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A Quick History on Why Mario Lemieux Should Shut His Mouth


I’ll say it right up front. Mario Lemieux needs to shut the hell up! Or he needs to grow a pair of stones and call out his own players, and coach. I know he won’t do the latter, so I’ll settle for the former.

Super Mario had a great career, which at certain points was derailed by serious illness and injury. Regardless, he was so great that he was honored with induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame, with the hall even waiving the five-year waiting period for his induction. He was so good that he even came back to the league and played parts of five more seasons, as a hall of famer! Think about that. How cool would it be for say, Kevin Youkilis to play alongside Jim Rice for a few productive years? Mario was clearly super

I bring all this up because I am really disappointed with what Mario has become as an owner, specifically regarding his whining about the steel cage match that was the Islanders/Penguins game this past Friday.

Let’s review the recent history of Super Mario and the Pittsburgh Penguins to get some perspective shall we?

Basically it goes like this. Right around the time of Mario’s first retirement the Penguins were in financial straights. A residual effect of this was that the Pens owed Mario a lot of money. Mario decided to put together a plan, along with other investors, to buy the majority share of the Pittsburgh Penguins along with an agreement to keep the team in Pittsburgh. This dream scenario was readily accepted by the league and thus, Mario Lemieux has saved the day for the fans of Pittsburgh, and face for the league, by allowing them to avoid the embarrassment of having a team go bankrupt. It was also a shrewd move by Mario to make sure he would get some sort of remuneration going forward from a team that owed him an estimated $30 mil.

Soon thereafter, Mario’s health improved enough so he could resume his playing career. This actually violated some bylaws, which were in place at the time, regarding player ownership. These bylaws were of course waived in Mario’s case and he was allowed to play, but agreed not to be a member of the players association, thus avoiding a clear conflict of interest. Mario continued to pay union dues to preserve his pension (once again shrewd) but actually sat at the bargaining table as a team owner. Over the next few seasons he consistently voted with the owners on league matters. He did so right up to, and including, when the owners voted lock out the players for 2004-2005 season.

Upon resolution of the lockout, there was a lottery held to decide who would get the number one overall pick in the draft, and of course the rights to the once in a lifetime talent; Sidney Crosby. After the past two seasons, where the Pens had the first pick (through a trade with Florida) and got Marc Andre Fleury, and then the second pick and got Evgeny Malkin, the Pens were the lucky recipients of the right ping pong ball and were thus awarded Sid the Kid.

Cynics might suggest that it was more than luck that allowed the Pens to have a one, a two and a one in three straight seasons. They might suggest that Mario was rewarded by the league for swooping in and saving the day for the Pittsburgh Penguins and the NHL. However you feel about their three year largesse, there is no doubt that the core of the Pittsburg Penguins was obtained through some amazing luck and the bounce of a mysterious ping pong ball. This core would bring the Pens a Stanley Cup in the 2008-09 season. One would think that an owner that has had this much success would be grateful to the league for being the vehicle by which he has gained so much fame and fortune. Let’s now fast forward to more recent history.

We all remember last season when Marc Savard’s career was derailed by a clearly dirty, if not illegal in the eyes of the puzzle palace that is the NHL, hit by Matt Cooke. We knew then that Matt Cooke was not a first time offender and we were sure that Cooke would receive a stern punishment by a league that was concerned about head injuries. We were wrong. To mitigate the anger we felt around here, the league tried to come up with some sort of pretzel logic by which they could not suspend Cooke. A cynical person might say, ‘hey he plays for Mario’s team and they are just treated differently.’ Cynicism is such an ugly emotion. Again, you’d think Mario would have been grateful for the league’s mercy on this one but we wouldn’t know, because as far as I know Mario never addressed the subject. He just moved on.

We are now in the present time and alas Matt Cooke has done it again. He tried to put Columbus’ Fedor Tyutin through the boards last week, head first. Clearly the league had seen enough. They really laid the law down by giving Cooke the same suspension they gave to Daniel Paille for his hit on Dallas' Ray Sawada. Four games. Matt Cooke at last count has done this at least four times. This was Daniel Paille’s first offense. The league gave them both the same punishment. I can almost imagine Colin Campbell apologizing as he was giving Mario the bad news.

On Friday night the New York Islanders decided it was time to, as Michael Corleone once said, ‘settle all family business’. They did not take too kindly to Brent Johnson busting up Rick DiPietro’s face. No doubt DiPietro deserved what he got, but there is a code in the NHL, and when Johnson’s teammates were on the bench laughing about it afterward, the Islanders decided this was a debt they would collect on.

There’s no question that what happened on the Island Friday night was over the top. It was a game from another era. It was an era I grew up in but not one I want to go back to. The Islanders know what they are this year and are not going nowhere. But they are also a team with pride and when a “charmed” team like the Pens, who get so many breaks from the league, starts laughing at you, it just becomes like kids in the scholyard. Someone’s gonna get a beatin’ and a lot of other kids are going to enjoy it. They decided to regulate and the Pens got regulated, both on the scoreboard and in the ring. I won’t lie; I enjoyed the hell out of it. It just sucks that Matt Cooke wasn’t on the ice to “enjoy” it himself. It was at this point that the erstwhile Mario Lemieux decided to make his presence known, and he wanted the out of control NHL to know exactly how he felt.

Well guess what Mr. Magoo, you picked a fine time to get a pair of contact lenses. What a joke that Super Mario has now decided the league is out of control and that he might not want to be a part of it anymore. It’s reminiscent of what Sidney Crosby had his agent, Pat Brisson, say a few weeks ago when he intimated that precious little Sidney might not play in the all-star game if the league wouldn’t start cracking down on head shots and other illegal hits In the NHL. At least Mario said it himself. Sid had his agent do it for him.

I’ll tell you what Little Sid and Mario, how about you start by walking across the locker room and having a word with your own player who is the face on the wanted poster for illegal hits in the NHL. How about you show some guts by telling your coach to shut his mouth and not blame the other player, in this case Tyutin, instead of your own guy.

I learned a long time ago that the people who are given the most are the ones that feel most entitled. That is absolutely the case with Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins. They have been the beneficiaries of an incredible string of luck and yet even now feel they are above the fray and entitled to special treatment from the NHL. Hey Mario, welcome to the real NHL. The NHL where your guys get suspended and other teams get the ping pong ball.

Well I hope you enjoyed the stay because it didn’t last long. Today the league announced there will be no punishment levied against the Pens, or Mario, for criticizing the league.

Looks like things are back to normal.


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