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The Talented Mr. Lemieux
By Seth Flesch
4/20/01 |
The Savior? The Magnificent? He’s just a human, isn’t he?
Well, some people think that Mario Lemieux is more than human.
When it comes right down to the facts,
Mario is one of the best players ever to play the game. He has an average
over 2.0 points per game and tow consecutive Stanley Cup championships.
One would figure Mario should be satisfied with his career. However, we
are talking about Super Mario.
Everybody knows about the financial
problems the Penguins have been going through, and that attendance’s at
games were down to an unacceptable level. Most team owners would have
folded the cards and sold the team, or tried to trade for someone, but not
Mario.
Since his return, every home game has
been sold out. Sometimes not even standing room is available. From the
moment he returned to the ice, he has been nothing short of magnificent.
Although his back still bothers him, it hasn’t stopped him from notching
31 goals and 31 assists in 38 games. Wow, is all a person can really
say. After taking three years off, he amazed everyone by beating the
critics’ low expectations.
Besides Mario’s stats, he has helped
the team in others ways. With Mario on the ice, opponents must focus on
him, leaving other super-star players like Alexei Kovalev and Jaromir Jagr
open. Also, teams try to match their best lines against Lemieux, leaving
Martin Straka’s line against a weaker defense.
Finally, the Penguins power is almost
unstoppable with Lemieux on the ice. They have scored power-play goals in
31/37 victories this year. This stat shows how important their power play
is, and Mario has scored 14 power play goals shows how important his role
is on the power play. Mario also has one short-handed goal and 4 game
winners. A person can talk about Mario is a leader, and will always be a
leader. As soon as he returned to the familiar edge back into the game,
and he continue to draw crowds in all cities. For some reason, people
seem to think Mario might win the Comeback Player of the Year Award. |
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