Mario Lemieux

Hockey Player

• Born: October 5, 1965
• Place of Birth: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

SPORT: Ice hockey

Early Life

Like most French Canadian children, Mario Lemieux developed a love for his national sport of ice hockey at an early age. Born on October 5, 1965, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to Jean-Guy and Pierrette Lemieux, Mario grew up in a redbrick, box-shaped house on rue Joques in Ville Emard, a working-class neighborhood on the southwest outskirts of the city. Lemieux’s father, a retired construction worker, used to pack wall-to-wall snow in the front hallway of his house so Lemieux and his two older brothers, Richard and Alain, could practice skating indoors. Lemieux learned to skate at a rink behind the local church and began playing organized hockey at the age of three. By nine years old, he had established himself as the dominant player among his local peers. At the age of fifteen, Lemieux was playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and at sixteen, he dropped out of school to concentrate on his athletic career. Translated from French, le mieux means “the best.” Lemieux set out to prove that he deserved that label in ice hockey.

The Road to Excellence

From the start, Lemieux showed great timing, an eye for the net, and the ability to control the puck as if it were attached by a string to the end of his hockey stick. He emerged through the local leagues by imitating the style of his idol, hockey legend Guy Lafleur. Mario dreamed of playing in the NHL for the Montreal Canadiens. An outstanding junior career, in which he tallied 282 points in seventy games in his last season with the Laval Voisins, propelled Lemieux into the NHL, at the age of eighteen, as the first overall selection in the 1984 NHL entry draft. The world waited to see the player who had been praised as the next Wayne Gretzky. Not since the 1950s, when hockey fans debated whether Montreal’s Maurice “Rocket” Richard or Detroit’s Gordie Howe was the greatest player, had the sport had two such supremely talented players in the league. Mario even inverted Gretzky’s number 99 to his now-famous 66 and emerged on the hockey scene with the hope of sharing some of Gretzky’s limelight.

The Emerging Champion

With French as his first language, Lemieux was still learning English when the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired him in the 1984 draft. He acquired his English vocabulary partly by watching soap operas on television. If there were hockey enthusiasts who thought that the comparisons to Gretzky were premature and unfounded, Lemieux silenced those skeptics with an outstanding rookie season. He scored 43 goals and added 57 assists for 100 points, and he was awarded the 1985 Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year. Lemieux recorded at least 100 points in each of his next five seasons. He was honored with the 1988 Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player (MVP). He captured the Art Ross Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s leading scorer, in 1988 and 1989, and he was named MVP in two of the first six NHL all-star games in which he played.

Lemieux was primarily responsible for turning around the Penguins franchise. After only six complete seasons, he topped the list of all-time Penguins scorers with 838 points, ranking first in both all-time goals, 345, and assists, 493. The year before Lemieux joined Pittsburgh, the Penguins averaged just 6,800 fans at forty home games. After his arrival at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena (now Mellon Arena), the Penguins’ home, the team welcomed more sellout crowds than at any other time in the club’s history. Pittsburgh fans boasted a renewed interest in the sport and a burgeoning love affair with the most gifted athlete to ever wear a Penguins uniform.

Continuing the Story

Witnessing the explosiveness of a healthy Lemieux was a rare treat for hockey fans. In a sport often criticized for its brutality and violence, Lemieux emerged as a player of great finesse and skill. Possessing superior skating and stickhandling abilities, Lemieux awed teammates, opponents, and fans alike with his athletic artistry, his aggressiveness both around the net and in the corners, his ability to control the tempo of the game, and his flair for producing enviable results. His play conjured memories of all-time NHL greats Phil Esposito, Richard, and Lafleur, centers who had dominated the game. A member of the 1987 Canada Cup team, Lemieux was named Penguins team captain in 1988, despite his youth. In the forty-sixth game of that same year, he scored his fiftieth goal, making him the only player other than Gretzky ever to score 50 goals in fewer than fifty games. (Brett Hull joined the exclusive club in 1990–91).

When chronic back pain sidelined Lemieux near the end of the 1989-1990 season, people in hockey circles felt his absence. On July 11, 1990, Lemieux underwent back surgery to repair a herniated disc, and he missed a large portion of the 1990-1991 season. Hockey fans wondered if Lemieux’s career was over.

However, late in the 1990-1991 season, Lemieux returned in spectacular fashion. The Penguins won the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup, beating the Minnesota North Stars (now Dallas Stars) in six games. Lemieux won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Stanley Cup most valuable player. The following season, Lemieux led the Penguins to a second Stanley Cup, though he still suffered from back and shoulder injuries. In the following season, he started out strong, scoring goals in each of his first twelve games.

In January 1993, however, Lemieux discovered a lump on his neck and later was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes, a condition known as Hodgkin disease. After a course of radiation treatment, he returned to the Penguins’ lineup in March, scoring a goal and gaining an assist in his first game back. Lemieux went on to win the league’s scoring title that year. Injuries and complications from his cancer treatment forced Lemieux to miss most of the following two seasons. In 1995, however, he returned to score 69 goals and was named the league’s MVP.

Lemieux continued to excel despite continuing health problems. After winning his sixth scoring title during the 1996-1997 season, Lemieux decided to retire. He finished his career with 1,494 total points, and the Hockey Hall of Fame waived its normal waiting period, inducting Lemieux in December 1997.

Upon his retirement, the Penguins owed Lemieux millions of dollars in deferred compensation. With his former team on the brink of bankruptcy, Lemieux organized an ownership team and was granted primary ownership just prior to the 1999-2000 season. He decided to make a comeback in the middle of the 2000-2001 season. In his first game, he scored 1 goal and made 2 assists. For the year, he scored 35 goals in forty-three games and collected 41 assists—figures comparable to his career averages.

Lemieux continued to play while acting as the owner of the Penguins. In the 2001-2002 season, he participated in only ten games because of injury. That winter, Lemieux decided to play in the 2002 Olympics for Team Canada, which won the gold medal in ice hockey. In the 2003-2004 season, at the age of thirty-seven, Lemieux regained his scoring touch, compiling 92 points in sixty-seven games, but his team missed the playoffs. Lemieux’s second comeback was short-lived because the NHL owners’ lockout canceled the 2004-2005 season. The following year, the Penguins won the draft lottery and chose Sidney Crosby. Lemieux opened his home to the young rookie and mentored him in hockey and in life. The two played together only briefly because Lemieux had an atrial fibrillation.

On January 24, 2006, Lemieux announced his retirement. However, he remained the owner of the Penguins. The ownership group announced it intended to relocate the Penguins if a new arena were not built. In 2007, the Penguins’ ownership group and the city of Pittsburgh struck a deal to build the long-promised arena (eventually named the Consol Energy Center), and the Penguins stayed in Pittsburgh. In 2009, the Penguins won a third Stanley Cup, making Lemieux the only person to win the championship as both a player and an owner. In 2012, the Penguins erected a statue of Lemieux in front of the team's arena. In retirement, Lemieux resided in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, and maintained his star status around the area and the sports world.

Summary

Mario Lemieux rose to hockey stardom with breathtaking speed. He dominated his sport as an amateur and as a young professional before coming to the NHL. Once in the NHL, he led his team to two Stanley Cup Championships. For a time, he rivaled Wayne Gretzky for recognition as hockey’s greatest player, a feat that may have been his most impressive of all.

Bibliography

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Christopher, Matt. On the Ice with Mario Lemieux. Boston: Little, 2002. Print.

Frederick, Shane. Side-by-Side Hockey Stars: Comparing Pro Hockey's Greatest Players. North Mankato: Capstone, 2015. Print.

Goyens, Chrys, and Frank Orr. Mario Lemieux: Over Time, Sixty-Six. New York: Universe, 2001. Print.

Hughes, Morgan. Mario Lemieux: Beating the Odds. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1996. Print.

“Mario Lemieux Career Stats - NHL.” ESPN, www.espn.com/nhl/player/stats/‗/id/1084/mario-lemieux. Accessed 6 July 2024.

Mario Lemieux Foundation: Home, mariolemieux.org/. Accessed 6 July 2024.

McKinley, Michael. The Magnificent One: The Story of Mario Lemieux. New York: Grosset, 2002. Print.

Rossiter, Sean. Mario Lemieux. Vancouver: Greystone, 2001. Print.

Willes, Ed. Gretzky to Lemieux: The Story of the 1987 Canada Cup. Toronto: McClelland, 2007. Print.