Super Mario Returns To The Ice
Mario Lemieux is coming back. Or is he?
For sure, the Pittsburgh Penguins will stage one of the most dramatic moments in NHL history Wednesday night. They will pull down the retired No. 66 sweater that has hung in the Mellon Arena rafters for 3 1/2 years and return it to active duty in a comeback unprecedented for its impact and emotion.
Then, the question the hockey world has asked since Lemieux announced his unanticipated comeback nearly three weeks ago will start to be answered as the Penguins play the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Is Super Mario really coming back? Or will he only be So-so Mario?
Lemieux has talked confidently of again being hockey's best player, of leading the Penguins to another Stanley Cup championship, of helping coax Jaromir Jagr out of his scoring slump and of simply being Mario Lemieux again.
But is that possible in a sport that, despite Lemieux's remarks to the contrary, is even slower and less scorer friendly than what he abandoned with disgust in 1997?
It's a sport that has even bigger, stronger defensemen and goalies than before, one that continues to stifle scoring even while it insists it is opening it up.
"He's so far above the rest of us, his skill level is so tremendous," Flyers forward Mark Recchi said. "There will be a little rust, but what he does with his skills is beyond us, so I think he will be fine."
Lemieux, a six-time NHL scoring champion, overcame cancer and years of back problems to initially stage a successful comeback in 1995. He took a year off for health reasons, then returned to win his last two scoring titles in his final two seasons in 1995-96 and 1996-97.
Still, despite the Jordan-like buzz, Lemieux's comeback has created, the huge number of tickets it has sold in Pittsburgh and the media attention it has attracted, it is difficult to predict how successful it will be if only because there never has been one like it.
Guy Lafleur and Gordie Howe renounced their retirements after a short time to return to the NHL, and Ted Williams and other baseball stars spent years fighting World War II and the Korean War before returning to the majors. Michael Jordan played minor league baseball for a year before leading the Chicago Bulls to three more NBA titles.
Lemieux has been away nearly full four seasons a virtual career for some less-skilled players and is now 35, certainly not old, but still not young in a sport where speed and leg strength are everything.
"I have a lot of confidence to come back and play at a high level," said Lemieux, the only NHL player with 500 or more goals to average more than two points per game. "I'm going to have tbe patient, but I intend to get back to the top of my game."
Lemieux cautioned that he won't immediately start scoring four or five points a night, but he expects to return to his previous form in a reasonable period of time.
However, even his own teammates are trying not to get too worked up, lest they be disappointed if he is merely Lemieux the Good, not Lemieux the Great.
"It's going to be tough for him," Alexei Kovalev said Tuesday. "It will take some time for him to come back. The skill will be there, but the energy? It's tough to bring it back. It's going to take 3-4-5 games to get in game shape.
"Practice is one thing. He is definitely in good shape right now. But it's different when you practice and when you're playing."
Jagr, the three-time scoring champion who has been frustrated by his own inability to locate open ice this season, warned Lemieux the game isn't the same one that he once dominated.
"The league is tougher and tougher, the guys are getting bigger and stronger, it's not going to be easy and he knows that," Jagr said. "Those players are fighting for their jobs, and it's tough."
Lemieux is coming back partly because he considers the Penguins a Stanley Cup contender, but they aren't playing like it. They have lost their last five home games, their longest such streak since they lost seven in a row in 1983-84 the season before they drafted Lemieux.
"I think anyone who comes back from such a period of not playing hockey, you need help from your teammates," Jagr said. "The way we're playing right now, I don't know if we can help him much. He's going to be on his own."
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