunningly, on the day of his last radiation treatment in early March, Lemieux rejoined his teammates in Philadelphia, scoring a goal and an assist against the Flyers, and received a standing ovation from an enemy crowd.  While the twenty-four games he missed cost him a shot at Gretzky’s record, he still stormed back to win the scoring title.  Inspired, the Penguins won the President’s Trophy that season, still the franchise’s only one, as the top regular-season team in the league.

Unreal.

On a related note, October is “Hockey Fights Cancer” month, designated by the NHL as a month of cancer awareness and fundraising.  Many will also know that Lemieux set up the “Mario Lemieux Foundation” to raise money for hospitals and research in the battle against cancer.  For readers who have the means and will to make a difference, you may be interested in visiting these sites.

I’d like to know if readers have their own memorable Mario moments (or two) to share.

Statistical sources: hockeydb.com

Photo source: Flickr Creative Commons