Mario Lemieux-Le Magnifique

Rarely with athletes can it be said that a player played the game artistically. Words like physicality and creativity are thrown around like Lego bricks in a playroom, but the words grace and dignity do not often rise to the surface. It's too rare to see those qualities in a human being, rarer still to see them in one who plays a game as violent as hockey.

But grace and dignity define everything that Mario Lemieux did. From his first shift, to his raising of the cup two summers ago, the grace and dignity have been staples of his time in hockey.


(There were no dry eyes in Pittsburgh when this happened)

It started early, when Lemieux tore through the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before being drafted #1 overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1984. And it didn't take long for the youngster to make an impression, as he scored on his very first shift in the NHL. Granted, this alone is exceptional, but Lemieux also managed to burn past Raymond Bourque before calmly flipping the puck into the goal. The same Raymond Bourque that was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004...seven years after Lemieux.





(Yes, he was always that good)

Bourque wasn't the only player that Lemieux beat though. He pretty much could do whatever he wanted on the ice. At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Lemieux was one of the larger players on the ice, and hard to contain by merely playing physical. Match that with a smooth-skating style that allowed him to speed around the ice, along with passing and shooting skills that rank among the top five in any era, and Lemieux was downright dominant. Oh, and his fakes were so good that it made multitudes of defensemen touching only air.

Words alone, though, can't do this justice.

For example, here's a goal from the 1991 Stanley Cup that was voted by TSN as the greatest Stanley Cup goal of all time. In it, Lemieux races up to meet the defense, takes on one of them, puts it through the defenders legs to his forehand and then dekes and beats the goalie. In about a five second span, Lemieux decimates whatever confidence the Minnesota North Stars had.



Or this video, where on December 31, 1988, Lemieux scored five goals five different ways. No has ever repeated the feat.



In fact, the only real strategy to stop Lemieux was to tackle him. As the below video shows, that usually failed.



Even cancer couldn't stop him.

Yes, that's right. Lemieux had Hodgkin's disease and attempted to play through the disease through the 1993 season. He's even nicknamed for the feat that he pulled off one time against the Philadelphia Flyers, a hated rival of the Penguins. Lemieux began the day a radiation treatment.

He ended it with a goal and an assist.

Unfortunately this, coupled with both horrendous dieting habits( Lemieux admitted in an interview with Dan Patrick that he smoked two packs a day upon entering the league ) and a back so bad he couldn't tie his own skates, helped kill his career. By 1997, Lemieux was out of the league. Waving the normal period for inclusion, the voters unanimously allowed Lemieux into the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was, at that point, the pinnacle of a career that saw him score 690 goals, top 1700 points and bring two Stanley Cups to a city that had never tasted hockey's ultimate prize. However, his biggest statistic of all was yet to come.

The one save.


(There's also an infamous pool party with Stanley, but that's a whole different article)

See, in those days, hockey was dying out in Pittsburgh. Because the ownership group at the time had failed miserably, the team would soon be up for sale, which meant possible relocation. So, who presented the ownership group that would save the team?

Mario Lemieux.

Granted, for full disclosure, he was owed millions by the team in deferred salary. Though he could have retired to his house in nearby Sewickley, Lemieux returned to save the franchise that had taken him in 1984. Soon after he was declared owner, he rejoined the team, and returned to dominating the league in 2000.

In 2002, Wayne Gretzky selected him to lead Team Canada to a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. He did, defeating the United States in a grudge match between rivals that saw Lemieux make a play that has never been duplicated.


(Watch that again. It's ok, the article can wait)

Lemieux would stay on as owner-player through the lockout, and lasted till the first year of Sidney Crosby before retiring. Later, he denounced talks of a possible franchise relocation on national television, finally putting Penguins fans at ease.



Currently, he serves as one of the owners of the Penguins. In addition, he also served as the landlord to Sidney Crosby, a job that might have been more important than his actual title with the organization.


(This Crosby guy is supposed to be decent)

And though Crosby might be considered to play with grace and dignity, he's got a long way to go to catch the guy who he lived with.