WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2000
Mario is Super. Super is Mario. There can be no doubt after a 3-point performance tonight by 66 in his comeback game: a 5-0 shutout win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. The magic is back and his name is Mario Lemieux.
Admit it. Sixteen days ago when you saw Lemieux, his face stoic as ever, step up to the microphone, you feared the worst. He was not going to be the team owner anymore. His investment group was selling the team to someone outside of Pittsburgh. He was trading the disgruntled Jaromir “I’m dying alive” Jagr.
And then Lemieux said the words no one imagined he’d ever say, “We’re here today to announce my attempt to come back to the National Hockey League.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iUKd2_Iew8]Wait, what?
Ultimate stunned.
Mario Lemieux is coming back to play for the Penguins.
Mario Lemieux is coming back to play for the Penguins.
Mario Lemieux is coming back to play for the Penguins.
You repeated it over and over to yourself but your brain didn’t register the illogic of that statement. You tried to look up more information on the internet but Netscape Navigator kept freezing.
You called your hockey buddies to confirm if it was actually true but like every college student living on campus nowadays, they were too busy downloading music on Napster to talk to you.
As your little sister, going through some phase, annoyingly tries to get you to hold her Discman to listen to her favorite songs from this year like “Say My Name, Say My Name”, “Oops … I Did it Again” and “Better Off Alone” for the tenth time today, you slam the door in her face and let it sink in.
Mario Lemieux is actually, for real, coming back to play for the Penguins after retiring 3 ½ years ago.
PREGAME
The roar of the Mellon Arena crowd when Lemieux skated onto the ice for warmups was deafening. Then the “unretirement” ceremony of his 66 jersey. All of our faces were like his little 4-year old son when that banner started descending to the ice. Note: we don’t have a picture of Austin Lemieux but we can guarantee his face was the exact opposite of Elian Gonzalez, the little boy of similar age who finally was able to leave Miami and go back home to Cuba in the summer.
Unreal.
FIRST PERIOD
If you got up to get more holiday food as the opening faceoff between Lemieux and Mats Sundin occurred, shame on you for six weeks, as Mike Lange would say on TV, because you probably missed what happened 33 seconds in. On a dump in by the Pens, Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph went behind the net to collect the puck. Lemieux also moved behind the Toronto net to cut off one option for Joseph while Jagr hustled up the right wing and blocked Joseph’s clearing attempt down the boards. Double-J rolled the puck back behind the net to Lemieux and went straight to the crease. Lemieux put the puck in front and Jagr appeared to tap it past Joseph before Dimitri Yushkevich plowed Jagr into the post, knocking the net off.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhYHVWeSMGw]But hold the phone. Did Jagr score before the net was dislodged? Referee Bill McCreary and his all-seeing moustache went to video review for quite some time. Look at the phone McCreary is using. Look at Sundin staring at him, probably trying to sell him that supposedly revolutionary “smart-phone” Sweden invented last year that has the internet in it. (Dumbest concept ever. Like anyone will pay $700 for a phone. Lololololol. I’ll stick with my PalmPilot.)
Before everyone started freaking out about how the video review was taking longer than the presidential election ballot recount in Florida that mercifully wrapped up a few weeks ago, McCreary pointed to center ice.
Good goal confirmed. 1-0 Pens.
With a buzz in the building, Leaf forward Sergei Berezin nearly silenced everyone with two shots off the post within a three minute span. But the Pens got a 4-minute PP gift when Penguin-killer Garry Valk went to the box for high-sticking Darius Kasparaitis in the Pens zone. With power play time winding down, Janne Laukkanen fired a shot from the far faceoff circle that caromed around to the near side where Alexei Kovalev picked up the puck along the half boards. Kovy waited as Robert Lang and Marty Straka began lurking in front then ripped a wrister over Joseph’s left shoulder. Moonwalker don’t miss. 2-0 Pens.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psr7DY1uDR4?t=17m52s]SECOND PERIOD
And then it happened. Just as Lange and Edzo were chatting on TV about some fan who came all the way from Germany to watch the game, Lemieux slid a cross-ice pass from inside the Pens blue line to Jagr, streaking up the right wing. Jagr did a 270 to back off Yushkevich as Jan Hrdina center drove to the net. In his inimitable way, 66 shook off Valk, snuck into the slot behind Yanic Perreault, and raised his stick to get Jagr’s attention.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iBX6LrPE7s]Bang. 3-0 Pens.
Everyone is saying Gladiator will win Best Picture this year for the Oscars. We’re nominating whoever drew up tonight’s game for Best Original Screenplay. What a moment. And what a call by Lange.
Lemieux got his third point – yes, 3 points after a 3 ½ year break – a few shifts later. After Jagr stripped the puck from Bryan McCabe inside the Leafs zone, he pushed the puck to Lemieux who immediately fired a backhander in front for Hrdina, all alone. Joseph flopping around on his back like a coked-up turtle who panicked and sold all his assets before the Y2K scare last year. Ninth goal of the season for Hrdina. 4-0 Pens.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2wZ1RhOCZU?t=1m31s]The rout was already on so the Pens gave the Leafs a charity/pity power play for a too many men on the ice penalty in the last minute of the period. Tomas Kaberle at the left point makes the worst read of the year with Double-J moving right into his D-to-D passing lane.
Jagr calmly cruising down Main Street in the Cordoba. Low blocker side. Atrocious positioning by Joseph. 2nd goal of the night for your captain, his first shorty of the year. 5-0 Pens.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sqSbOfvZoA]THIRD PERIOD
Toronto probably didn’t even want to come out for the final twenty but a crusty ol’ codger like Leafs coach Pat Quinn probably read his team the Riot Act in the 2nd intermission. If nothing else, Toronto played for pride and fired 23 of their 40 total shots in the third period.
All-time chump Tie Domi decided to start trolling about five minutes in and goaded Jiri Slegr into a dustup. In a 5-0 game that will always be about Mario’s comeback, the fight, like Domi’s career, will be a totally irrelevant footnote in history.
Game.
Three Stars: 3. Garth Snow, 2. Double-J, 1. Mario.
NOTES
- Sundin was 17/22 on faceoffs, abusing Hrdina (7/24) all night. Sundin had 2 assists 2 weeks ago when the Leafs beat the Pens here 7-4. No matter what Toronto fans think, Sundin is still their best player.
- Snow stopped all 40 shots for his 2nd shutout this season. Leafs beat him 5-1 and 7-4 earlier this month. Pretty good turnaround for a guy who has struggled of late and played the whole game in Buffalo last night.
- Injury news: Kasparaitis was back in the lineup after sitting out with a bruised foot. Kaspar was +3 and dished out 7 hits but Rene Corbet is still out with a sore back.
- Pens are now 16-14-6-1 for 39 points, good for 3rd in the Atlantic, but 7th in the Conference. Just the first 2 game win streak since November 11. Yikes.
- Jagr’s 2+2 = 4 night gives him 41 points on the season and he’s finally cracked the top 10 in the NHL. Maybe with Lemieux back, Jags can hunt down Theo Fleury, Joe Sakic and Ziggy Palffy and win his 4th straight scoring title.
- Huge test the next 2 games: Sens (Conference leaders) on Saturday night, Caps (Southeast leaders) next Wednesday. Both at the Mellon.
Let’s go Pens. Happy New Year everyone. Welcome back 66.
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