Lemieux leaves game for last time
PITTSBURGH – Unlike many aging superstars, Mario Lemieux’s problem wasn’t that his heart was no longer in the game. Rather, his heart no longer allowed him to play the game the way he had always played it.
The Lemieux way – with greatness and grace, with dominating skills but also with a quiet dignity – may prove difficult for future generations of hockey players to rival.
Lemieux, his Hall of Fame talent eroded by an ongoing heart problem, retired from the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second time Tuesday in a long, productive yet star-crossed career, but this time was different.
This was the last retirement, and the tears in his eyes and the quiver in his voice said so. So did the proud but sad looks on the faces of wife Nathalie, their four children and the Penguins players who gathered to say goodbye, even though it visibly pained all to do so.
“This is it,” Lemieux said, “and it hurts.”
The 40-year-old Penguins owner-player learned in early December he has atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that can cause his pulse to flutter wildly and must be controlled by medication. He returned Dec. 16 against Buffalo, but the problem flared up again in the third period and he has not played since.
Lemieux, the NHL’s seventh-leading career scorer with 1,723 points, practiced the last several weeks with the intent of playing again. But after several repeat episodes of an irregular pulse, he decided his health should be his primary consideration, especially with a raft of new stars turning the NHL into a faster, younger man’s game.
“If I could play this game at a decent level, I’d come back and play,” Lemieux said. “This is really a new NHL and it’s built on speed and young guys.”
Lemieux is also experiencing side effects with his medication, and he may undergo surgery to correct the problem. He spoke Tuesday to Toronto coach Pat Quinn, who told Lemieux he had the same operation and has felt much better since he did.
“I don’t want to take pills the rest of my life,” Lemieux said. “It’s not something I want to go through.”
Lemieux also was the first major pro sports star to buy the team for which he played, assembling a group that bought the team in federal bankruptcy court in 1999. He insisted the stress he is under as an owner – the franchise is for sale, and may relocate without a new arena – did not affect the decision to retire as a player.
“I don’t feel great when I wake up. Even to this day I am not feeling 100 percent, and it’s frustrating to me,” he said.
Still, the 13-time All-Star returned so many times from injuries and operations, setbacks and layoffs, personal crises and even cancer, this decision came as a surprise. After all, this was a man who missed a month of the 1992-93 season with Hodgkin’s disease, or cancer of the lymph nodes, yet easily won the scoring title.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Lemieux had seven goals and 15 assists in 26 games this season, averaging more than a point a game until the heart problem worsened a few weeks into the season.
At least No. 66 has someone to pass the mantle to – 18-year-old Sidney Crosby, the Penguins’ rookie superstar in waiting who was briefly Lemieux’s linemate and remains his housemate. The two were on the same line when Lemieux had three assists Nov. 3 against the Islanders, one of Lemieux’s six multipoint games this season.
Crosby didn’t know until breakfast Tuesday morning that Lemieux was quitting, though he guessed it might happen soon.
“It’s just tough to see him leave,” Crosby said. “He’s had such an impact on the game. He’s really got a passion for the game. I don’t think anyone ever should have to deal with so much.”
What’s remarkable to Crosby is how much Lemieux accomplished in an oft-interrupted 17-season career that was nearly halved by medical misfortune – two Stanley Cup championships, six scoring titles, three MVP awards, two playoff MVP awards, an Olympic gold medal and a Canada Cup title against the Soviet Union in 1987.